In spite of failure, the Georgian national basketball team played well against Slovenia at EuroBasket 2013. It was not surprising that the opponent praised our team. Igor Kokoskov, head coach of the Georgians, and basketball players Manuchar Markoishvili and Viktor Sanikidze made comments.

Igor Kokoskov: “It was very painful loss for us. It is different when you are losing 20 points and when you lose at the last seconds. I congratulate the opponent team and its coach on victory. I can only thank my boys. They presented Georgian basketball suitably. Goran Dragic played brilliantly from Slovenia and it did not surprise me. I will not make comment on referees. My job is to prepare basketball players and if we lose, we lack something. We will hold the most important game against Czech Republic in the next round. We must win this game”.

Manuchar Markoishvili: “We lost the second game at the last seconds. Inexperience must be the main reason. Today zone defense worked but we lost balls in offence. We, Georgians are impatient people. We want to score one ball and to earn 40 points. I say it about everybody, including me”.

Viktor Sanikidze: “We had a good start and advanced with 10 points but the opponent overcame us with 3 pointers. We were not lucky when Zoran Dragic scored the toughest ball. However, it often happens in basketball. We continue fighting for sure and we are preparing for the upcoming game”.

Bozidar Maljkovic: “I thank my colleague for the congratulations. Igor is a good coach and a perfect person. I like his attitudes toward basketball and I am not surprised that he has such good organized team. The game turned out very tough. Before the game I told general deputy of our federation that the difference would be maximum 5 points. Now we must be concentrated on the upcoming game. Our goal is to play in the second round in Ljubljana”.

Nebojsa Joksimovic: “We analyzed the games of the Georgians for a long time. Today we played a great team. The Georgians were very organized in offence and defense as well. I am happy to win this game”.

Goran Dragic: “The Georgian team was not lucky against Croatia. Today we were lucky. Georgia has a good team and coach. Igor coached me in “Phoenix Suns” for some time and I have good relationship with him. The Georgians does not have high level substitutes but those 6-7 basketball players play brilliantly”.

Domen Lorbek: “Georgia has a very good team. Today they caused us a lot of troubles by their zone defense. Timeouts helped us and we improved situation in offence. Substitutes held a good game. Our strength is that all 12 basketball players can show themselves”.

Dato Manjavidze, special correspondent of www.worldsport,ge from Celje