As they prepare to fly out for the Euroleague Final Four, AS Monaco Basket are displaying a calm yet steadfast resolve, drawing on their experiences from 2023 and fuelled by a desire to leave an indelible mark on European basketball history.<\/strong><\/p><\/p>\n\n There was a special energy at the Salle Gaston M\u00e9decin on Monday, a mixture of serenity and intensity.\u00a0Having qualified at the last minute against Barcelona<\/a>, AS Monaco Basket is about to battle it out in the Euroleague Final Four for the second time in their history, with vengeance as their driving force. “We all share the opinion that we don’t feel fulfilled. We have just earned the opportunity to do something bigger and real,”<\/em> said Oleksiy Efimov, the club’s general manager, setting the tone for the press conference, with ambition and humility in equal measure.<\/p><\/p>\n\n That feeling is all the more palpable given that fate has placed Olympiacos back on the Monegasques’ path, two years after a painful defeat in Kaunas. “A bit of a sense of revenge for two years ago,”<\/em> echoes Matthew Strazel, pointing out that the club is “only two wins away from the biggest title in the club’s history.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n The match takes on a special dimension for Vassilis Spanoulis, the Olympiacos legend turned Roca Team coach. “The love of everyone there is undeniable, both ways. That will never change because it’s a part of my life. But I’m Monaco’s coach, and I’ll be representing Monaco,”<\/em> he says firmly, even comparing the upcoming clash to a game against his own son: “If I play ping-pong against my son and I win, if he cries, I’ll tell him that winning and losing are part of the game.”<\/em><\/p><\/p>\n\n Spanoulis talks mostly about mental strength, and he fully accepts the pressure that goes with this level of competition: “I like pressure. Pressure made me the player I was, and pressure will make me the coach I’ll become.”<\/em>\u00a0<\/p><\/p>\n\n The team will also be able to count on experienced players such as Daniel Theis, world champion with Germany. “He’s a great character, he’s a winner, he doesn’t care about statistics, he just cares about winning,”<\/em> says the coach.<\/p><\/p>\n\n Off to Abu Dhabi \u2708\ufe0f\ud83e\uddf3#RocaTeam<\/a> #F4GLORY<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/31YgGaHZhP<\/a><\/p>\u2014 AS Monaco Basket \ud83c\uddf2\ud83c\udde8 (@ASMonaco_Basket) May 20, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote> Experience, their secret weapon<\/h2>\n\n