Another exciting European basketball year has gone down in history. Olympiacos won the impressions, Real Madrid won the trophy.

And here again comes the flash of Antetokumbō to make us think about how we feel about success and failure. For how we, journalists, easily hang players and coaches on pegs.

“I don’t know how to describe what I feel. All I can do is congratulate our coach. He has suffered more than we have to put everything together so we can play as a team and fight for that team. You journalists should apologize to him, you criticized them so much.” This is part of Kaunas Final 4 MVP Walter Tavares’ statement.

After all, success keeps two successful people, but one trophy winner? Can we applaud the finalist in the same way as the first?

Olympiacos reached the spring again, but did not drink the water. That doesn’t mean he’s returning to Athens… thirsty. The Greek team over the past two years, Giorgos Bartzokas has taught a great basketball lesson: how to play basketball with pretensions without spending huge sums.

Olympiacos ended two years with the last throw of two great rival players. Last year with Michic, and this year with Yul. The Spanish defender, who failed the Series 8 with Partizan, had to take the baton from the great Rodriguez in the final and refere the match with a shot that would otherwise look doomed (you don’t often shoot in front of Fal…)

Basketball may be based on defense, but there is no defense that will stop offense. Whatever it is, no matter how exemplary your defense is, one shot (crazy, on target, long, close) will decide the outcome, and nothing can change it.

If Vezenkov and Slukas hadn’t landed their… crazy shots in Polis in game 3 against Fener, Olympiakos might never have gone to Kaunas.

History is not written with “if”.

Olympiacos by Giorgos Bartzokas again this year was distinguished by duration, plan, faith, teamwork, assimilation, quality, imagination, perseverance. In the summer, he said goodbye to Printez, Jean Charles, Hassan Martin and Dorsey, players with roles and performances.

Their places were taken by Peters, Boloboy, Black and Kanaan, and the “red-whites” not only did not go off the rails for a moment, but also finished the regular season at the top of the standings, with full – places – basketball and with players they have roles, and they fill each other’s gaps.

When Vezenkov had a bad night, McKissick stepped forward. When Slucas was deformed, Walkup took over. When Papanikolaou “disappeared”, Larentzakis appeared, and so on.

The last two years at Olympiacos have been – though not many will admit – a lesson for everyone. For all those who decipher basketball, not for those who translate the year into trophies.

The team of Yorgos Bartzokas did not win the Euroleague trophy, but went further in basketball. In an era where the best names in Europe are represented in the NBA and Russian teams are not on the map, Olympiakos is giving new incentives and I think this is a sign for the Greek team.

Why didn’t he get the title again this year? Finding the real reason is very difficult. Perhaps the main reason for not winning a trophy is the experience of the entire player pool.

In the final, where everyone who entered the floor is “bloody”, “pagi” Coser had a rating of +13, “disarmed” Rudy Fernandez +11 (only 3 points), an unlikely Rodriguez +15, while no Olympiacos player did not come close to these PIRs and with Walkup, Larentsakis, Fall, Peters, Black missing, Boloboy has only 2 points and Papanikolaou has 6.

Realistically, although it was unethical, what they called in Madrid’s 2nd match against Partizan, competitively and only competitively, to go back from 0:2 to 3:2 and ridicule Barcelona having suffered decisive defeats, shows how big the club is.

Despite this, Olympiacos’ matches this season were broadcast on video during the training sessions of many opponents. “Red-white” again became higher. They have been discussed a lot. And all this is a very big success for this organization.

Euroleague is waiting for major changes in the new season. Panathinaikos, after years of nirvana, seems to be hitting the reset button. Everything promises an even more exciting year. And, of course, much better conclusions will be drawn.

And one more thing:

Basketball is rapidly evolving, the three-pointer already looks very “short”, and perhaps should be pushed even further, like in the NBA (bringing a larger court with it).

Three-pointer in the NBA is at a height of 7.24 meters. and in FIBA ​​at 6.75m. In the USA, parquet dimensions are 28.65×15.25m, and in Europe 28x15m. The differences may seem small, but modern European basketball seems to need them.