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    Mike James on his Monaco years: I don’t think anybody else could have done this

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    By on EuroLeague, Monaco, News
    mike james
    Photo: AS Monaco Basket

    Mike James, the American guard, played his final EuroLeague game as a Monaco player in a playoff loss to Olympiacos.

    Monaco had been playing with a shortened rotation for months and somehow managed to find solutions to their problems, but Mike James and his teammates couldn’t pull off another miracle against the dominant team from Piraeus.

    “It’s been some good times, some bad times, but in retrospect, in 5 years, I don’t know if anybody else could have come here and done what I did here with this group of guys. They contributed, and they took their part, but I don’t think anybody else could have done this”, the 35-year-old told “BasketNews“, before continuing:

    “You see a lot of teams coming from EuroCup, and they go away. They go back down. They don’t go to the playoffs. They don’t go to the Final Four, they don’t compete.”

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    Although they didn’t manage to win the EuroLeague since joining, five playoff appearances and two Final Four runs are certainly achievements worth praising.

    “We’ve seen a lot of EuroCup clubs and a lot of teams that spend a lot of money. But we went to the playoffs every year in 5 years, and we went to the Final Four twice. So I can’t really be mad. We lost to Olympiacos twice, and we lost to Fener once. Those are teams that are gonna be in EuroLeague way after Monaco and way after everybody else, so they’re stable teams.”

    The struggle has been ongoing since December, when financial problems, roster instability, departures, and registration bans began.

    “Nobody else went through any of the stuff that we did this year, and, you know, to get even to the playoff game and be able to compete is… I know it’s gonna sound terrible, but I mean it’s an achievement for us for this season…”

    Mike James has been linked for some time with a move to Barcelona, but according to his statements, there’s nothing concrete at the moment.

    “There’s always somebody linking me somewhere and getting me going somewhere. I’ve gotten people calling me saying, ‘They told people in Barcelona you’re really going here and you’re doing this and somebody’s gonna take you here.’ I think people gotta have something to talk about. Slow news days. You gotta have slow news days, and people need something to talk about.

    I’m not saying that it’s not possible. Obviously, I’ll be a free agent, so basically anything’s possible at that point. But we’ll figure it out.”

    He also reflected on his relationship with Xavi Pascual, the current Barcelona head coach, with whom he previously worked at Panathinaikos.

    “I think people automatically assume that I have problems with all the coaches for some reason. I mean, Xavi (Pascual) is my guy, obviously. So is Spanoulis, so is Sasa (Obradovic), so are a lot of people. I’m pretty cool with a lot of coaches, even coaches I haven’t played for.

    It’s an easy link just to say, ‘Oh yeah, Barcelona might need a point guard, and Mike’s a free agent, and Xavi was his coach, and he loves him. Oh, they’re gonna go back together!”

    I think it’s just an easy link. I think it’s just easy for people to say, but I ain’t committed nowhere”, Mike James confirmed.

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