Georgios Bartzokas highlights big problem European basketball faces right now / News - Basketnews.com

Georgios Bartzokas recently addressed the significance of domestic players and the challenges associated with the lack of new talent production in European basketball, specifically in Greece.

Credit: L.Žemgulis Credit L.Žemgulis

Olympiacos Piraeus head coach Georgios Bartzokas discussed the importance of domestic players and the challenges associated with the lack of production of new local athletes in European basketball, particularly in Greece.

Ahead of the EuroLeague final, he highlighted the advantage of having domestic players who understand the culture of the club and the fans, allowing them to represent the club better. However, Bartzokas expressed a concern that fewer children are interested in playing basketball and instead spend more time on other inactive activities.

"If you have a bunch of domestic players, they know the culture of the club, basically. "Also, the culture of the fans," Bartzokas said in the Championship Game Press Conference. "They can represent the club a little bit better than everybody else. On the other side, there is a lack of production of new domestic players, in my opinion. For Greek basketball, for sure. I worked in Spain and Russia, I think all over Europe, this is a big problem right now.

"The kids are more interested to be in a laptop all day instead of going out and playing basketball. Only huge talents are focused on basketball and then they are going to NBA," he continued.

"In European basketball, we struggle with not having domestic players at the highest level. For example, Real in previous years signed the guys like [Carlos] Alocen and [Alberto] Abalde. But right now, you saw it yesterday, they finished the game with [Sergio] Llull, [Sergio] Rodriguez, and Rudy Fernandez. Also, the same for us -- [Kostas] Sloukas and [Kostas] Papanikolaou. The big talents of 2013, even now, they play at this level because they know what means to play at this level. Just have one or two more players not in the same role as them."

Bartzokas also argued that a stable core of six, seven, or eight players who have played together for a long time can develop strong chemistry and understanding on the court. Adding a few new pieces every summer can then supplement this core group if necessary.

"At the end of the day, I believe more than to have domestic players is to have a lot of players that play a lot of years in the club," the coach underlined. "You need to have a core of players of more than six, seven, or eight to play together for a long period. Then they know each other and how to play. And then add some pieces every summer if you need something."

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