{"id":446275,"date":"2025-06-13T14:39:41","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T12:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=446275"},"modified":"2025-06-13T14:39:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T12:39:41","slug":"georgios-bartzokas-im-the-face-of-olympiacos-thats-why-they-want-me-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/georgios-bartzokas-im-the-face-of-olympiacos-thats-why-they-want-me-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgios Bartzokas: I\u2019m the face of Olympiacos \u2013 that\u2019s why they want me out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Giorgos Bartzokas<\/strong> delivered a passionate and honest interview on SPORT24<\/a>\u2019s \u201cBig 4\u201d<\/strong>, addressing the growing pressure around him: \u201cI\u2019ve been targeted<\/strong>, especially by media outlets connected to our rivals. I\u2019ve become the face of Olympiacos, not just as a coach but because I\u2019ve loved this club since I was a kid. That bothers some people. But I\u2019m lucky: I work in an environment where I feel total support from management. There\u2019s no better place to coach in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking about Nikola Milutinov<\/strong>, Bartzokas praised his spirit and dedication: \u201cI didn\u2019t speak to him directly about his renewal, but I know what he\u2019s made of. Milutinov plays with \u2018filotimo\u2019<\/strong>, a Greek word that doesn\u2019t even exist in other languages. He plays through injuries, gives everything for the team, and bonds with the environment. He\u2019s someone you go to war with. That\u2019s exactly what we look for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coach was much harsher when asked about Filip Petrusev<\/strong>: \u201cWe invested a lot in him. He came from the U.S. broken physically and mentally. We helped him get back on track. But when Vezenkov returned, he completely shut down<\/strong>. He wouldn\u2019t listen, walked on the court, and clearly didn\u2019t want to be part of the team anymore. That can\u2019t be tolerated. You must want to be here to succeed at Olympiacos.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Vasilije Micic<\/strong>, Bartzokas chose clarity: \u201cMicic is a world-class player. But I only want players who want to be here<\/strong>. If you need to convince someone, you\u2019ve already lost. I want players who stay when they\u2019re here and wish to come when they\u2019re not. That\u2019s how you build something great.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Olympiacos head coach opened up on SPORT24: personal criticism, Petrusev\u2019s attitude, his bond with Milutinov, and what he looks for in top-tier signings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":446274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[82,54],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-446275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-euroleague","category-grecia"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-13-alle-14.37.28.png","digistream_id":0,"digistream":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446275"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=446275"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=446275"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=446275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}