Forget the NCAA Final Four. Ignore the NBA All Star game. The Olympic gold medal game is an afterthought. There’s one fixture that every basketball fan should try to see in person before they die. On Friday, Emmet Ryan went to the OAKA for the Euroleague battle between Panathinaikos and Olympiacos. Ντέρμπι των αιωνίων αντιπάλων, the derby of eternal enemies.
There’s no such thing as being too early for the derby. I briefly thought that getting to the OAKA full 2.5 hours before tip was overdoing it. As soon as I saw the queue of fans already waiting to enter, I realised I could have arrived an hour earlier if I liked. This, after all, was the first meeting of Panathinaikos and Olympiacos in Euroleague this season. More than that, this was the first clash in any competition in the OAKA this year. This is more than just basketball.
A red run
Sasha Vezenkov wasn’t intimidated by the OAKA crowd. He quickly racked up 6 points in an early Olympiacos onslaught. The Reds ran into an 11-1 lead with remarkable ease in the game’s opening 4 minutes.
Ergin Ataman didn’t panic. Nor did he wait around. Kostas Sloukas, easily the most divisive player in Euroleague’s big derby, stepped in for Lorenzo Brown. The added defensive presence from Sloukas, coupled with a Kendrick Nunn three slowed the bleeding for the Greens.
The first two derbies of the season had been split. Oly took the Greek Super Cup in Rhodes. Then, less than two weeks ago, Panathinaikos went to the SEF and got the W. Road wins are hard to come by in this rivalry. Any win in it is in truth.
So much has changed
My one prior trip to the OAKA was in 2019. It was the night that Nick Calathes ended the long wait for a triple double in Euroleague. Rick Pitino’s Panathinaikos punched their playoff ticket with victory over Buducnost. Meanwhile, Olympiacos exited before even playing in that round thanks to a Zalgiris win elsewhere.
This is a different era in European basketball. The Greens were happy to make the Euroleague playoffs that season. They entered this game as defending Euroleague champions. Similarly Olympiacos are amongst the strongest sides on the continent. Both also appear on course for true financial sustainability, an unheard of concept in the sport here.
Then, of course, there’s the OAKA itself. In 2019, the old girl was in need of some love. Now, Panathinaikos play in a refurbished arena that they control for the next 50 years. They’ve invested in a high tech court. What was always one of the grandest arenas in Europe is now one of the most polished.
Kendrick Nunn is enrapturing
It’s not secret that Kendrick Nunn is rather good at basketball. The man changed the dynamic of Euroleague last season. He played a vital role in Panathinaikos winning the title. Being awfully good is great. Nunn is more than that.
There’s a relaxed confidence to Nunn on the ball. As the OAKA roared in disgust at Nigel Williams Goss not being called for a travel, Nunn waited. Eventually, the Olympiacos man tried to fire a pass out and Nunn palmed it with one hand. He then sauntered with a dribble to the three point line. After a moment to think, he figured “sure why not” and made the three.
Then came a beautiful alley-oop to Omer Yurtseven. It was a call that went against Nunn that made the crowd lose all sense. The Greens man went full chasedown mode and leapt to get a block on Nikola Militunov. As the referees reviewed to see if it was unsportsmanlike (they didn’t upgrade it), the crowd grew more incensed with each replay.
Far from greatness
To say that Panathinaikos didn’t look like defending Euroleague champions through the bulk of the front side of this game would be an understatement. They were being undone by some rather rudimentary basketball from Olympiacos.
The Reds simply focused on getting offensive boards and creating space on the outside. There was nothing more complex than that. It’s the Giorgios Bartzokas way in truth. The man likes to simplify basketball as much as possible.
Ergin Ataman is a touch more complex. Alacrity of movement is what matters most to the Panathinaikos coach. Everyone must be in tune to move at radical speed on each end of the floor. When that gets out of sync, you end up with what the Greens were delivering for large chunks of the first half.
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The eternal part matters
When something is destined to go on forever, it ends up being defined by eras. The first part of this century was one of Green dominance. Panathinaikos were rampant, across Greek and European basketball alike. Come the start of the last decade, it was Olympiacos who entered their ascendancy with a pair of Euroleague titles.
Up until last season, it wasn’t quite so fascinating. Olympiacos were there or thereabouts in Euroleague while Panathinaikos faltered badly. Now, it’s an all too rare scenario. One side, it happens to be the Greens, is the best on the continent and crying out for a ‘world’ title shot at the Boston Celtics. The other, Olympiacos, isn’t exactly sliding. These are arguably the two most loaded rosters outside of the NBA. This may be the era of Greek dominance, whether the shade is more red or green is another matter.
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Welcome to the party Mathias Lessort
The game really needed those three dunks from Mathias Lessort to start the second half. Panathinaikos had been plainly awful in the game’s opening 20 minutes. Lessort, for his part, hadn’t really been a factor.
The Frenchman, who routinely arouses NBA interest, is an energy baller. It’s rare for the glue guy on a team to also be arguably its best player. Yet here was Lessort, roaring into the paint and fearing no man in red. Olympiacos had been quite effective at eliminating the inside game in the first 20 minutes. Now, with the big guy rolling, the Greens could open up their offensive playbook a bit more.
Once Kendrick Nunn hit a fast break dunk, bringing the OAKA crowd to its feet, this Euroleague battle’s complexion had changed. There was only a bucket between the sides. The Greens were starting to believe again.
Suffice to say, this banner from the Gate 13 fans of Panathinaikos wasn’t exactly praising Olympiacos
Have you ever been to Belgrade?
This is the game that makes Europe stand still. There was a full German broadcast team here. Slovenian and Serbian journalists also made the trip, along with this one Irishman. One of the latter turned to me during the darkest point for Panathinaikos in the first half?
“Have you ever been to Belgrade?” she asked. The expectation of the OAKA roar hadn’t quite lived up to expectation yet. As it happens, I have been but it was for a Euroleague Final Four and not the eternal derby. Still, once PAO started rolling, she turned to me again acknowledging that this was more like it.
It’s effectively the rivalry of rivalries. Is the eternal derby of Belgrade or that of Athens hotter? Given the, umm, colourful approach to the Panathinaikos banners there was clearly no love from them for Olympiacos. Like that derby in Belgrade, it’s home fans only at this clash. Having an away section would be ill-advised.
Ergin Ataman had to wait for success at the highest level. Now he thirsts for more.
Whither Ataman?
The final part of actually reeling in Olympiacos was getting to Ergin Ataman. The Panathinaikos coach, easily one of the most colourful characters in Euroleague, was largely calm for the most part.
Still, in the fourth as his side kept getting that little bit closer but not all the way it was getting to him. Ataman was eventually called for a technical foul. It was arguably for less provocative remonstrations than normally lead to him getting such a decision against him.
He was the coach who waited. Tremendously successful on the domestic level, Ataman waited over 20 years into his career to get the Euroleague success he lusted after. It was he who guided Anadolu Efes to three straight title games and back to back championships. Ataman oversaw the return to glory of Panathinaikos last spring and now wants to three peat with the Greens. As he nears 60, Ataman has found the success he spent so long yearning for and he wants to guzzle it all.
Denouement
Juancho Hernangomez with the fast break, his effort blocked. Three men stand out of bounds, two Olympiacos and one Panathinaikos. It’s Kendrick Nunn that’s on the right side to gather a ball bouncing towards the three point line. He collects, strides, and finishes. The game is tied for the first time since the start.
From the line, Kostas Sloukas pushes the Greens in front, only for an Evan Fournier three to restore Oly’s advantage. It may just be a regular season round in Euroleague on paper. Right now, in this moment, you know it is more than a basketball game.
Fournier decided it was his show. He didn’t quite silence the fans in the OAKA but he certainly made their roars seem meeker. The French hotshot made the key buckets late to kill off the comeback. In the home of the Greens, it was a Red night.
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