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"I am very happy here, I settled in very well in Athens and I want to thank everybody for making me feel a part of this club. It was the right decision for my career, when you realize that the fans love you, is easier waking up every day in order to do your job. Coaches are not wizards, we are trying to do our best but everything begins from the players. The most important thing is gaining victories, something that we did with the quarter finals of Euroleague being the only exception in our campaign, against an excellent team. We finally finished at 4th Euroleague group stage position and won two domestic titles.

The first thing I want to say about Nick Calathes is that he is an extremelly hard-working and team player, the fans should know that his quality is higher than what they see on TV. The people are easily forgetting what was happening at the beginning of the season, but when I came here Mike James was injured and he was the only point guard available, along with Lefteris Bochoridis. He made amazing job at the beginning of the season, without him at such level it would have been impossible winning so many games.

You can not be perfect for 70 consecutive matches, there was actually a time when he did not have the same confidence. I am very happy for listening Panathinaikos supporters chanting his name after the finals, because that proves their great knowledge of basketball. The fans can not realize how hard is he working at his shooting, like crazy in every training. He has an amazing mentality, while at the same time Mike James was very good at Euroleague and has two make one-two steps more in order to be even better.

I want to say one thing about the return from Constantinoupolis by bus. It was an inside-the-team issue and that's why it looks like a joke now, after finishing the season so well, with excellent basketball and the championship title. In sports, the last performance is what counting the most, for the coach, the team, everybody. Many people are telling lies about the behavior of the athletes, but the fans choose to believe them, in every country when a team is not winning games or playing well, it is facing this kind of problems.

Everybody realizes that we are not having an incredible budget with Euroleague terms, we have to be clever and make the right choices. The most important thing is to create a team stronger than the current one. Many of our players were very good during 2016-17 season and will have higher demands, it will be difficult to reach our target. It will be very important to build on the Greek part of our squad, because Greek athletes, along with Americans like James Gist who are here for many seasons, will give us our identity.

About the two Greek guards you were going to ask, the only thing I can say is that they are both excellent players. We should realize that there are six clubs with bigger budget than us in Euroleague of next season. So, if we are aiming for the Final-Four, we have to beat at least one team stronger than ours. We are not the favorites of the competition, we already have six stars and of course I am dreaming of adding the 7th. However, we have to be aware of the current situation and try having a perfect season next year.

The thing I tried to do about Nikos Pappas, was building a real player, not someone who will continue doing the same as in the past. He was an athlete with amazing ability, but not always positive for a team. He realized that and made one-two steps in order to become more mature, then he started performing better in defense. He made the necessary changes and I think that we was one of our key playerd during 2016-17 season", said the 45-year-old Catalan coach at his SDNA interview to journalist Giorgos Zakkas.

Xavi Pascual at SDNA: "To build Panathinaikos BC with Greek athletes"