Cedi Osman makes NBA-EuroLeague comparisons
Cedi Osman took stock of his presence at Panathinaikos and named some reasons for the Greens’ loss to Olympiacos. The Turkish forward also noted a few differences in the way the game’s played in the NBA as opposed to Europe and explained why he wants the next Final Four to be hosted in Serbia.
In what could go down as the best game of this season in the EuroLeague, Olympiacos Piraeus defeated Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens 94-89 at OAKA on Friday night.
Cedi Osman was an important actor in the Greek derby, as he recorded 11 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists.
“Of course I’m sorry that we lost, especially against Olympiacos, but we didn’t play well tonight,” the Turkish international admitted in an interview with Sportklub’s Marko Milovancevic.
“In the last weeks we played at a high level, but not now, especially defensively, we allowed them too many rebounds,” Osman said.
In the last derby game, Osman stayed on the court for 18 minutes. Having a bigger role compared to his recent NBA stint is one of the reasons why he came back to Europe.
‘I’ve been here for two months. I need time, I thought it would be easier, but it’s not like that,” he admitted.
“Now I’ve started playing as I know, I’d like to fit in as soon as possible and help the team even more”.
Osman, 29, is averaging 5.8 points, 2.1 rebounds and 0.8 assists per EuroLeague contest. It seems that it will take him some time to adjust to a new system after a long stay in the NBA.
“It’s not easy to come here, it’s totally different basketball,” he observed.
“After seven or eight years in the NBA, where there is a lot of one-on-one play and where there is more space on the court, here everyone closes down and there is no space for one-on-one.
So, other things must be done to help the team. However, I think I’m getting closer to my game,” Osman added, and then compared the atmosphere in NBA games to the way European fans support their teams.
It is incomparable. There are also nice atmospheres there [in the NBA], especially in the playoffs, but it’s not like this,” he stressed.
“Here, we have 18,000 fans, and it’s nice to see this. I visited Zvezda, I know how it is with Partizan, I think every basketball player would like to play in front of such a crowd.”
Speaking of Serbian fans and ahead of EuroLegue’s imminent announcement on the next Final Four host, Osman has no dilemma where he would like to see the event taking place.
“I think Belgrade,” he replied.”My mom is from Serbia, I have a lot of family members there and it would be very nice to play in front of them,” he argued.
