Simone Pianigiani gets into heated argument with journalist: You want me to score free throws?

In the ABA League on Monday, Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana upset Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade with a stunning victory. Simone Pianigiani, the head coach of the Slovenian squad, got into a heated argument with a journalist at a news conference following the game.

In response to a query, Pianigiani stated that he was offended by outsiders disparaging the players since he observes their daily efforts and that they ought to have won one or two games in the EuroCup, where they are now 0-7.

A reporter then inquired as to why zone defense, which had proven successful in prior situations, had not been used earlier in the team’s most recent EuroCup game against Veolia Towers Hamburg and regarding Pianigiani’s standing as an established player in the basketball world.

The journalist was first halted by the Italian coach when his reputation was brought up at the outset. “”What can I do? You want me to score three free throws or make these [shots]? We are without two point guards. What can you say about my reputation? My reputation cannot play,” he shouted. “My reputation is to work good and to build the project. I don’t have to show my reputation to no one. I’m just [here] to work.”

After apologizing for interrupting, Pianigiani listened to the full question and then answered passionately:

You don’t have to tell me what to do. I know. When we go down by 20 points, it’s because we’re losing… The beginning of the third quarter – do you remember? Three three-pointers in the first 60 seconds – poom, poom, poom on the same play. One turnover, one closeout. It was not the problem. The problem was that we were missing [shots], and they were going full-speed. Then when you’re down by 20, you cannot recover with a zone because you slow down. You have to recover like we recovered – pushing, pressuring, hitting man-to-man. This is why we recovered, this was the situation.

If you watch the game, first half, we missed seven layups, a dunk in the fast-break. Is this what I have to do for my players to score on a dunk? We missed seven free throws. We were down by 6 at halftime, and then they started to be nervous because of these kinds of plays. Today, they knew they couldn’t give up, the atmosphere was different, we started scoring, we stayed in the game, and we used zone to stay in the game. But you have to read different games, different teams. If they play big, we can adjust.

I know how they’re doing it. And they’re small, the German team, they play like Americans – streetball. If you’re in the game with physicality, you must do [it as well]. This is what the situation was. You cannot compare. What happened? Partizan played zone when they were down 25 against Igokea? No, they recovered again. It’s something that’s normal in basketball everywhere. The German team that looked like disaster.. look who was playing – we recovered with [Alexander] Shashkov, with [Gregor] Glas, with Jaka Klobucar on the court. We are in the EuroCup. At this level! You have to know that.

This German team has the same record as Bayern Munich. The same record as Ulm. They beat Bamberg on Sunday. They’re fresh, they’re young, they’re without problems. They have a point guard. We are without two point guards. You can lose game like that. It’s not about me. It’s about the situation. I know what we have to do, and not because today we won. In this situation, when this has happened, with so many games in a row, you can lose 6-7 games in a row. This is possible.

Today – the same performance. If we miss two times, if they score, maybe we can win by 7-8 points. It’s Blazic at some moment, or DJ Stewart plays a solid game. Sometimes he can go for 20 points, sometimes, he can miss. We are working on these to better. We are working on [Luka] Scuka to be better. Today, he scored one time. In the other games, I see him miss open shot, open shot, and we missed him. This guy, we have to give him confidence and keep working. You don’t have time to prepare every two days like that.

via basketnews