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INTERVIEW GIANNIS BOUROUSIS

“I have special relationships with Cyprus”

Greek center, GiannisBourousis, is looking forward to the World Championships in Turkey and hopes that the participation in the Love Cyprus Basketball Tournament will give the much needed energy to the Greek team.

- How far can Greece reach in the World Championships?
When you participate in a tournament like that, your goal is always to reach as far as possible. It’s early to make predictions now, but what we need to do is to prepare well, follow all the instructions by the coach (Jonas Kazlauskas) and when the knock-out games come, to be ready to play well and qualify to the next rounds. Besides, the knock-out stage in a turning point in this kind of tournaments and our goal is to always qualify.

- Greece always has strong support by the Cypriot fans. Will the participation in the Love Cyprus Basketball Tournament help the team in a psychological aspect?
Definitely it will help. Personally I believe Cyprus is Greece. The reason, my father fought in the island in 1974 as a member of the Greek regiment over there, so I have a special relationship with the island. It will give us much pleasure and energy playing matches in front of the Cypriot crowd.

- Did you ever think about trying in the NBA or some other European team?
As I said last season, I’ve had proposals and moments I thought about it, but I chose to remain at Olympiakos to win titles. All right, we didn’t manage it last season for different reason, but I believe this year it will be our season.

INFO
* Enjoy the National Team of Greece and all their stars in Cyprus between 6 and 8 of August. On the 6th, Greece will confront Germany at the “Tassos Papadopoulos-Eleftheria” stadium, on the 7th they will play against Russia in “Spyros Kyprianou” at Limassol and on the 8th they will return to Nicosia for the match against Croatia. For more info on www.lovecyprusbasketball.com.

* Greece competes in Group C of the FIBA World Championships that will take place in Turkey between 28 of August and 2 September 2010. The finalists in 2006 will face host Turkey, Russia, Puerto Rico, China and Ivory Coast.