Nick Calathes, one of the most experienced playmakers in the history of European basketball, who transferred from Barcelona to Fenerbahçe Beko last summer, was admired for his performance as of the beginning of the season. Fenerbahce Beko star Nick Calathes spoke to the Greek press.
Calathes, who helped Fenerbahçe a lot in EuroLeague with his natural talent of playmaking, passing, and on-court leadership, which he always did, also managed to impress with his hit percentage from behind the arc this season. The Greek star, one of the architects of Fenerbahçe’s success in the first episode of the EuroLeague, gave a long-term interview to Gazzetta, one of his country’s media outlets, that touched on many issues.
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Dimitris Itoudis: Actors are not magiciansEurohoops compiled highlights from the interview: You came from Castleberry to Athens in 2008 when you were 19 years old and you are still here. Did you expect this?
To be honest, I didn’t expect it at all. After playing in the Junior National Team and returning to America, I told my father that I would never go back to Greece. That experience was very bad for me. On the return flight, I felt alienated from my grandparents’ land. Now, when we look back, I have 13 years of national team history, eight of which were professionally with Greece, I became almost half Greek. Unbelievable. I am grateful for the chance to do these.
Did Panathinaikos want you in the summer, too?
Yes, according to my manager.
So what happened? Aren’t you interested?
At this point in my career, I thought I had a better chance of winning the EuroLeague with Fenerbahçe. I don’t want to disrespect the Panathinaikos organization and Dimitris Giannakopoulos. After all, the Panathinaikos family is the player I have become and has had a huge impact on my career, I will never forget that.
Was Olympiacos involved?
As far as I know yes. There were a few other European teams, but the presence of Itoudis and Fenerbahçe’s plans were what attracted me.
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Fenerbahce reached an agreement with Kostas AntetokounmpoWhat about Fenerbahçe… A new team with nine new transfers and a new coach… How was this possible?
This shows the mentality of the players and coaches. We all want to win and no one puts himself in front of the team. We have started the season very well but we have not achieved anything yet, we have a long road ahead of us. The season is very long and we will definitely face problems, like the injuries suffered by our important players right now… Ups and downs are part of this job. But I think we will get better as time goes on and we regain our health. This is exciting. (Eurohoops)
