Greece – Priftis: Patience is the cornerstone of Aris’ strategy

DimitrisPriftis When mentioning the participants of Basketball Champions League Group A to a fan of a certain age anywhere in Europe, and especially Aris BC, the fan’s immediate reaction will invariably be to praise the scoring prowess of FIBA Hall of Famer Nikos Galis, who spent the 13 best years of his career at the Thessaloniki club.The history buffs among them however will also know that Aris (Ares in English, Mars in Latin) is the name of the ancient Greek god of war – certainly a fitting name possible for a club whose fans often refer to as The Emperor.While Aris only engages in peaceful battles on the basketball court there is a strong element of war strategy involved in the planning of its head coach, Dimitris Priftis (agency: Octagon Europe ), as the official website of the Basketball Champions League found out in an interview with the Greek tactician.Having the patience to build up forces and strike at the right time, underlines the plan that the team and the coach have laid out to restore a club that has 10 Greek league crowns and three European titles to its former status.What was the main criteria in selecting the several new players you brought in during the summer? Looking at your 2016/17 roster it gives the impression you opted for experience and physical presence, does this mean Aris will be one of the most rugged teams in the Basketball Champions League?There are various criteria when compiling the roster. There is a combination of elements and aspects that we want out players to possess and they have to do with quality, talent, motivation, athleticism and personality. We first and foremost wanted to create a group of people of good character, guys who want to collaborate between them and be a part of our program. As far as experience is concerned I would not say it is one of our strong points as we have several young players, especially our foreign ones. Some have no European experience and they will require time and patience to acclimatise to the European and Greek way of playing.Now that you have been in charge of Aris for a few seasons, should we expect to see a team that best reflects your coaching philosophy and how would you define that? Would your opponents be correct in assuming they will be facing a …

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