Hello again, Euroleague fans! This is Josh Powell of Olympiacos Piraeus, the reigning Euroleague champions! I feel blessed and privileged to accomplish this, especially in my first year in the Euroleague. I am very happy to be a part of this great situation, with great teammates. We made history and it was a great year for us. We had a quiet celebration in London but were able to enjoy everything once we finally got back to Athens. Then, the team got together and celebrated.My son was with me on the podium, celebrating with the team. He likes coming to our games and is, of course, very supportive. Being able to experience all that with him was great, too. It was fun to hang around in the arena after the game - we were there for a long time and even had a photo session with the Euroleague trophy. Those moments are definitely great. For me, having my family there being part of it with me was very special.
I believe that we played our best defensive game of the season in the semifinal against CSKA. We had a lot of time to prepare for this game after the series against Efes. We started immediately after we made it to the Final Four, working on a game plan defensively and offensively. What everybody saw was carried over from how hard we worked during those two weeks. One of the keys was playing physical, and that allowed us to show our best brand of basketball. We needed everyone to be physical and aggressive on defense. Our energy and how we talked to each other, helping each other out, led to easy baskets for us.
We knew that we had one more game to win after we beat CSKA. We were focused and were aware of the opportunity that we had. Even when we were in a good situation, we knew we were not done yet, despite winning the way that we did against CSKA. Nothing is more important than a final and we all knew it.
Madrid made early shots - it happens. This is a game of runs and you can't win everything based on the first quarter. If that was true, they would now be the Euroleague champions. Things like that happen, but we had been in situations like that before and it was all about staying patient. Once they cooled off, that's when we took advantage, returned to the game, got the lead and never looked back!
We showed again the resilience and the hard work of our team. If you think about it, Game 5 of the playoffs against Efes, a game to make it to the Final Four, we were down most of the game but made a great run in the third quarter to make it. We have that type of team and experience - we never give up. We don't want to put ourselves in a hole like that, but no matter what, any game is in reach for us to get a win.
Vassilis Spanoulis was the Final Four MVP after a fantastic second half in the final. Once he started making shots and getting it going, it changed what Madrid was doing defensively. Once he got those few three-pointers in a row, they had to come out on him and he found a way to get assists or go to the hole himself. The way that we play, we can win games at different rhythms. We have a lot of players on this team who can score and have a big night at any time, so I am not surprised we scored 100 points in the final.
Coming back to Greece was amazing. Fans were greeting us at the airport and it took us a long time to get to the arena. Thousands of fans were waiting for us inside. The following night we managed to go out as a team and enjoy. It has been an unforgettable week! I have been fortunate to be on many close teams....
