Göttingens Coach John Patrick und Ex-NBA-Star Allen Iverson im Interview

heinnews’s David Hein talked to BG Göttingen men’s basketball head coach John Patrick. They discussed the impact of beat Besiktas Cola Turka in the Eurocup – a game which would later be nullified and a replay set for December 16; facing former NBA great Allen Iverson; his team’s struggles in the German BBL league; the Bayern Munich project; and quotas in German hoops.

heinnews:  Coach Patrick, congratulations on the game. How important is a game like this after the team had lost four straight in the BBL, especially that your guys had the wherewithal to win in the end.
Patrick: I think we controlled the game for a great part of it. We started to fall apart and we lost our concentration for sure and we made some dumb fouls. But I’m very proud of our guys. Even though we were emotionally very pumped up to play against Allen Iverson – it’s a childhood hero of many of our players and someone we all have so much respect for – we were able to get stops in the end when it counted. Especially in the last 19 seconds we knew the situation that we recognised that we could get the ball back. Maybe that was the difference – maybe the concentration of knowing the game situation that if we got it we would still have time to get off a shot. It was a lucky win but I think these little things add up and we had some little things go against us and in the end knowing the situation was a big key to the victory.

heinnews:  How much can a victory like this help in getting the team going in the BBL?
Patrick: We’ve struggled big time. I’m not happy, I’m not satisfied with our results or with our effort and concentration in the Bundesliga. There’s no excuse for the problems that we’ve had. Tonight we kept playing even when it was ugly and we did shoot some air balls and started to lose our concentration. But we didn’t give up. And I think that’s a key to pro basketball – playing without an ego and continuing to play even if it’s not perfect. I hope we can take a lesson from this game. It’s easy to learn when you lose, but I hope that we can take a lesson from this game that a lot about winning at the top level is just about being a man and knowing that you’re not perfect and just keep playing.

heinnews:  What did you tell the players ahead of time with playing against Iverson?
Patrick: I told them that when you were working out in the summer if someone had told you that you’re going to have the chance to guard Allen Iverson you would have worked harder. And you guys did put in a lot of time in the off-season. We wanted this chance to play Eurocup. You’re not earning big money with us. You’re playing here for the chance. So, you have nothing to lose. Go and use the chance and show what you got. I think it’s normal to be a little star struck. But after a minute or two we were soft a little bit at first on Allen and then we realised okay he is new to Europe. I think it’s lucky that we caught him in his first two weeks because you can see what kind of talent he has. He hasn’t played a lot.

Zum kompletten Interview auf heinnews.com.

This week, heinnews’s David Hein took a trip up to Braunschweig to watch German club BG Göttingen take on Besiktas Cola Turka of Turkey in the Eurocup. Of course the main reason for heading north was to talk to Besiktas’s star signing Allen Iverson. Hein talked to Iverson after Besiktas’s 85-83 buzzer-beating loss to Göttingen about his adjusting to the European game; getting his rhythm in the shorter game; his goals and thoughts on returning to the NBA; and his future plans.

heinnews: Allen, you had 18 points tonight and were a bit more involved in the offense. How is the adjustment going?

Iverson: It’s fine for me. I don’t have a problem with it whatsoever. I guess it’s just gonna take some time for coach to figure how he’s going to use me and try to figure out and learn the things that I know how to do on the basketball court that will make us effective.

heinnews: What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned over the first three games?

Iverson: I would say probably the physical nature of the game. They let a lot of stuff go as far as fouls. And it’s just a matter of something that I have to get adjusted to.

heinnews: You said in interview that you want to have your legs under you. How do you feel now?

Iverson: I feel great. My whole thing is just to get my rhythm and getting into a game rhythm. Obviously I haven’t been playing games in a while. But physically I am, and I’m gonna knock on wood, physically I’m 100 percent right now when it comes to my body. I’m not dealing with any pains.

heinnews: Obviously the main thing tonight was that the team lost. But after scoring just two points in your Turkish league debut, how good was it to come back and play better? What did you do over those two games?

Iverson: The main thing honestly is that I played more. After you don’t play for a certain period of time and then you get into a game – especially with a team that’s that good – you play for a little while, then you come sit out the whole second quarter. Then you have the whole halftime sitting out and then playing just a little bit in the third and then sitting out the whole fourth. It’s just something that I’m not used to and I just can’t catch a rhythm. And tonight I just played a little bit more and I was able to get into a flow. I kind of struggled earlier but my rhythm started to get better and better. So I think the more time I’m on the basketball court the easier and better it will be for me.

Zum kompletten Interview auf heinnews.com.