Σάββατο 2 Ιουλίου 2011

Even the most nice things have an end...

Finally we manage to keep Latvia among the best 8 teams of Europe, something that few people believed on that before the Eurobasket '11. I don't know if this is a succes or not but the reality is that we did it without many important players, and also I 'm proud that we did it with many young players. Someone that few people know is that only Latvia France and Russia have done this the last eight years. Congratulations also to the Latvian federation who didn't choose the easy way of naturalizing American WNBA players although is a small country of 2 milion people, and they trusted their young talents (something that FIBA must take care, because teams don't start from the same root).
That was my last game as the head coach of the Latvian national team, for personal reasons I will not continue working with those sweet and good players. It was an honor for me that I had the chance to cooperate with such good players, with such characters, these are the DIAMONDS of Latvian sports! A very big THANK to my stuff who was by my side every second, to the fans who believed in us and support us, the federation who gave us everything that we asked, thank you all players during these two years, thank you for your kind messages that you wrote to my whiteboard, and especially a big thank to one of the QUEENS of european basketball GUNTA BASKO who was the perfect captain and a huge help for me! I wish in my career to have always players and personalities like Gunta!
Generally it was a big honor for me to work in such a beautiful country with so many good and polite people and as an epilogue I would like to make two wishes:
-the young players to continue keeping high the flag of Latvian Basketball,
-some day to meet at the court all together again!

THANK YOU
COACH GEORGE DIKEOULAKOS