Koufos: «I’m thrilled»

Kostas Koufos, the new signing for Olympiacos, talked about the goals he has set as a ‘reds’ player, as well as about his excitement in getting back on the court with his former team mates. His comments were made for our team’s official web page.    

“I’m looking forward to this opportunity. My goal is to come and help the team win as many games as possible, hoping for a great result!”, the international center said.

About his discussion with coach Giorgos Bartzokas, he said: “I talked with the coach. He’s great! What he obviously wants from me is to help the team. Olympiacos has already a lot of talented players, it’s a big team and what we all want is to finish the season as strong as possible”.

Following his departure from CSKA, Kostas Koufos remained inactive for quite some time, but this is not going to be a problem, as pointed out by him: “I’m definitely in good shape. I’ve been training hard and on a daily basis for all that time. I might need a very little time to adjust, but I’m definitely good for it”.

About his time with the Russian team – that has been his first non-NBA experience – he said: “It wasn’t hard for me to adjust with CSKA. It was a matter of certain circumstances. Unfortunately, I had some bad luck in the beginning of the season with getting injured. That was it. However, whenever I had playing time, I played quite well. But all of that is in the past. I’m an Olympiacos player now and I’m looking forward to playing together with my former team mates in the National team and make a strong finish in the season. I’m talking about Sloukas, Papanikolaou, Printezis and Spanoulis. They are all really very good players, with great talent and I’m lucky to be a part of this team”.

Finally, he saw to send a message to the ‘reds’ fans: “I’m thrilled to be playing for Olympiacos. Make sure that I’ll be giving my best, so as to face up to my role in the team and win as many games as possible”.