“Let’s all do something so that we don’t see mothers crying for their children and grandmothers for their homes.”

Costas Papanicolaou used to call a spade a spade. Just ask the right question. And he proved it at the men’s national team’s press conference ahead of the MundoBasket 2023 premiere, when he was asked to speak about the fires ravaging the country.

And the captain of the team tried to put things in their proper place, shocking what he supported in the matter, saying: “What can we say so that we can provide support to people who enter fires to save people and property.

What really bothers me is how harsh it gets every summer. The cruelty of this thing is what worries me.

At some point, something has to be done, we must all do something so that we don’t see mothers lamenting their children because of a false fall, because they lost their homes, and children are evacuated before they even set foot. We are always good at using words, let’s find a way to do things too.”.

In detail what Kostas Papanicolaou had to say about the competitive part:

For Greece’s presence in MundoBasket:” It is very important for us to be present in another big tournament. Our consistency over the years is important. We’ve prepared well, we’ve got young players making their debuts, but everyone can see the mentality we have.

We must be effective and represent our country properly. If we were competitive, we’d be really happy. To go as far as we can, to be proud of our efforts, to make the people who will travel or see us on TV proud of us.

We represent our country. It’s a sport, but we have to represent the country as best we can. The biggest risk for this team is that you play the first game, win and think you’ve reached the top of the mountain. Our weapon will be to stay grounded, following our line with every opponent. To give our best.

And about whether the confidence of the national team has been affected after the defeats in the recent friendly matches: “Our confidence has not been lost since the defeats in the friendly matches. We knew what we were looking for. The coach and his assistants have made it clear to us that we have specific goals. Sometimes we hit them and sometimes not. We’ve trained to improve and see what we can improve, what needs to be cut out and go from there.

We will never be 100% ready with 20 exercises. You can’t catch the cap. We are in good shape and as the tournament progresses we will want to improve.”

For the fact that he has to step up as a leader:”In a team effort, you must respect the rules, the team, and those around you. The biggest blessing for a team is to have another scorer, rebounder and passer every game.

That’s the secret, to have a different hero in every match. . This is what the team needs, not the only star who will advance in every game. We won’t go far that way. We are not the team that has one player consistently scoring 25 points. The protagonist will be the team. To be a team that works as a whole offensively and defensively. Let’s make each stage our own. That’s the important thing, and that’s where we have to count.”

The FIBA ​​Basketball World Cup has begun, and SPORT24, powered by Stoiximan, is tracking our national team on its way to the championship.