Olimpi’s inaugural media day was staged in Milano after the first basketball practice of the year. Mike James and Nemanja Nedovic addressed the media together, at the podium of the interview room.
JAMES – “I’m confident to be able to develop a great chemistry with Nedovic: we like each other off the court, which helps, and on the court we are both capable to do several things, playing off the ball not only with the ball. It will work. It’s hard to say where to rank Olimpia in the EuroLeague, we still have to see teams play. Many teams changed a lot, losing key players, other key players came, only CSKA and Real Madrid have pretty much the same team. We have the quality to stay in the top eight, and we’ll see what happens next. The last two year at Panathinaikos I took a step, playing for a great club with a great history, Milan is the next step. I want to help the team to restore its tradition by being more of leader, involving my teamamates more. We’ll have to show on the court, every game, in the Italian League why we are a EuroLeague teams. In Greece it was the same. I like to have two big men like Gudaitis and Tarczewski on my team. At Pana we had to prepare to play against them, but I think they can make another step up this year. It will be important”.
NEDOVIC – “My personal goal is to keep improving again. Every summer I try to add something to my game. I’m a player who can create for himself and my teammates starting from the 2-position. Coach Joan Plaza at Malaga helped me a lot, green-lighting me for three years after a difficult season in Valencia. Our first goal should be making the playoffs, then everything can happen. Mike James is more expert than me in those kind of games and he can confirm. I’m confident in the league too: every team will play all out against us but we have the experience as players to overcome that, even after a tough road game in Moscow maybe. I like the team: we have six guards capable to play both positions, we have every position covered and I know, from my personal experience, how difficult it is to score inside against Gudaitis and Tarczewski”.
You can take a look at the entire press conference by clicking here.
