Ergin Ataman
“It was amazing to win the title. Of course, we celebrated only in the locker room with my players, my staff, with the families. I am sure all the country celebrated this glory. Now of course, if we get successful to win again, for me it will be more fun raising my feet with the spectators, with the fans. It will be amazing, we will see.
“It was a difficult season for us. We didn’t start well this season. Actually we took our rhythm only in the second part of the EuroLeague, but I was sure if we get successful to advance to the playoffs, the team will come back to play their basketball and it happened. In the playoffs, I have great players, great team, same team. In the most important time in the season, we found a way to play our basketball that we played the last three seasons and with this confidence I want to motivate my team because it was the first time we got to the Final Four without home court advantage and it was very difficult to beat Olimpia Milano, which is a great team, great coach, and I think they found the real motivation and, of course, we are here with all the coaches, all the players at the Final Four to try to win. We will see.
“It’s a great honor for me, for my players, for the club that in Istanbul they made a statue ceremony for us for the last EuroLeague cup title. I think that this team, the last three years, deserved because really we represented excellence for our country, our sport and our basketball.”
Shane Larkin
“We are still hungry. You can never be complacent. We obviously enjoyed last season, wining the championship, but to be back here at this great event, we’re just as hungry as we’ve ever been and we’re here to win. We understand that we have to enjoy every single moment, enjoy the Final Four because it’s tough to get here, but the goal is to leave here as the champion again and we’re all focused on that goal.
“It’s always great when you have a coach that has confidence in you and confidence in the team and I think that’s one of the most important things; you have to believe in yourself, you have to believe in the staff, you have to believe in the coaches. And we all believe in each other, the way that we’ve been the last three years and we’ve been successful. It always feels good when you have the coach’s confidence to go out and play your game knowing that he has your back and hopefully we can go out there and prove him right again.
“The league is obviously full of great players. Each and every year different guys step up and there are some guys that stay at the top of it for years to come. Obviously, that’s one of my goals, to be one of the best players in this competition, year-in, year-out, but I know that’s not an easy thing to do. So it definitely feels good to finally be acknowledged as one of the first five and hopefully as long as I’m here playing this competition I can continue to push myself to be the best player I can be day-in, day-out and try to be one of the best players of all time to play here.“
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