Pablo Laso, the head coach of Bayern, spoke to the media after the game against Panathinaikos in the EuroLeague’s 33rd round.
The Spanish coach delivered a lengthy initial statement, first discussing the entire season and then reflecting on the game itself, which he summarized in a few words.
“First of all, congratulations to Panathinaikos. I spoke a bit with Ergin before the game, and he said that it was important for them to win today to secure home-court advantage and a spot in the Final Four. For us, it’s a bit disappointing. We’ve been fighting all year for playoff and play-in spots, but we weren’t sharp enough, even today. We had situations where we fell short. As a coach, I can’t blame the players, but it’s easy to talk about this game now. However, when you look at the whole season, it can be seen as an ‘if’ situation. But that doesn’t change anything.
The team fought throughout the year, and now we’re thinking about recovery and the playoffs in the Bundesliga, looking ahead. I think we had good moments in the game, but we didn’t play decisively against a team that capitalized on every opportunity. Juancho Hernangomez didn’t play well, and now he was great. Vildoza made a contribution in rotation. Nunn played great, and we knew we needed a fantastic game from him. It was good, but not enough for the win,” said Pablo Laso.
“What if” situations
“I can give a lot of explanations. I’ll talk about the other team for a moment. EuroLeague punishes you when you make the smallest mistake. Let me give an example from other teams. What if Milano didn’t allow Ibaka to take that three-pointer? They would be in the playoffs, wouldn’t they? They didn’t make that ‘if’ mistake. There are a lot of ‘if’ situations, and it happened to us many times during the season. Despite having a lot of guys making their EuroLeague debut, we were good. In the end, we lost today and we’re out of the playoffs.”
Players learn
“In Spanish, we have a saying that goes ‘Lose or learn’. I prefer to learn when I lose. Learn to win. We have young guys who are inexperienced, but they’re learning and will play a lot in this league. There’s always room for improvement for a player. They have to work, and now I’ll give a silly example: ‘Luka Doncić’. They say: ‘Pablo, you’ve prepared him well!’ I respond: ‘No, he’s good, he doesn’t need Pablo Laso’. We’ll try to help them, and I believe we have a group of guys who want to improve.”