Eurobasket 2013 blog: Stratos Perperoglou, Greece

Hi everyone, this is Stratos, checking in from Slovenia, where we on the Greek national team are all excited to be starting Eurobasket! It has been a good summer until now, especially after winning the Euroleague title with Olympiacos last May. We had a pretty incredible season in the Euroleague and we'll never forget London. The Greek League didn't finish the same for us, but those Euroleague memories were more than enough to give me a good summer. Now, however, it's time to compete again and try to get Greece back to the medal stand and a place in the World Championships next year. 

This team is full of present or former teammates of mine, so it is very comfortable to be a part of it. We are all pretty confident going into the tournament. We have veterans and we have young players, so it's a good mix of talent and experience. What we are looking for is to find good chemistry and play together at all times. We want to leave everything we have on the court, and if we do that, I know we're going to get the best results. 

There is a lot of motivation on this team to get the job done after missing the Olympics last year, which was a big disappointment for the Greek national team. The guys have been talking about avoiding the same mistakes made last year by being more focused this time. Everyone knows that we have a good team, but we have to prove that on the court. We can never underestimate an opponent. We have to do the job right every night. 

If many of the Greece players know each other well for a long time, we still have big news on our team, and that is head coach Andrea Trinchieri. Most if not all of us met him for the first time this summer, but already we are working well. We respect him, he respects us and we are doing our best together. He is trying to give his philosophy to the team, which is work hard on defense and sharing the ball on offense. We have to start with defense. It's something that the team didn't do last year and paid the price. Defense is in our DNA. If the Greek national team is not playing defense well, it's going to be a tough tournament for us. In our first group, we have to play Finland, Italy, Russia, Sweden and Turkey. It's a pretty competitive group, as you would expect. All the teams are good. Turkey has an especially good team, and Russia. Italy has had some injuries, but is always a tough opponent. Of course, we have an Italian coach now on our side in the game against Italy, so I hope that works to our benefit. In any case, to get to the next round, any team will have to be competing every night, at the very minimum. And we plan to do a lot more than just compete! 

As we start this tournament, I remember how happy people back in Greece were when my teams returned there with the Euroleague trophy over the years. In this time of crisis for our country, for sure we are thinking of what this could mean for Greece if we do well. We want to make people happy, and the people in Greece love basketball, as we all know from playing in and following the Euroleague. It's not going to solve the problems, but we can at least give them something to be happy about for a few days. We will try to do that!

POSTED BY STRATOS PERPEROGLOU - KOPER, SLOVENIA

DATE: Tuesday, September 3, 2013