Coach Simone Pianigiani celebrated his seventh Italian league titles, the eighth championship of his career, the first in Milan. In his first year as Olimpia’s head coach, he won the Supercup and and the league. “It’s a championship – he says – whose merits belong to Mr. Armani and Livio Proli because they built a modern club where all the members of the staff allowed me to work at my best during a tough season with several injuries and a EuroLeague competition that kills you for its length and the effort required. We wanted to plant the right seed but we had to do it with the emotional aspects of the situations. In those moments feeling the toughness of a club that really looks at the daily work, because it’s what makes you improve, was fundamental. So we have improved, day after day also during the playoffs, and in fact since the quarterfinals we played a lot of beautiful games We had good cohesion and we stayed together including the ones who didn’t play like Theodore, who had been one of our top guys until February, and M’Baye We built the team with good people and seeing them happy made me happy again “.
About the opponent: ”Trento has eliminated terrific teams like Avellino and Venezia, it was crucial for us to win the first two games when their energy level was at the top, Shields is a terrific player, but we were good at setting the tempo in the first two game. In Game 5 everything looked like it was against us in the last few minutes but we came out with the win and was very deserved”.
About winning: “Winning is always good because you see your friends happy. I would like not have this sorta of curse of having to win at all costs. Nobody wins every time and I would not want to talk about myself and my wins, but I am particularly happy because I did not want to lose right here at Olimpia with an extraordinary owner and a working group that deserved this joy. Winning after the first year of a growing program, but we dond’t have to get complacent. We stille have to improve, there’s always a lot of room for improving”.
The future: “This year we were all new and we built a core, but now we do not have to change everything, the key is to improve each year by adding something, but the core is there and it is very important. The experience we had together before building for another challenging season will be useful. Here we have to play seasons of 76 games like this one and every loss is a drama. It shouldn’t be like that”.
On his role: “I never work thinking of leaving immediately, i Like to think that I’m going to stay forever. Here, this is the company philosophy. I see a club that brings people to the arnea, creates enthusiasm and has built structures and planned for its future. It’s a way of thinking that is also mine. I did not think about going back to Italy but sharing a vision with Livio Proli was easy. I feel the energy of a club that every day is asking itself what it can do to improve tomorrow “.
