\[DE\] In 2017, Vasilije Micic was playing in Turkey when the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four was played in Istanbul. He bought tickets to sit in the last row at the top of Sinan Erdem Dome for the semifinals and couldn't get tickets for the championship game! So much has changed since then. Today, Micic is on top of the basketball world after leading Anadolu Efes Istanbul to EuroLeague glory for the first time in a season that saw him capture both the EuroLeague MVP and Final Four MVP trophies, too.

With his triumphant season now in the rear-view mirror, Micic sat down for a lengthy chat with his new friend, The Crossover host Joe Arlauckas. Though their conversation covered all of Micic's career, it focused more heavily on the last five years during which Micic has risen to basketball stardom.

Early on, Micic showed that he is not your average athlete. He grew up as a skier and his sister was an Olympic snowboarder.

"I still believe that I am a better skier than a basketball player. This is something that my father thinks, too," Micic said. "This is my first love. Basketball is actually second.

"I grew up in the mountains, the most famous mountains in Serbia, and the logical thing was actually to start to ski," he went on. "For six months a year, we had snow and there was nothing else to do. And if you have some talent and work ethic, you achieve good things."

The strength and athleticism he gained on the slopes paid dividends when Micic began to play basketball. He was seen as one of the best prospects in Europe after leading Serbia to a silver medal at the 2013 U19 world championships, but passed through several seasons with different teams in different countries before Micic took a major step forward.

Micic also went through some tough times off the court with the passing of his mother. All of his emotions came out when Euroleague Basketball surprised Micic with a video to announce his selection as MVP for the 2020-21 season. The video included clips congratulating him from his sister and father.

"I was also really touched emotionally by that video," Micic said. "That was one of the most special moments for my career, in my life, because when you don’t expect things, things are prettier. When you don’t chase them and they happen, you really feel pure happiness…

"Two years ago I lost my mother and that's something that is a big miss for us. But for the four of us, before we lost her, she was our base for everything. We always built from that… Like every mother, she was one of the strongest people in our lives and all these words that Nina said and my father, touched me so much because I felt it through my whole body and all these memories went through my mind because I really had a lot of situations where many people from my country, many fans didn't believe I could achieve this."

As Arlauckas and Micic started to trace his path to basketball greatness, it became clear that the 2016-17 season in Turkey with Tofas Bursa was a major turning point.

"Maybe the most important [step] for me was Tofas Bura in Turkey. That experience for me meant so much, privately and professionally, because I met one of the most important persons and a best friend in my life, Coach Orhun Ene. He is currently the head coach of the national team of Turkey. He gave me a chance," Micic explained. "I put all my past to the side when I signed there and I started to build my style of basketball that I play now. I started to shoot the ball; he pushed me to shoot the ball. He forced me to be more of a scorer."

After a strong season with Tofas, Micic felt ready to return to the EuroLeague. He could have stayed with Tofas and played in the 7DAYS EuroCup and had multiple offers in the EuroLeague, but settled on Zalgiris Kaunas, where another coach would help mold his game and push Micic to the highest level.

"For me, it was only important to improve my game and to be on the court at a higher level. It really happened like that," he said of his decision to sign for Zalgiris. "It wasn't an easy year for me because Saras is a very, very demanding coach. I always like to say as a comparison, that year was like I had played five-six years at a EuroLeague level. Because the way Saras teaches players, the way he treats players on the court with the details, paying attention, especially for a point guard, was an amazing experience that I use so much since."

Many raised eyebrows when after helping Zalgiris reach the Final Four, Micic signed for an Efes team that had been last in the league the season before. Especially because his initial role was to be Shane Larkin's backup. But Micic likened it to Sarunas Jasikevicius's decision to leave FC Barcelona in 2003 to test himself with Maccabi Tel Aviv. And it worked out perfectly.

In his three seasons with Efes, Micic and the club reached new heights, culminating in the 2021 EuroLeague championship. Micic tried to describe what it felt like to climb the mountain top and celebrate as a champion.

"The best proof of your achievement is when your friends and your family say 'bravo' or 'congrats' and your teammates... you cannot lie to them for such a long period. When my teammates hugged me and they said to me, ‘Thank you', to me and Shane the most, I don’t want to divide anybody, but really, I never felt that before, that my teammates came to me and said thank you. And that's enough to describe how good a feeling it is to win the title," Micic revealed.

With a one-hour format of exclusive one-on-one interviews, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas goes well beyond the playing court with each podcast to delve into the life experiences that have made his guests protagonists and legends of the EuroLeague. The Crossover debuted in 2018 and has featured such current stars as Toko Shengelia, Shane Larkin and Kyle Hines, coaching greats such as Ettore Messina, Pablo Laso and Zeljko Obradovic, and legends like Theo Papaloukas, Nikola Vujcic and Mike Batiste, among others.

The guests in Season 3 have includedFC Bayern Munich Coach Andrea Trinchieri, Zalgiris Kaunas star Marius Grigonis, Kostas Papanikolaou of Olympiacos Piraeus and CSKA Moscow assistant coach Darryl Middleton, Kevin Pangos of Zenit St Petersburg and Norris Cole of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.

The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas is available on Youtube, [iTunes](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas/id1440034922), [Audioboom](https://audioboom.com/channel/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6T1SYvGSpzyrYZpG9z2wjR), [Deezer](https://www.deezer.com/fr/show/65962), [RadioPublic](https://radiopublic.com/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas-6NkdjJ), [Google Podcasts](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ4ODM3OTkucnNz?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYzr_b78XtAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ), [TuneIn](https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports--Recreation-Podcasts/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-p1174586/), [Stitcher](https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [CastBox](https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-id1467328?country=gb), [iVoox](https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas_sq_f1629856_1.html) and other platforms.

The Final Four and full-season MVP relives his experiences with Joe Arlauckas.

[DE] MVP Micic stops by The Crossover

# This is a podcast article

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Test podcast article

In 2017, Vasilije Micic was playing in Turkey when the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four was played in Istanbul. He bought tickets to sit in the last row at the top of Sinan Erdem Dome for the semifinals and couldn't get tickets for the championship game! So much has changed since then. Today, Micic is on top of the basketball world after leading Anadolu Efes Istanbul to EuroLeague glory for the first time in a season that saw him capture both the EuroLeague MVP and Final Four MVP trophies, too.

MVP Micic stops by The Crossover

The Crossover returns with a special schedule at the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four! A Round Table of basketball journalists, moderated by EuroLeague.net's Javier Gancedo, got together to analyze the season and break down the semifinals, Anadolu Efes Istanbul vs. CSKA Moscow and FC Barcelona vs. AX Armani Exchange Milan. European basketball legend Sergey Tarakanov of Match TV, professional basketball coach Piti Hurtado of DAZN Spain, Begum Unal of TrendBasket.net and Andrea Solaini of Eurosport Italy shared their opinions about the games and predicted the outcomes of the semifinals. They will all be back Sunday for another episode to analyze the championship game. Joe Arlauckas will also be back on Sunday with a Stars Round Table. Don't miss it!

The Crossover: Experts Round Table

With the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four right around the corner, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas welcomed one of the players who could have a lasting impact on the event. FC Barcelona center Brandon Davies joined Arlauckas to discuss his childhood in Utah, what he learned from facing adversity in college, the start of his professional career, and the success he found at Zalgiris Kaunas and Barcelona.

Davies came to basketball late. He played multiple sports as a boy and settled on soccer. At first, he was faster than everyone and found success, but when his growth spurt hit, everything changed. He found himself playing goalkeeper, thought it was boring, and decided it was time to move on from soccer.

[07:30] "I didn't really start getting into basketball until you know, like sixth or seventh grade. I played there with, it was called Junior Jazz, but I wasn't very good. I only played a little bit of minutes because I was paying to be on the team," he explained. "Then, as my skills developed, I started growing into my body. I started, you know, figuring things out. It was kind of a Michael Jordan-type story. I was got cut from the seventh-grade team, made the B team. All my best friends were on the A team, so I really put in the work that summer."

And the rest, as they say, is history. Davies starred in high school and settled on nearby Brigham Young University, where he was a teammate of former Panathinaikos Athens guard Jimmer Fredette. Together, they had the team ranked No. 3 in the NCAA when Davies was suspended from the team for breaking a school rule.

[13:40] "That was the hardest part, you know, of my life... You're talking about a kid who, all I knew was basketball and that was, you know, kind of taken away from me for my actions," Davies said. "But the main part for me was just the growing up factor. I knew I was a big part of the team, but my teammates were nothing but encouraging to help me do what I needed to do to get back or to make things right."

Davies more than righted the ship. He decided during his junior year of college that his goal was to play basketball professionally. He played two seasons in the NBA and then spent time in France and Italy before the opportunity came to compete in the EuroLeague with Zalgiris Kaunas under head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius. Together, they helped the club make history by reaching the 2018 Final Four.

[29:06] "It's an unbelievable place to play," Davies said. "The fans there are incredible. It feels like basketball's all they've got and they pour their heart and soul into you, if you're a player. It's an unforgettable experience to be a part of that and especially to be rolling how we were rolling and playing in front of sellout crowds every game. And a lot of our fans were traveling to our road games, so we had support everywhere and it was just nice to see you know when you're in a hostile environment you look up and you see all the green shirts right there with you."

After playing two seasons with Zalgiris, Davies joined Barcelona in the summer of 2019, but not before discussing the matter with Jasikevicius. A year later, they were reunited when Saras arrived as Barcelona's head coach.

[00:36:12] "I have a lot of respect for him. We have a really good relationship on and off the court, I can honestly say. He was a big part of helping me get to this point in my career," Davies said.

[38:00] "He's a winner and yeah, it's not that it's gonna be easy, but you know with his with his basketball mind and everything, if bringing him here is gonna get us that championship, then let's go, let's get it."

And that's where things stand now. Davies helped Barcelona achieve the best record in the EuroLeague Regular Season, and after a tough playoff series against Zenit St Petersburg, they are heading to Cologne for the Final Four. However, Davies said that the five games against Zenit will make Barcelona a better team when the semifinals begin.

[38:45] "Being hit in the mouth like that is something that I think is gonna help us get to where we need to get," Davies explained. "Our coaches, they tried to prepare us for this type of battle, and at the time we weren't ready. We learned a lot about ourselves from that series, individually and as a team."

With a one-hour format of exclusive one-on-one interviews, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas goes well beyond the playing court with each podcast to delve into the life experiences that have made his guests protagonists and legends of the EuroLeague. The Crossover debuted in 2018 and has featured such current stars as Toko Shengelia, Shane Larkin and Kyle Hines, coaching greats such as Ettore Messina, Pablo Laso and Zeljko Obradovic, and legends like Theo Papaloukas, Nikola Vujcic and Mike Batiste, among others. The first guests in Season 3 were FC Bayern Munich Coach Andrea Trinchieri, Zalgiris Kaunas star Marius Grigonis, Kostas Papanikolaou of Olympiacos Piraeus and CSKA Moscow assistant coach Darryl Middleton, Kevin Pangos of Zenit St Petersburg and Norris Cole of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne, former champion Sofoklis Schortsanitis and two special episodes with general managers Maurizio Gherardini of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, Christos Stavropoulos of AX Armani Exchange Milan and Paulius Motiejunas of Zalgiris.

The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas is available on Youtube, [iTunes](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas/id1440034922), [Audioboom](https://audioboom.com/channel/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6T1SYvGSpzyrYZpG9z2wjR), [Deezer](https://www.deezer.com/fr/show/65962), [RadioPublic](https://radiopublic.com/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas-6NkdjJ), [Google Podcasts](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ4ODM3OTkucnNz?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYzr_b78XtAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ), [TuneIn](https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports--Recreation-Podcasts/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-p1174586/), [Stitcher](https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [CastBox](https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-id1467328?country=gb), [iVoox](https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas_sq_f1629856_1.html) and other platforms.

Final Four-bound Barcelona big man chats with Joe Arlauckas

Brandon Davies visits the Crossover

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Greek center Sofoklis Schortsanitis enjoyed a storied Turkish Airlines EuroLeague career, during which he played for four clubs over 10 seasons. In this episode of The Crossover, Joe Arlauckas talks with Big Sofo about all of it, starting with his birth in Cameroon to life after retirement.

The big man did not dream of a basketball career as a boy. Schortsanitis's younger brother Alexandros was the first in the family to take up basketball and even that didn't motivate Sofoklis to pick up a ball until later.

05:30 – "When I started, it was literally a fluke," Schortsanitis said. "Over the years, you just develop a love for the game. I love how exciting it is and how the work you put in outside the court translates into success."

He began playing in the youth team in Kavala, Greece, and by the time he was 13, Schortsanitis was sent to play with the men's team. He soon joined the Greek junior national team and made his pro debut in the Greek league with Iraklis Thessaloniki when he was just 15 and a half years old.

8:40 "Two days before the game, they actually told me I was going to be in the squad and I was like, 'Okay, I’ll just stay in the corner and clap whenever we make a basket," Schortsanitis recalled. "And game day, the coach is like, 'It's you, you, Hatzivrettas, Diamantidis and Sofo.' I was like, 'What?!?!'"

What's more, in just his second game Schortsanitis had to guard the great Dino Radja and it did not go well, though it was also a learning opportunity about how much faith his coach and teammates had in him. From there, his career took off. Schortsanitis went abroad to play in Italy at the tender age of 18, but after one season decided to return home and signed with Olympiacos Piraeus, where he bumped heads with head coach Jonas Kazlauskas.

23:50 "One day I was late for practice and he made me run the stairs up and down. He's like: 'This is good for you. It's good for your legs and you can lose weight,'" Schortsanitis recalled. "When they started practicing, he told me, 'Yeah come down. We don't have enough players.' So I started dunking and having a great practice. And this is where my nightmare started. After that, he's like, 'Man, those stairs are good for you. You'll do it every day!'"

With his growing reputation and great size, Schortsanitis was dubbed "Baby Shaq" – after Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal – and the moniker stuck. Schortsanitis did not mind the nickname until the day he had to face the original Shaq.

30:45 "Josh Childress was messing with me," Schortsanitis said. "The minute I got the ball in the post, he's like: 'Yeah Sofo. Show him who's the baby now!' I'm like, 'Don't say that!' I was so nervous. And then I heard Shaq behind saying, 'Yeah. Show me.'"

It all ended well though as Shaq tracked Schortsanitis down in the parking lot and they chatted for half an hour or so with O'Neal sharing some important career advice.

Schortsanitis helped Olympiacos reach back-to-back EuroLeague Final Fours. Then he decided to try playing outside of Greece again and signed for Maccabi Tel Aviv. The end of that first season is still a tough pill for Schortsanitis to swallow as the team reached the EuroLeague championship game only to lose to Panathinaikos Athens.

45:20 "I was sure, 100%, we were going to get it," he said. "We had a great squad. We were strong at every position... Sometimes after you lose a game like that, especially after you win a game like that against Madrid [in the semifinals], you think man, what was the season all about? But you have to bounce back fast because you have to go back to Tel Aviv and win the [Israeli] championship."

The only remedy for losing a title is to win one, and three years later, Schortsanitis finally won the EuroLeague with Maccabi in Milan. And even then, it took a while to sink in.

1:02:35 "It really sunk in that we actually won when we got ready to leave and we had to take pictures with the trophy in our hands," Schortsanitis remembered. "And I was like, well, this is it. We were fighting for years for this."

Schortsanitis was back playing in Greece in the 2016-17 season when he suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon. Though he had surgery and came back, he never regained his previous form and in December 2020 announced his retirement from playing. However, even though he was done playing basketball, some things never change.

1:14:30 "My first 15 years, my mother was telling me what to do, how to do it, when to do it, where to go," Schortsanitis laughed retelling the conversation he had earlier that day with his wife. "For 20 years playing ball, my coaches were telling me what to do, where to go. And now that I've retired, I realized that for the rest of my life, you are going to tell where to go, what to do... And she's like, 'You just realized that now?!?!'"

With a one-hour format of exclusive one-on-one interviews, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas goes well beyond the playing court with each podcast to delve into the life experiences that have made his guests protagonists and legends of the EuroLeague. The Crossover debuted in 2018 and has featured such current stars as Toko Shengelia, Shane Larkin and Kyle Hines, coaching greats such as Ettore Messina, Pablo Laso and Zeljko Obradovic, and legends like Theo Papaloukas, Nikola Vujcic and Mike Batiste, among others. The first guests in Season 3 were FC Bayern Munich Coach Andrea Trinchieri, Zalgiris Kaunas star Marius Grigonis, Kostas Papanikolaou of Olympiacos Piraeus and CSKA Moscow assistant coach Darryl Middleton, Kevin Pangos of Zenit St Petersburg and Norris Cole of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.

The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas is available on Youtube, [iTunes](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas/id1440034922), [Audioboom](https://audioboom.com/channel/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6T1SYvGSpzyrYZpG9z2wjR), [Deezer](https://www.deezer.com/fr/show/65962), [RadioPublic](https://radiopublic.com/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas-6NkdjJ), [Google Podcasts](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ4ODM3OTkucnNz?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYzr_b78XtAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ), [TuneIn](https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports--Recreation-Podcasts/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-p1174586/), [Stitcher](https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [CastBox](https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-id1467328?country=gb), [iVoox](https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas_sq_f1629856_1.html) and other platforms.

Former champ Sofoklis Schortsanitis sits down with Joe Arlauckas

Big Sofo joins The Crossover

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The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas returns with the second part of a special podcast with three well-respected general managers from Turkish Airlines EuroLeague clubs who share their experiences and behind-the-scenes insights. Maurizio Gherardini of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, Christos Stavropoulos of AX Armani Exchange Milan and Paulius Motiejunas of Zalgiris Kaunas chatted with Arlauckas in this two-part panel discussion that touches on a wide range of topics. Part 1 was released on April 14.

The friendships and common ground that the three GMs share was clear during the episode, in which they discussed hiring coaches and signing players as well as dealing with the other end, firing or replacing them. coaching and releasing players.

Motiejunas spoke about the coaching situation at Zalgiris the past few seasons with Sarunas Jasikevicius growing in stature and the growing fear that he may not be able to keep him, which eventually proved to be the case last summer. He needed some encouragement in his coaching search and found guidance from his mentor, Gherardini.

[1:17:25] "To replace a guy like Saras, it's impossible. We want to have a Lithuanian mentality and I started with Lithuanian coaches. Of course, not a lot were available. But then I spoke to Maurizio as well. I'm like, what can I do to replace a guy like that? Someone to fill his shoes, it's impossible," Motiejunas said. "And I still remember to this day. He's like, 'Think outside the box.' Such a simple thing helped have the balls to take a risk and go talk to the coaches who are not well known in Europe."

One part of the general manager job that many fans envy is the ability to sign players and build teams. However, the flip side of that is releasing players and when it comes to club legends, that situation becomes more complicated. Stavropoulos explained why that situation is even more difficult after this season.

[1:27:35] "I think the most important thing is to respect the player. It's very helpful to have a solid relationship with him and if the separation is coming, to come naturally," Stavropoulos said. "I think that right now it's difficult because we played without fans, with empty stands. For the players right now, without cheering from the fans, it's so tough for the players."

Naturally, no basketball podcast this season would be complete without bringing up COVID-19. All three agreed on the wide impact it has had not only on the sport, but also the people who make it happen: the players, coaches, fans and everyone else. Because of that, they are all quite pleased with the fact that we are now on the doorstep of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs after a successful regular season.

[1:37:30] "I think we need to be proud collectively of what we achieved. I think we achieved it also because clubs worked together to make things easier for everybody, traveling, connecting, playing games," said Gherardini. "I think EuroLeague and the clubs made the right adjustments. And I think as a league, we must be proud that we completed the regular season. When we started, we were all hoping we would get to this point… We kept our basketball product alive. And we kept it alive also for people to enjoy from home, which was not that easy to predict when we made those adjustments and started the league in October."

With a one-hour format of exclusive one-on-one interviews, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas goes well beyond the playing court with each podcast to delve into the life experiences that have made his guests protagonists and legends of the EuroLeague. The Crossover debuted in 2018 and has featured such current stars as Toko Shengelia, Shane Larkin and Kyle Hines, coaching greats such as Ettore Messina, Pablo Laso and Zeljko Obradovic, and legends like Theo Papaloukas, Nikola Vujcic and Mike Batiste, among others. The first guests in Season 3 were FC Bayern Munich Coach Andrea Trinchieri, Zalgiris Kaunas star Marius Grigonis, Kostas Papanikolaou of Olympiacos Piraeus and CSKA Moscow assistant coach Darryl Middleton, Kevin Pangos of Zenit St Petersburg and Norris Cole of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.

The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas is available on Youtube, [iTunes](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas/id1440034922), [Audioboom](https://audioboom.com/channel/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6T1SYvGSpzyrYZpG9z2wjR), [Deezer](https://www.deezer.com/fr/show/65962), [RadioPublic](https://radiopublic.com/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas-6NkdjJ), [Google Podcasts](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ4ODM3OTkucnNz?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYzr_b78XtAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ), [TuneIn](https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports--Recreation-Podcasts/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-p1174586/), [Stitcher](https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [CastBox](https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-id1467328?country=gb), [iVoox](https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas_sq_f1629856_1.html) and other platforms.

Joe Arlauckas talks personnel decisions with Fenerbahce, Milan and Zalgiris bosses

The Crossover with GMs – Part 2 is live!

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The Crossover has a different feel this time with host Joe Arlauckas welcoming a trio of well-respected general managers from Turkish Airlines EuroLeague clubs to tell of their experiences and behind-the-scenes insights. Maurizio Gherardini of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, Christos Stavropoulos of AX Armani Exchange Milan and Paulius Motiejunas of Zalgiris Kaunas share the microphone with Arlauckas in this two-part panel discussion that touches on a wide range of topics.

Naturally, one of the first topics to be broached was how they became basketball executives. While each took different paths to where they sit today, all came about their love of basketball as players in their youth.

[08:35] "I still believe I can be a player," Motiejunas joked, before explaining what really happened when he first started working for Zalgiris. "I was always thinking I'll finish school and then I can still turn pro or play semi-pro. When I started to work for the club, I remember to this day. I saw the first practice and I did not understand how the guys had so much strength, how fast they were. And it just hit me then and I'm like, 'Dude, you're not going to [play at] that level!"

A general manager's job encompasses many areas. Of course, most of the focus is on how well the team is playing. That said, there is a seemingly endless list of other responsibilities on a GM's desk at any time that can include player development, youth teams, business interests, logistics and many more items. However, as Stavropoulos explained, no two GMs have exactly the same job description.

[16:45] "I think it's probably different from club to club, depending on the internal structure of the organization," Stavropoulos said. "In our organization, Mr. Armani and the president, Mr. Dell'Orco, give us the freedom to decide. But even in the same country, every club has different needs. So the description of the GM role is different, it changes a lot from club to club."

The general manager with the most experience among the three is Gherardini, who harkened back to the start of his career to make a point about how GMs must work to help their players.

[35:10] "One of the most rewarding feelings I have today is when I talk to millennials or to young students and I try to tell them how my life as a GM was back then when [Joe was] playing. When I started, let's say, working for my basketball club, think about this: There was no computer, no cellphones," Gherardini said.

But as different as it was then, some things remain the same, he concluded: "The adjustment is needed anywhere, any time. It was needed 40 years ago, it is needed today."

In the second part of the discussion, coming soon, the GMs pick up on additional themes of their work like thinking out of the box, moving on when legendary coaches leave your team, dealing with star players nearing the ends of their careers, what they learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and the passion found in the EuroLeague.

With a one-hour format of exclusive one-on-one interviews, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas goes well beyond the playing court with each podcast to delve into the life experiences that have made his guests protagonists and legends of the EuroLeague. The Crossover debuted in 2018 and has featured such current stars as Toko Shengelia, Shane Larkin and Kyle Hines, coaching greats such as Ettore Messina, Pablo Laso and Zeljko Obradovic, and legends like Theo Papaloukas, Nikola Vujcic and Mike Batiste, among others. The first guests in Season 3 were FC Bayern Munich Coach Andrea Trinchieri, Zalgiris Kaunas star Marius Grigonis, Kostas Papanikolaou of Olympiacos Piraeus and CSKA Moscow assistant coach Darryl Middleton, Kevin Pangos of Zenit St Petersburg and Norris Cole of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.

The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas is available on Youtube, [iTunes](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas/id1440034922), [Audioboom](https://audioboom.com/channel/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6T1SYvGSpzyrYZpG9z2wjR), [Deezer](https://www.deezer.com/fr/show/65962), [RadioPublic](https://radiopublic.com/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas-6NkdjJ), [Google Podcasts](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ4ODM3OTkucnNz?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYzr_b78XtAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ), [TuneIn](https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports--Recreation-Podcasts/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-p1174586/), [Stitcher](https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [CastBox](https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-id1467328?country=gb), [iVoox](https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas_sq_f1629856_1.html) and other platforms.

Joe Arlauckas talks to the team-builders at Fenerbahce, Milan and Zalgiris

The Crossover hosts a EuroLeague GMs panel discussion

Although he has reached some of the greatest heights in basketball, Norris Cole's conversation with Joe Arlauckas on the newest edition of The Crossover podcast always comes back to family.

The current LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne point guard and team leader grew up playing four different sports, but his father, a nuclear medical technician, and his mother, an accountant, made it clear that education came first and gave their son the tools to succeed, like teaching him time management at an early age.

00:03:02 "I took care of the things that my parents demanded that I take care of first, and I was efficient with it," Cole recounted. "I made good grades and spent my time wisely doing what they asked me to do, and so I had leisure time to do extra sports."

The young Cole excelled not only in basketball, but also in baseball, American football, and track and field, as a long jumper. Another lesson along the way was how to handle losing, and it was taught to him by his father after Cole came home with an "attitude" following a bad game:

00:12:27 "He just flat out told me, 'Hey man, don't be mad at us. You had a bad game. You're still going to eat tonight. You've still got a bed to sleep in. You've still got clothes. We're gonna love you anyway, so don't come home with no attitude after no loss.' And after that day, I never felt pressure to have to perform well, because they were gonna love me anyway."

Eventually, in his last year of high school, Cole had to choose, and surprisingly, basketball wasn't the sport for which more universities requested him.

00:07:57 "I always knew in my heart that I was gonna be a pro at something, I just didn't know what," Cole said. "And it came down between basketball and football. And I was reasonable. I loved playing basketball. I liked football, but I loved basketball. I was willing to do all the sacrifices necessary to play basketball."

After four years of getting better and better at Cleveland State University, Cole was drafted into the NBA, where he landed on a storied Miami Heat team that proceeded to win the NBA title in his first two seasons. Playing alongside future Hall of Famers LeBron James and Dwayne Wade taught Cole a lot about how to be a pro.

00:39:58 "LeBron knows that he's blessed with certain gifts, but he don't take those gifts for granted," Cole said. "He's the most disciplined individual that I've ever seen with my own two eyes. "

After five full NBA seasons and one in China, Cole joined the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague with Maccabi Tel Aviv and has since been back in the competition with both Buducnost VOLI Podgorica and now ASVEL. What impressed him from the start was how not only every game counts in the EuroLeague, but every possession.

00:58:02 "The margin for error is so slim in the EuroLeague," Col said. "It's not 32 teams; it's only 17 [other] teams, so you know you don't have a lot of room for error. It definitely makes for more intense competition on the night-in and night-out basis."

Now, Cole feels that his experience can help ASVEL reach its dream under team president Tony Parker of firmly establishing its place among the EuroLeague elite.

01:03:55 "You can definitely feel that something special is coming down the pipeline," Cole said. “I wasn't here last year, but I know Tony, and Tony is a guy that's gonna be doing things in a first-class way."

Even since coming overseas, Cole keeps his heart close to where he grew up in Dayton, Ohio. His Norris Cole Foundation is dedicated to encouraging academic achievement, health and well-being, community service and leadership development among the youth of his hometown.

1:10:07 "Other than education, inspiration is the biggest thing you can do for a kid," Cole said, "because if you spark that fire, they'll do the rest."

With a one-hour format of exclusive one-on-one interviews, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas goes well beyond the playing court with each podcast to delve into the life experiences that have made his guests protagonists and legends of the EuroLeague. The Crossover debuted in 2018 and has featured such current stars as Toko Shengelia, Shane Larkin and Kyle Hines, coaching greats such as Ettore Messina, Pablo Laso and Zeljko Obradovic, and legends like Theo Papaloukas, Nikola Vujcic and Mike Batiste, among others. The first guests in Season 3 were FC Bayern Munich Coach Andrea Trinchieri, Zalgiris Kaunas star Marius Grigonis, Kostas Papanikolaou of Olympiacos Piraeus and CSKA Moscow assistant coach Darryl Middleton. Pangos is the seventh guest for the 2020-21 season.

The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas is available on Youtube, [iTunes](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas/id1440034922), [Audioboom](https://audioboom.com/channel/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6T1SYvGSpzyrYZpG9z2wjR), [Deezer](https://www.deezer.com/fr/show/65962), [RadioPublic](https://radiopublic.com/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas-6NkdjJ), [Google Podcasts](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ4ODM3OTkucnNz?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYzr_b78XtAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ), [TuneIn](https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports--Recreation-Podcasts/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-p1174586/), [Stitcher](https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [CastBox](https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-id1467328?country=gb), [iVoox](https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas_sq_f1629856_1.html) and other platforms.

Two-time NBA champ tells his story to Joe Arlauckas

ASVEL's Norris Cole visits The Crossover

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On the latest episode of The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas, Zenit St Petersburg guard Kevin Pangos, a 2017-18 All-EuroLeague selection, joins the show to discuss the many things the two have in common – and some things they don't. The Canadian-born guard walked Joe through his highlights in college before experiencing the high and lows of the professional game in the 7DAYS EuroCup and the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.

Though Pangos dabbled in ice hockey as a boy, basketball was in his blood. His father was the women's basketball coach at a university in Toronto. Like so many young Canadian hoopsters, Pangos grew up idolizing Steve Nash and at one point would shoot hundreds of jumpers a day to emulate the two-time NBA MVP.

All that shooting would pay off. Pangos decided to travel to the United States to play college basketball for Gonzaga University, where he introduced himself to the American basketball world with 33 points in his second game.

[22:50] "It was life-changing," Pangos said, as he retold a story of how some classmates doubted that he really was a player on the team when they first met him. "After that 33-point game, that never happened to me again... All of a sudden, in Gonzaga basketball culture, people recognized me."

After four wonderful years in college, where Pangos met his future wife, he began his professional career with Herbalife Gran Canaria. It was a fantastic first season as the team reached the 7DAYS EuroCup Semifinals and Pangos was named to the All-EuroCup Second Team. That led to an offer to play in the EuroLeague for Zalgiris Kaunas under the team's then-head coach, Sarunas Jasikevicius.

In their second season together, Zalgiris and Pangos made history by reaching the EuroLeague Final Four in Belgrade. To do so, they eliminated Olympiacos Piraeus in the playoffs. After they split the first two games in Greece, Pangos said that his team was virtually unbeatable at home.

[49:00] "When we came back to Lithuania, the way that we walked into the gym and everyone was wearing green, packed house. I don't think we had a chance to lose those games, just the way the energy was built up," Pangos recalled. "I remember everyone was just ecstatic."

Pangos's next move was to Barcelona, where he signed a two-year contract. However, he was sidelined for almost all of his second season with a toe turf injury and that was a tough time for the floor general.

[1:05:30] "I don't want to be labeled soft. In my family, it's always been, 'Work hard, work hard.' Everything like that. So when people are questioning my toughness and my will to play, it kills you. And you can't do anything to really defend yourself other than say, 'No, that's not true,' because I can't go out there and play. So that was one of the toughest parts, mentally."

Once healed, Pangos moved again over the summer to Zenit, where he is once again playing like one of the best point guards on the continent and has the team in the thick of one of the tightest playoff races in competition history. And he is loving it.

[1:08:20] "It's incredible, isn't it?" Pangos remarked. "I think this is what athletes and competitive people want. I think this is what fans want. This is what everyone wants, competitive basketball. When you look at it, it's thrilling."

With a one-hour format of exclusive one-on-one interviews, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas goes well beyond the playing court with each podcast to delve into the life experiences that have made his guests protagonists and legends of the EuroLeague. The Crossover debuted in 2018 and has featured such current stars as Toko Shengelia, Shane Larkin and Kyle Hines, coaching greats such as Ettore Messina, Pablo Laso and Zeljko Obradovic, and legends like Theo Papaloukas, Nikola Vujcic and Mike Batiste, among others. The first guests in Season 3 were FC Bayern Munich Coach Andrea Trinchieri, Zalgiris Kaunas star Marius Grigonis, Kostas Papanikolaou of Olympiacos Piraeus and CSKA Moscow assistant coach Darryl Middleton. Pangos is the seventh guest for the 2020-21 season.

The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas is available on Youtube, [iTunes](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas/id1440034922), [Audioboom](https://audioboom.com/channel/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6T1SYvGSpzyrYZpG9z2wjR), [Deezer](https://www.deezer.com/fr/show/65962), [RadioPublic](https://radiopublic.com/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas-6NkdjJ), [Google Podcasts](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ4ODM3OTkucnNz?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYzr_b78XtAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ), [TuneIn](https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports--Recreation-Podcasts/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-p1174586/), [Stitcher](https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [CastBox](https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-id1467328?country=gb), [iVoox](https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas_sq_f1629856_1.html) and other platforms.

Joe Arlauckas hears of Canadian star's path to the pros

The Crossover welcomes Zenit's Kevin Pangos

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The latest guest on The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas is head coach Igor Kokoskov of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul. Though the two men hadn't met before the episode was taped, they hit it off quickly and reviewed Kokoskov's career on both sides of the Atlantic and his views on life in less than one hour.

Like most successful coaches in any sport, Kokoskov was a player first. He was a rising name in Yugoslavian basketball and had made the national U18 team before tragedy struck. He was involved in a horrific traffic accident that ended his playing career just as it was starting to take off.

[10:05] "I spent almost 11 months in the hospital on a couple of different occasions. I had several surgeries," Kokoskov said. However, instead of allowing himself to sink into depression, Kokoskov focused on the positive: "One part of me was happy, saying that it could be worse. What if I had lost a leg, if I couldn't walk anymore?"

Kokoskov knew he wanted to remain in basketball, so he started coaching at the high school level. He worked his way up and became the youngest coach in Yugoslavian club history to coach in the top flight. To take his game to the next level, Kokoskov heeded his grandfather's advice "to find the best in a business and work for free just to learn the secret to success."

He spent time with famed University of Connecticut coaches Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma as well as with Duke University's Mike Krzyzewski. It was at the latter stop that he became close with Quin Snyder, who later hired him to be his assistant at the University of Missouri. His time at Mizzou led to two decades in the NBA, including as the head coach of the Phoenix Suns, where he became the first European-born head of a bench in that league.

[33:30] "Luck can give you an opportunity that you don't deserve, but pretty soon you'll show your true face. If you sustain in this business, there is something good about you," Kokoskov said in explaining the need to be both lucky and talented to succeed in the coaching business. Kokoskov had both thanks to some friends who made it big and his abilities.

Last summer, Kokoskov returned to the Old Continent and made his Turkish Airlines EuroLeague debut for Fenerbahce, where he replaced a man he called his "basketball mentor" and "close friend", Zeljko Obradovic. It was a rocky start, but since Kokoskov and Fenerbahce have righted the ship and climbed into the playoff zone.

[47:20] "We know who we are. We have a lot of veteran players that have been in this league for a long, long time," Kokoskov said of his Fenerbahce team. "As long as we're healthy, we're together, we have a good group of guys who are willing to play together and sacrifice for each other and that put us in a good position to be successful this year."

With a one-hour format of exclusive one-on-one interviews, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas goes well beyond the playing court with each podcast to delve into the life experiences that have made his guests protagonists and legends of the EuroLeague. The Crossover debuted in 2018 and has featured such current stars as Toko Shengelia, Shane Larkin and Kyle Hines, coaching greats such as Ettore Messina, Pablo Laso and Zeljko Obradovic, and legends like Theo Papaloukas, Nikola Vujcic and Mike Batiste, among others. The first guests in Season 3 were FC Bayern Munich Coach Andrea Trinchieri, Zalgiris Kaunas star Marius Grigonis, Kostas Papanikolaou of Olympiacos Piraeus and CSKA Moscow assistant coach Darryl Middleton.

The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas is available on Youtube, [iTunes](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas/id1440034922), [Audioboom](https://audioboom.com/channel/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6T1SYvGSpzyrYZpG9z2wjR), [Deezer](https://www.deezer.com/fr/show/65962), [RadioPublic](https://radiopublic.com/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas-6NkdjJ), [Google Podcasts](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ4ODM3OTkucnNz?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYzr_b78XtAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ), [TuneIn](https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports--Recreation-Podcasts/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-p1174586/), [Stitcher](https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [CastBox](https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-id1467328?country=gb), [iVoox](https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas_sq_f1629856_1.html) and other platforms.

Joe Arlauckas gets to know the first European-born NBA coach and Obradovic’s successor on Fenerbahce's bench

Fenerbahce's Coach Kokoskov visits The Crossover

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An interesting and heartfelt conversation unfolded as two-time Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champion Kostas Papanikolaou became the fifth guest of the 2020-21 season on The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas. The 2013 EuroLeague Rising Star shared his road to becoming a young continental champion, some of the highs and lows of his career, and the outlook ahead for Olympiacos Piraeus – as well as for himself as an expectant first-time father!

Papanikolaou would never have achieved basketball greatness without the love and support of his parents. His father, a policeman, helped Kostas decide to dedicate himself to basketball instead of his first sport, volleyball. His parents supported him when he joined Aris Thessaloniki and when his fast track to stardom hit a speed bump with Papanikolaou's release from the Greek Under-16 national team. However, what could have set him up for failure became his motivational tool.

[15:45] " That upset me a lot, made me sad a lot, and gave me a purpose to keep working hard for the next year... And I think that was the moment I realized I've gotta work hard if I want to make something, if I want to have success in something in basketball," Papanikolaou said. "I wasn't the most talented player my age. There were guys much more talented than me and well-known all over Greece, and some of them all over Europe, too. That year for me was the year I sat down and worked hard."

Ever the realist, Papanikolaou explained to Joe – and sometimes shares with younger players – that another important ingredient to high-level success is luck. Though he felt he made the correct decision to join Olympiacos in the summer of 2009 to play for Coach Panagiotis Giannakis, it all could have fallen apart if the next head coach did not believe in him. However, the next man on the Reds sidelines was Dusan Ivkovic, who gave Papanikolaou as much as he could handle, including a major role as the team made history by capturing the 2012 EuroLeague title in Istanbul.

[26:30] "I was just not thinking, playing the game. I believe that was the most relaxed I have been in such a crucial game," Papanikolaou said about the semifinal win over FC Barcelona. "Maybe because I didn't realize how crucial that game was because of my age. I thought, 'Even if we lose, no one will blame me for anything. We already did the best we could do.' I don't know. Maybe… I cannot find the words to explain anything about that weekend… It's such a magical moment not only for me, but for the club, the history of the club."

After helping the Reds repeat as champs in 2013, Papanikolaou's career took him abroad, first to play for FC Barcelona, and then to spend parts of two seasons in the NBA with Houston and Denver. When the time was right to return home, he rejoined Olympiacos in January 2016, helping the club back to the EuroLeague championship game a year later. Though they have not been back to the Final Four since, Papanikolaou is convinced good times are ahead.

[1:00:00] "I really feel excited about where Olympiacos is heading right now. Yes, we had two years that were not the best for us. A lot of changes happened. But you cannot just flip a switch and get back where you used to be," Papanikolaou said. "This is, I believe, the first season in a process for us to rebuild and get back to where Olympiacos used to be and where we want to have the team for our fans and the club itself. I believe that this will not take long."

Among the many topics that Papanikolaou and Arlauckas bonded over is their shared love of being One Team Ambassadors for Euroleague Basketball's corporate social responsibility program, including how difficult it has been to not be able to fill their typical roles over the past year due to social distancing. Papanikolaou explained what he loves about being a One Team Ambassador:

[1:14:00] "It doesn't take nothing, just an hour of your time, an hour of your life, in order to give so much joy and so much feeling to all those kids. And what is most surprising is that when you are there, during this hour, you realize at some point that it is not only what you give them, it's what you get back."

With a one-hour format of exclusive one-on-one interviews, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas goes well beyond the playing court with each podcast to delve into the life experiences that have made his guests protagonists and legends of the EuroLeague. The Crossover debuted in 2018 and has featured such current stars as Toko Shengelia, Shane Larkin and Kyle Hines, coaching greats such as Ettore Messina, Pablo Laso and Zeljko Obradovic, and legends like Theo Papaloukas, Nikola Vujcic and Mike Batiste, among others. Papanikolaou is the fifth guest for the 2020-21 season.

The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas is available on Youtube, [iTunes](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas/id1440034922), [Audioboom](https://audioboom.com/channel/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6T1SYvGSpzyrYZpG9z2wjR), [Deezer](https://www.deezer.com/fr/show/65962), [RadioPublic](https://radiopublic.com/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas-6NkdjJ), [Google Podcasts](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ4ODM3OTkucnNz?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYzr_b78XtAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ), [TuneIn](https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports--Recreation-Podcasts/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-p1174586/), [Stitcher](https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [CastBox](https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-id1467328?country=gb), [iVoox](https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas_sq_f1629856_1.html) and other platforms.

An Olympiacos legend is Joe Arlauckas's latest guest

Kostas Papanikolaou joins The Crossover

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In the latest episode of The Crossover, Joe Arlauckas gets to know Maccabi Tel Aviv's Ioannis Sfairopoulos, who bided his time as a long-term assistant before skyrocketing into the top echelon of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague head coaches over the last seven seasons.

The son of a soccer pro, Sfairopoulos chose basketball as his sport, but by age 21, had given up playing to coach his amateur club, Apollon Kalamarias, in his hometown of Thessaloniki. In his 11th season there, Apollon won Greece's third-division title, earning him an assistant coach's slot at nearby PAOK, where he stayed seven seasons, one as head coach, while also assisting for the Greek national team. Though he rarely slept in those predigital years full of scouting and video analysis, Sfairopoulos considers his assistant coaching experience essential to his formation.

11:20 "Whatever I did all those years up to this moment – and I continue to do – is always to learn and to be better and improve myself," Sfairopoulos says. "I didn't know until what point I would reach in my career, to what level I would go, but I worked as hard as I could."

His learning process continued in the EuroLeague as Sfairopoulos joined Olympiacos Piraeus for three seasons starting in 2005, coaching under former champions Jonas Kazlauskas, Pini Gershon and Panagiotis Giannakis. After a spell as head coach for Kolossos Rhodes in the Greek League, Sfairopoulos reunited with Kazlauskas at CSKA Moscow. That fateful 2011-12 season – which ended with his old team, Olympiacos, rallying to take the EuroLeague title on the last play between two players he knew well already, Vassilis Spanoulis and Georgios Printezis – taught another lesson.

44:53 "Basketball is like life," Sfairopoulos says. "No matter how many times you fall down – because in basketball you also fall down after a bad loss – you have to stand back on your feet and continue to move and to run. This is the idea out of this game, and this is also the example if we transfer basketball actions to life."

After spending the next two years leading Panionios in the EuroCup, Sfairopoulos got the call to return to EuroLeague champion Olympiacos as head coach after Georgios Bartzokas stepped down early in the 2014-15 season. Six months later, Olympiacos overcame FC Barcelona's playoffs home-court advantage to reach the Final Four and then rallied from 9 points down with 4 minutes left to beat CSKA in the semifinals. Although Final Four host Real Madrid proved too much for the Reds in the championship game, Sfairopoulos had become just the second EuroLeague rookie head coach this century to reach the finals.

1:01:20 "My first year, to qualify to the Final Four as a head coach in the EuroLeague, that was like a dream," Sfairopoulos says.

He and Olympiacos would return to the title game in 2017, only to lose again to a club playing in its home city, Fenerbahce Istanbul. The following year, Sfairopoulos left Olympiacos, but later in 2018 got the call to help resuscitate Maccabi, which had missed the playoffs ever since its EuroLeague title run in 2014. It was love at first sight between Sfairopoulos and the Maccabi fans, who recognized immediately the seriousness and change of attitude he brought to their team.

1:23:50 "They gathered me, they hugged me from the first moment," Sfairopoulos says. "The love I received and am still receiving from Maccabi fans, I will never forget in my life. This is something unique, only here. And I love them too because this goes vice-versa. As we said, whatever you get, you give. Whatever you give, you get. They gave me love: I give them love. I wish we could have them in these games now. It's very strange and very difficult the game without them. It's a completely different game. I'm not saying that if we had them we could win more games on our homecourt: this is obvious. But the game, basketball, is different without fans."

With a one-hour format of exclusive one-on-one interviews, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas goes well beyond the playing court with each podcast to delve into the life experiences that have made his guests protagonists and legends of the EuroLeague. The Crossover debuted in 2018 and has featured such current stars as Toko Shengelia, Shane Larkin and Kyle Hines, coaching greats such as Ettore Messina, Pablo Laso and Zeljko Obradovic, and legends like Theo Papaloukas, Nikola Vujcic and Mike Batiste, among others. The first guests in Season 3 were FC Bayern Munich Coach Andrea Trinchieri and Zalgiris Kaunas star Marius Grigonis.

The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas is available on Youtube, [iTunes](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas/id1440034922), [Audioboom](https://audioboom.com/channel/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6T1SYvGSpzyrYZpG9z2wjR), [Deezer](https://www.deezer.com/fr/show/65962), [RadioPublic](https://radiopublic.com/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas-6NkdjJ), [Google Podcasts](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ4ODM3OTkucnNz?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYzr_b78XtAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ), [TuneIn](https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports--Recreation-Podcasts/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-p1174586/), [Stitcher](https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [CastBox](https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-id1467328?country=gb), [iVoox](https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas_sq_f1629856_1.html) and other platforms.

Joe Arlaukas chats up two-time EuroLeague finalist

Maccabi coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos visits The Crossover

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The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas breaks new ground in its third episode of the season by interviewing an assistant coach. In this case, Darryl Middleton of CSKA Moscow is also one of the most remarkable champions in EuroLeague history, a man whose playing career lasted more than a quarter of a century and included many memorable battles against Arlauckas himself.

From his beginnings in New York City to playing professionally until age 47 and winning two EuroLeague titles since then as an assistant coach at CSKA Moscow, Middleton reminisced about his career highlights, which saw him play professionally for teams in Turkey, Italy, Spain, Greece and Russia, win the EuroLeague as a player, take multiple Spanish League MVP awards and lift six domestic crowns combined in Spain and Greece.

When looking back at the 1995 Spanish League finals, Middleton reminded Arlauckas that he still owes him dinner from a bet after Middleton's FC Barcelona defeated Arlauckas's Real Madrid! Middleton's sustained success in Spain led to an offer to play for one of the sport's greatest head coaches, Zeljko Obradovic, at Panathinaikos Athens, where he finally captured the EuroLeague title.

[19:15] "I worked very hard in summer time and all that just paid off, man, by going and getting that title. I was so happy because all the time, that's what I wanted. I wanted it so bad," Middleton said. "This is something different. This is like, you know, a European title. This is great. I needed, I wanted to win this."

Long before Middleton got into coaching, he was already serving as a mentor to some of the game's great young stars.

[14:15] "You can ask Marc Gasol how much I beat him up every day. It was brutal. It was brutal, but I loved it," Middleton recalled of their time together in Girona. "He kicked the ball many times out in practice, got mad, walked away, you say it. But we were friends. He respected what I was doing afterward when he went to the NBA. He understood that's what it took to be tough. You have to play tough."

As his playing career was winding down, Middleton opened a restaurant in Alicante. He retained the same work ethic he was known for as a player, often getting to the restaurant at 7 a.m. to start working, while still heading to practices and games. A phone call from Dimitris Itoudis, his former assistant coach at Panathinaikos Athens, changed everything and Middleton joined him on the CSKA staff in the summer of 2014.

Having already won a EuroLeague as a player – alongside Itoudis as an assistant coach – Middleton knew the sweet taste of glory. However, when they took the crown together with CSKA in 2016, the feeling was different.

[38:59] "I was happy, but I was like, I felt so happy for Dimitris," he explained. "Because it was his first time winning it as a coach, as the head coach. And I know how much he, all the sweat he did. That was a tough year for us and it was tough and we did it and it was good. I was happy. But I like I said, I was so happy for him, seeing him there with his family, with the president of the team. It was different as a player."

All of Middleton's success from basketball came with a price. He was not able to be the typical husband or father and there is no way to recapture that lost time, he lamented.

[45:40] "There's some good things about basketball, some bad things as well. There're some things that you can never get back. The time that you miss with your family, you know. I mean, I missed everything. I mean the graduations, school, holidays," Middleton said. "I wanted to be the best player I possibly could be... I had to kind of like put them to the side for that."

With a one-hour format of exclusive one-on-one interviews, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas goes well beyond the playing court with each podcast to delve into the life experiences that have made his guests protagonists and legends of the EuroLeague. The Crossover debuted in 2018 and has featured such current stars as Toko Shengelia, Shane Larkin and Kyle Hines, coaching greats such as Ettore Messina, Pablo Laso and Zeljko Obradovic, and legends like Theo Papaloukas, Nikola Vujcic and Mike Batiste, among others. The first guests in Season 3 were FC Bayern Munich Coach Andrea Trinchieri and Zalgiris Kaunas star Marius Grigonis.

The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas is available on Youtube, [iTunes](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas/id1440034922), [Audioboom](https://audioboom.com/channel/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6T1SYvGSpzyrYZpG9z2wjR), [Deezer](https://www.deezer.com/fr/show/65962), [RadioPublic](https://radiopublic.com/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas-6NkdjJ), [Google Podcasts](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ4ODM3OTkucnNz?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYzr_b78XtAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ), [TuneIn](https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports--Recreation-Podcasts/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-p1174586/), [Stitcher](https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [CastBox](https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-id1467328?country=gb), [iVoox](https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas_sq_f1629856_1.html) and other platforms.

Panathinaikos legend, CSKA assistant coach chats with Joe Arlauckas

Three-time champ Darryl Middleton visits The Crossover

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The first player to visit The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas in its third season is Zalgiris Kaunas guard Marius Grigonis, who was named MVP of October in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. The Lithuanian scorer takes Joe on his basketball path, from growing up in Kaunas to leaving for Spain as a teenager, then playing for ALBA Berlin and returning home to star for Zalgiris.

Grigonis's love for basketball was passed down from his grandfather to his father to his brother, who is older than Marius by four years and served as a barometer for the younger sibling to understand his potential. When Marius started to beat his brother in one-on-one games, something clicked. Soon he developed into an elite prospect who starred in youth tournaments and for Zalgiris's B team, prompting scouts around Europe to keep tabs on him. However, the way his move to Spain went down is not the way many might have expected.

[0:09:36] "When I moved to Spain, it was just so random. I mean, I had no agent and then one guy called me and he said, 'Hey, do you want to go to Spain?' And I was like, 'Alright,' "Grigonis revealed. "It was just random and I didn't overthink it."

Although being a teenager alone without family while playing in Spain's second division posed a challenge, Grigonis adapted to have a strong season with Huesca and learned many basketball and life lessons along the way.

[0:10:50] "I saw the level and I thought, 'Okay, here I for sure I can play,' " Grigonis recalled. "I had Coach Quim Costa. He told me, 'If you not willing to work hard in practice, you're not going to play.' And I thought, 'I'm better than everybody, I can for sure, I can play.' And after the first games that I was playing – I don't know, 10 minutes or something – then I realized how the basketball world works. And I talked with him and he helped me a lot to realize that, and I mean, for sure it was hard. I think I was 18, 19 and the first time without the parents to cook by myself. I mean, I Googled everything. 'How much time do I need to put these spaghettis in the boiling water?' or whatever. But it's, you know, it's experience."

The one season with Huesca showed the bigger clubs in Spain what kind of talent Grigonis possessed. He had offers to choose from before signing with Manresa for two seasons. Then came the 2016-17 campaign with Tenerife, which resulted in his first trophy when they won the Basketball Champions League. Soon came a call to join ALBA Berlin, which is where he played under Coach Aito Garcia Reneses and made his 7DAYS EuroCup debut. One of the things that helped Grigonis continue to improve from stop to stop was that he was never satisfied.

[0:39:34] "I think you never achieve your own expectation because you always expect more. You know, and you always expect that you're going to be a better player," Grigonis explained. "And if you don't achieve that, that's the thing when you get, you know, pretty upset. 'I wanted more' or whatever."

Coming home to join Zalgiris under Coach Sarunas Jasikevicius in 2018 was a defining moment. Grigonis was able to play in front of friends and family while wearing the jersey of the club that he had cheered for as a boy. He was able to make them proud with his strong play down the stretch as Zalgiris won its final six regular-season games to sneak into the playoffs.

[0:55:40] "One of the EuroLeague coaches said that it was impossible to go to the playoffs for Zalgiris. When we started winning, everybody was like, 'Hold on. What's going on?' When we won in Madrid [to clinch a playoffs qualification], it was one of the best parties. It was amazing!"

With a one-hour format of exclusive one-on-one interviews, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas goes well beyond the playing court with each podcast to delve into the life experiences that have made his guests protagonists and legends of the EuroLeague. The Crossover debuted in 2018 and has featured such current stars as Toko Shengelia, Shane Larkin and Kyle Hines, coaching greats such as Ettore Messina, Pablo Laso and Zeljko Obradovic, and legends like Theo Papaloukas, Nikola Vujcic and Mike Batiste, among others. The first guest in Season 3 as FC Bayern Munich Coach Andrea Trinchieri.

The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas is available on Youtube, [iTunes](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas/id1440034922), [Audioboom](https://audioboom.com/channel/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6T1SYvGSpzyrYZpG9z2wjR), [Deezer](https://www.deezer.com/fr/show/65962), [RadioPublic](https://radiopublic.com/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas-6NkdjJ), [Google Podcasts](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ4ODM3OTkucnNz?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYzr_b78XtAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ), [TuneIn](https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports--Recreation-Podcasts/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-p1174586/), [Stitcher](https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [CastBox](https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-id1467328?country=gb), [iVoox](https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas_sq_f1629856_1.html) and other platforms.

October's MVP from Zalgiris chats with Joe Arlauckas

The Crossover welcomes Marius Grigonis

The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas returns for its third season with FC Bayern Munich head coach Andrea Trinchieri as the first special guest. This season, fans will also be able to watch the full conversation on Youtube and check, for example, how the decorated tactician discusses the length and breadth of his career, from his days as an assistant at Olimpia Milan, his winning multiple coach-of-the-year trophies, his decisions to take certain jobs and much more. They begin with Trinchieri's roots and his decision to forgo a Harvard education to become a coach, and later discuss his basketball philosophy, with many colorful stories sprinkled in.

[02:00] "I'm a melting pot... My dad was the son of an Italian diplomat that married a Kentucky woman. He was born in Panama and lived all over the world," said Trinchieri of his background. "My mom was from Yugoslavia – half from Montenegro and half from Croatia – and she was studying in London. [My parents] met there. I was born and raised in Italy, but had the chance to travel all over the world. Believe me, that's helped me a lot in my job."

His family did not look fondly on Trinchieri's decision to turn his back on Harvard University, where his father had studied, to pursue a career in basketball. After initial success, which saw Trinchieri land a job as an assistant on the Olimpia Milan bench, he was disappointed when passed over for a promotion and left the club in February 2004. His first job as a head coach would come that summer in the third division.

[22:10] "For sure, it's a downgrade, but it could be even worse. It could be in the fourth division! It could have been nothing. I really took it like the best opportunity of my life," Trinchieri explained of his start at Cremona, where he still lives in the offseason until today.

26:30] "Whenever you have a chance to do things, I consider myself blessed. I had the chance to be a head coach, in a good club, with an amazing owner, a lot of fans. Yes, it was not EuroLeague, but believe me, I was coaching there with the dream to coach EuroLeague."

Over the next several years, Trinchieri made quite a name for himself in European circles. He led Cantu to the EuroLeague Top 16 and then went abroad for the first time with UNICS Kazan, which he guided to a 20-4 record in a brilliant 2013-14 7DAYS EuroCup campaign. He was ultimately named EuroCup Coach of the Year, but the season ended in disappointment when UNICS fell to Valencia Basket in the finals. Then came a move to Germany.

[58:10] “It was an amazing run because we put together many different things. In the sea, big fish eat the small fish. We were not the big fish, but at least we wanted to be a quick fish. So if they want to eat us, they have to work hard," Trinchieri said, summing up his philosophy at Brose Bamberg. "We wanted to build a system that was, of course, different because we have a different budget. It was not a big city, was not a big name, so we wanted to do all the other little things. Take a player, make him better, and lift the team: Improve the team while you're improving players."

Three successive German League titles and narrowly missing the EuroLeague Playoffs in 2016 further cemented Trinchieri's status as one of the continent's top coaches. His next move, to sleeping giant Partizan NIS Belgrade in November 2018, surprised many. For Trinchieri, it not only brought him back to his Balkan roots, but also to one of the great basketball capitals.

[111:40] "I believe that that geographical area is the crib of basketball in Europe and now it's spread all over," he said of the former Yugoslavia. "Being the coach of Partizan, I had the luck to be in a live hall of fame. I had a hall of fame in front of me every day. Players, coaches. I studied, I tried to steal from everybody. From Vujosevic, Zeravica, Nikolic, Obradovic, Ivkovic. It's a hall of fame! What do you want more? It's like Springfield. Not Springfield, Massachusetts… Springfield, Belgrade!"

With a one-hour format of exclusive one-on-one interviews, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas goes well beyond the playing court with each podcast to delve into the life experiences that have made his guests protagonists and legends of the EuroLeague. The Crossover debuted in 2018 and has featured such current stars as Toko Shengelia, Shane Larkin and Kyle Hines, coaching greats such as Ettore Messina, Pablo Laso and Zeljko Obradovic, and legends like Theo Papaloukas, Nikola Vujcic and Mike Batiste, among others. You'll get to hear from many more of the EuroLeague's finest in Season 3.

The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas is available on Youtube, [iTunes](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas/id1440034922), [Audioboom](https://audioboom.com/channel/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6T1SYvGSpzyrYZpG9z2wjR), [Deezer](https://www.deezer.com/fr/show/65962), [RadioPublic](https://radiopublic.com/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas-6NkdjJ), [Google Podcasts](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ4ODM3OTkucnNz?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYzr_b78XtAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ), [TuneIn](https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports--Recreation-Podcasts/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-p1174586/), [Stitcher](https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [CastBox](https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-id1467328?country=gb), [iVoox](https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas_sq_f1629856_1.html) and other platforms.

Season 3 of The Crossover also brings the full conversations on YouTube!

Andrea Trinchieri opens third season of The Crossover

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Mike Batiste was at the heart of the Panathinaikos Athens dynasty that won three EuroLeague crowns in five years between 2007 and 2011. As one of only three players on all three of those championship teams, Batiste represented all the things that made the Greens such a special team. He played with levels of confidence, ferociousness and selflessness that were worthy of the bevy of titles he would conquer. These were all traits that The Crossover host Joe Arlauckas related to in a conversation that grew so interesting that it has been split into two episodes. Here is the second hour of their two-plus-hour chat brought to all fans by 7DAYS.

Batiste's second title required a lot of blood, sweat and tears. The team missed the 2008 playoffs and, despite Nikola Pekovic arriving to play alongside him the next season, things were not going as smoothly as hoped.

[05:44] "I would say through two-three months of that 08-09 season, it was a lot of up-and-down kind of moments where you see the talent of how good we could play and then another game you're like, man what team is this?" Batiste said.

The way that the team bounced back was typical of the attitude that Batiste employed throughout his stellar career and one that he preaches today to his players as an assistant coach with Orlando in the NBA.

[06:29] "We just didn't know, like, where was the right direction to turn this around. Nobody knew the answer. So the only thing we could do best was get back in the gym and work. If you need answers, get to work. This is what I tell my guys now. If you have a question about the game, get to work," he said. "The work is everything for every player." Although Batiste's c.v. is decorated with his three EuroLeague championships, nothing ever came easy. The first two championship games could have gone either way and that made Batiste appreciate even more how important every play is to winning it all in the end.

[19:37] "My first two European titles come by 2 points. That's one possession, you know what I mean? If you really put that in perspective, that is a do-or-die kind of game. When you are playing in those types of games like that, everything is accounted for. You see a loose ball on the ground? You've gotta go get it. If there's a 50/50 ball, you've gotta have it. Those guards, they've gotta come back and get those traffic rebounds. Those little things. The way you set the screens to get guys open. All those little things matter just to win by 2 points. And it takes that much to win."

Batiste spoke about many other topics, including his close relationship with former roommate Vassilis Spanoulis and what is what like when he left for rival Olympiacos. Arlauckas also brought up the possibility of a Panathinaikos reunion, this time with Batiste as head coach, which the big man did not shoot down.

[49:40] "I have a real deep love for Greece and not just Panathinaikos. I have a deep love for the people of Greece," Batiste said. "Every step I took I felt like I was walking on a cloud. For real. I felt like I was the closest thing to heaven. It couldn't get better than this."

With a one-hour format of exclusive one-on-one interviews, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas goes well beyond the playing court with each podcast to delve into the life experiences that have made his guests protagonists and legends of the EuroLeague. This season, he is also reviewing the EuroLeague's modern history in its 20th season of this century by talking to the legends who have made the competition more popular than ever.

The Crossover debuted last season with such current stars as Vassilis Spanoulis and Kyle Hines, coaching greats like Pablo Laso and Zeljko Obradovic, and legends like Nikola Vujcic and Robertas Javtokas, among others. Recent guests include Coach Sarunas Jasikevicius of Zalgiris Kaunas, Coach Xavi Pascual of Zenit St Petersburg and Tyrese Rice of of Panathinaikos OPAP Athens.

The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas is available on Youtube, [iTunes](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas/id1440034922), [Audioboom](https://audioboom.com/channel/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6T1SYvGSpzyrYZpG9z2wjR), [Deezer](https://www.deezer.com/fr/show/65962), [RadioPublic](https://radiopublic.com/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas-6NkdjJ), [Google Podcasts](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ4ODM3OTkucnNz?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYzr_b78XtAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ), [TuneIn](https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports--Recreation-Podcasts/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-p1174586/), [Stitcher](https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [CastBox](https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-id1467328?country=gb), [iVoox](https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas_sq_f1629856_1.html) and other platforms.

Listen in to the second hour of Joe Arlauckas's chat with the three-time EuroLeague champ, presented by 7DAYS

Panathinaikos legend Mike Batiste visits The Crossover, Part II

Mike Batiste was at the heart of the Panathinaikos Athens dynasty that won three EuroLeague crowns in five years between 2007 and 2011. As one of only three players on all three of those championship teams, Batiste represented all the things that made the Greens such a special team. He played with levels of confidence, ferociousness and selflessness that were worthy of the bevy of titles he would conquer. These were all traits that The Crossover host Joe Arlauckas related to in a conversation that grew so interesting that it has been split into two episodes brought to the fans by 7DAYS.

In the first episode, they started off discussing Batiste's upbringing in Long Beach, California, his path from community college to major college basketball, and his first two seasons in Europe before he went back to the United States to play for Memphis in the NBA. Batiste talked of the things he was looking for in those first years of his professional career and that he would later find in Athens.

[6:50] "When you get love in general, regardless of race, color, how old you are, that love comes right back," Batiste said. "I was just waiting to find the right place where someone can accept me with open arms and I was waiting to give the same love back."

Batiste remembers his introduction to the EuroLeague when he was playing for Italian side Biella and teammate Malik Dixon knocked on his door asking if he was watching that night's big game. They scanned the channels and found Alphonso Ford and Olympiacos Piraeus facing Anthony Parker of Maccabi Tel Aviv on television. At once, Batiste was transfixed by the level of play and passion of the fans. He began to watch EuroLeague games regularly and recalled how impressed he was by Panathinaikos's come-from-behind victory over Kinder Bologna at the 2002 Final Four.

By the fall of 2003, Batiste was already wearing the Panathinaikos uniform and learning from coaching legend Zeljko Obradovic, under whose tutelage Arlauckas had also won the EuroLeague years earlier. The conversation also touched on the everlasting rivalry between Panathinaikos and crosstown rival Olympiacos and the heated derby games.

[45:40]"When these two teams clash, it's European supremacy at its finest. A lot of European teams don't have that challenge and we had that challenge every single year because we knew Olympiacos was a historic and traditional ballclub," Batiste said.

Panathinaikos reached the Final Four in their second season together, but was upset in the playoffs in 2006. The disappointment of that sat with him all summer and fueled the fire that made sure that the next year would be a special one.

[57:15]"Aint nobody stopping this," Batiste said of the 2006-07 Panathinaikos squad. "That year, 2007, was a very magical season for us. Because we played at a very high level from the beginning of the year all the way till the end of the year. When you look at a lot of teams, in the NBA or Europe, that doesn't happen a lot."

When the curtain closed on that season, Panathinaikos hoisted its fourth – and Batiste's first – EuroLeague trophy. And they did it at home, at the Final Four in Athens. Of course, there would still be two more EuroLeague championships for them to celebrate together. Those will be discussed in the second half of The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas and Mike Batiste, coming soon.

With a one-hour format of exclusive one-on-one interviews, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas goes well beyond the playing court with each podcast to delve into the life experiences that have made his guests protagonists and legends of the EuroLeague. This season, he is also reviewing the EuroLeague's modern history in its 20th season of this century by talking to the legends who have made the competition more popular than ever.

The Crossover debuted last season with such current stars as Vassilis Spanoulis and Kyle Hines, coaching greats like Pablo Laso and Zeljko Obradovic, and legends like Nikola Vujcic and Robertas Javtokas, among others. Recent guests include Coach Sarunas Jasikevicius of Zalgiris Kaunas, Coach Xavi Pascual of Zenit St Petersburg and Tyrese Rice of of Panathinaikos OPAP Athens.

The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas is available on Youtube, [iTunes](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas/id1440034922), [Audioboom](https://audioboom.com/channel/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6T1SYvGSpzyrYZpG9z2wjR), [Deezer](https://www.deezer.com/fr/show/65962), [RadioPublic](https://radiopublic.com/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas-6NkdjJ), [Google Podcasts](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ4ODM3OTkucnNz?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYzr_b78XtAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ), [TuneIn](https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports--Recreation-Podcasts/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-p1174586/), [Stitcher](https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas), [CastBox](https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Crossover-with-Joe-Arlauckas-id1467328?country=gb), [iVoox](https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-the-crossover-with-joe-arlauckas_sq_f1629856_1.html) and other platforms.

Three-time champ joins Joe Arlauckas for new 20th-anniversary episode, presented by 7DAYS