These were the words of Partizan Belgrade head coach Željko Obradović after his team’s victory over Olimpia Milan:
“I’m proud of the way my team played tonight. After 48 hours following a very demanding trip, we found the energy and the will to play good basketball and to win. I’m extremely satisfied with our ball pressure, as well as our defense, and I believe this is the example of how we should play.”
Obradović also addressed the reasons behind Partizan’s drop in intensity, which allowed Milan to nearly mount a comeback:
“It’s nobody’s fault — this is basketball. These players are human beings who just went through a seven-and-a-half-hour trip. We sat on the plane for over an hour before takeoff, followed by a six-hour and 15-minute flight. In economy class, we only get aisle seats, because guys who are two meters tall can’t sit any other way. Is that normal? I can’t keep Bonga on the floor for 40 minutes, nor the other guys who run the game. Basketball is a living thing: they took advantage of moments when we were weaker, and my colleague Messina made the right choices by putting in the five who brought Milan back into the game. Look at what happened here just two days ago. These are all normal situations in basketball. We didn’t execute well on offense and made poor decisions at certain moments. We really missed a lot during our trip to Dubai. Now we have a day off, and if the players feel good, we’ll ramp up the training.”
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