“Fenerbahçe is going to demand even more from us but we can beat them”
BARCELONA, 2 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Barça player Nicolás Laprovittola has assured that he has grown as a player under Sarunas Jasikevicius and that he feels “important” within the team, something he had always pursued and that makes him happy in a group with a project designed to win and enjoy”.
“I don’t know if I’m a leader, but I like to have responsibility and be important and today I’m feeling it. ‘Saras’ (Jasikevicius) makes you feel important, the whole team is a machine and each piece has to work well. We have a team to enjoy”, he stated in an interview on Barça TV collected by Europa Press.
In this sense, he claimed to feel “consolidated” in the team and in the club. “They have given me confidence in my game and in myself with the renewal and it gives me confidence and responsibility. I feel like an important player, what I wanted all my life. And I can help new people,” he celebrated.
“I grew a lot in a year and now I’m attracting attention, but the good thing is that my teammates are happy to play by my side. It’s what gives me the most pleasure and pushes me the most to improve. Jasikevicius has helped me stay focused a lot of time on the court, because sometimes I get lost”, recognized the Argentine point guard.
Thus, he is enjoying a “very hard” start to the season but “enjoyable”. “The truth is that I am enjoying myself very much. We have to make this good dynamic last as long as possible. There are many good things, we are building the season and the things that have been seen so far are very good”, he was honest.
At the group level, he reiterated that they are in a good moment and that having good rivals in front of them makes them get “the best”. “The Valencia game was quite good in attack, in defense it was difficult for us. But things are working out. This gives us confidence, makes us feel better, and we are training well”, he argued.
The next rival in the Euroleague will be the undefeated Turkish Fenerbahçe. One more stone on the road. “They are going to demand even more of us. They haven’t lost, but at some point they will have to lose. We can beat them, the team is connected and we have good weapons,” he reiterated.
About last season, again without being able to win the Euroleague, he acknowledged that they did “a lot of self-criticism” in the locker room. “What we did in the summer was to think about what we did not do well at the end of last season. During the year we dominated everyone in Europe, it was very difficult to beat us. And in the end we had doubts and we did not finish in a good way. Now the important thing is to build a basis to reach the end at a good time and be able to exploit to get the best game”, he assured.
It will also be important, according to ‘Lapro’, to recover the injured Nikola Mirotic in time. “He is our leader, he is very important to us. Since I arrived he has helped me and I trust him a lot. We are waiting for him because we are going to have a lot of fun playing. He gives us a lot of space and I look forward to seeing him on the track,” he said.
And, regarding the signings this season (Satoransky, Paulí, Da Silva, Kalinic, Vesely and Tobey), he stressed that they have all made the team take “two steps forward”. “They want to adapt to the system, to the game of ‘Saras’, and they have all come with a lot of energy and desire. They can all win you a game, or change it and get you out of a jam. I value that a lot; the intensity and energy”, he said .