The culé coach’s sharp condemnation of the racist insults towards Nnaji: “It is unfortunate, it cannot be”
MADRID, 21 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Barça coach, Sarunas Jasikevicius, assured this Tuesday that “you always have to win something when you are in a big club”, congratulating himself on his brand new Endesa League title after beating Real Madrid (82-93) in the third and, In the end, the last game of the final, tarnished by the racist insults made by a part of the Real Madrid fans to the Nigerian center James Nnaji.
“The series against Unicaja de Málaga prepared us very well at Carpena for what we were going to find here. An enormous happiness because it is an important title, because you always have to win something when you are in a big club”, Jasikevicius commented in the Post-match press conference at the WiZink Center.
“The second game was a huge display of character, especially after what happened in the Final Four in Kaunas, a tough stick for us,” he said. “Today the team has been able to get ahead a lot, we have even played our best basketball of the season,” he said about his final victory.
“Few seasons go exactly as we had planned,” he admitted. In this sense, he analyzed the reaction of his players after the defeat in the Euroleague semifinals precisely against Real Madrid. “It’s very difficult to say, in some game situations we weren’t up to it,” he argued.
Regarding this evil, he recalled last May 19, he said that “anything can happen to a single party and unfortunately it was against us.” “But hey, in five or eight years nobody is going to remember what happened, just that the champion is this one and it is what it is,” he said, alluding to the title won by the Merengue club in that Euroleague.
The culé coach also praised Nikola Mirotic, chosen ‘MVP’ of the final in his last game before leaving Barça. “He has brought out the best of himself when things were worst for him, when there was more noise against him. He has known how to put all that aside,” Jasikevicius told reporters.
Meanwhile, he pointed out that “there have already been many opinions about what is happening at the club” in the wake of that termination of Mirotic’s contract. “But I keep the character of the team, not to give up after a stick like the one in the Euroleague,” insisted the Lithuanian coach for the good stretch of his pupils a month after what happened in Kaunas.
Finally, Jasikevicius condemned the racist insults towards Nnaji when the culé team bus arrived at the pavilion, minutes before kick-off. “It’s a regrettable thing, it can’t be. I hear a lot about Vinícius and now we have to talk about what’s happening here. This has to stop now”, he was blunt.
“This doesn’t go with what you say here about the values of Real Madrid and the values of its followers. I know that this is going to come out tomorrow, but it can’t be. I don’t care if it’s a Real Madrid player, of the FC Barcelona or of any other team. This cannot be, it is necessary to control this, it is necessary to fight against this and we are going to fight against this. The most important thing is not the title, it is this”, reiterated.
“I haven’t talked to James about this. I don’t know how he is, honestly. It’s a very serious thing in this world, especially when it happens to your people it’s something more sensitive. This is serious, we love James very much, he’s a great boy and we want to stop this and talk about it”, concluded the Blaugrana coach in the press room.