At high noon on Friday at Stark Arena, the head coaches and key players from the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague finalists, Real Madrid and Anadolu Efes Istanbul, met with the media.
Championship Game press conference quotes, The Players
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Here is what forward Guerschon Yabusele of Real Madrid and All-EuroLeague guard Vasilije Micic of Anadolu Efes Istanbul had to say about their semifinal victories and looking ahead to the championship game.
Guerschon Yabusele
"I am just happy to be here, excited to play the game tomorrow. I can't wait to be on the court, fight with my team and, of course, try to win the game.
"[My teammates] have a lot of experience so, for sure, we will have a talk before the game. We have the whole day to prepare the game for tomorrow, so I will be talking to them. They have always been talking to us. We will just try to prepare and try to bring our best for tomorrow's game.
"It is two different types of basketball, the NBA and Europe, but it's true that the winning mentality is still here. Playing over there or playing here, I still have to play with a lot of energy, bring everything that I can on the court to try to win the game. It's been good so far with the team and I am just happy to be here.
"I just feel grateful. I am just enjoying every day of my life, just trying to get better and learn every day from the people around me: players, coaches, family, friends. I am just glad and happy to be part of his organization and part of this team. Like you mentioned, since [leaving] ASVEL and coming here, things went my way, I would say. Of course, I am pretty happy about it. I feel blessed every day, but I am just ready to work and get better every day."
Vasilije Micic
“It is my pleasure to be here. Congratulation to Real Madrid for reaching the final. Congrats to my teammates also. I am very happy to share one more time the experience of the final. Every time is a different experience, but at the same time a great privilege. Tomorrow will be definitely an interesting match. Both teams had a great season and we will be happy to be there.
“First of all, experience from this Final Four is unique because of what the coaches just mentioned. A slower start of the season with a lot of ups and downs. But that triggers spite inside of you. At the moment when you lose 12 games in a row on the road, you realize something is not right. A light turns on, an alarm, that something needs to change. From the start, when we got together, I keep saying that every player has an individual motivation to prove and show in his best light. With such individuals, when they come together into a team like us, the results do not lack. What I like the best, when someone talks about Real Madrid and the tradition and the winning mentality they have, I think we did that in the past four years and I am very happy to be a part of this story with Efes.
“In my case, about injury, I got hit in the second quarter, so as you all saw, I played until the end and I found a way to contribute and to be involved all game long. Today we will see, but I think it’s not that serious.
“I am glad to represent my country and my city at such a wonderful event. When talking about the Serbian mentality, it is sometimes maybe exaggerated by the media. But as a nation, we have a positive attitude in difficult situations. We like to take responsibility. I grew up with a lot of quality players who have also done that and hoped I will be in that position one day. I did not have many opportunities to decide games and be successful in doing that in the past, but it is a really nice feeling and I am very glad it happened here.
“Honestly, I expected [to be] fouled [on the last possession] because we struggled with free throws in the last couple of possessions, but when I saw that they are not going to make a foul, I had one situation in my mind. It was actually the second game in Piraeus when I also had a similar situation and I took too early a shot against Fall instead of waiting for the last second to shoot the ball, so that was the only thing I had in my mind, to shoot in the last second and not give them an opportunity to attack back and score once again a buzzer-beater like Sloukas did. So the idea was only to wait until the end and try to be ready in the last second, last moment. And thank God, even though it was not such a clear shot, I made it.
“Honestly, in the moment of injury in the semifinals, and even before that moment since I am coming back from an injury, it is a situation I try to deal with as I go. It's a reality for all players on this level, to deal with those obstacles as fast as possible. At the moment I felt a little scared because it was an important game and I knew we had a problem in our backcourt rotation. But I managed to stay calm and it led me to find a little different style of game in the second half. Despite some missed shots, I felt good enough to carry out the game until the end. I think I had excellent help from Shane, who led us the entire time, and later Elijah Bryant who made a nice run for all of us in the third quarter. It gave us additional courage for the finish of the game. It is all part of the game and you have to deal with it. All previous experiences are useful for me, I try to learn from each as quickly as possible. Also, the experience from the Final Four in 2018 here in Belgrade influenced a lot about how I approached this game and generally how I approach all other games. And that would be that it is just one game, like any other, and staying calm on the floor is the key, to stay patient until the end.
“Actually, we don’t talk too much about [making history]. I am happy that we have reached so far great results and this one is one of them. As everybody here knows, the best feeling is when you win a title. For us, we will not have any lack of motivation. It is really absurd to talk about that. Each player is ready, I think we just have to be calm, we have to be focused all game long because as Coach Laso mentioned yesterday against Barcelona, too, you cannot win in the first or 31st minute, you have to play until the end. And in the end, we will see who is better.”