Obradović After Aris Defeat: «Errors and Free Throws Are the Main Problem»

Panathinaikos head coach Željko Obradović, speaking after his side's 101-91 defeat to Aris, attributed the loss to two things: turnovers and free throws. He said Aris scored 37 of their 101 points directly off Panathinaikos errors, and that this was the decisive factor. He also backed his players, thanked them for fighting back, and insisted the project needs time. But the most telling part of the press conference is what was left out. The headline named two problems — errors and free throws. The coach quantified the first with a precise figure and the second with nothing at all: no attempts, no makes, no percentage. Meanwhile the standings, printed at the foot of the original report, place PAOK first and Aris second — meaning Panathinaikos is currently behind both. That fact sits awkwardly beside the coach's reassuring tone. The 37 points represent 36.6 percent of Aris's total, an unusually high share, yet they were presented without any benchmark: no league average, no comparison with Panathinaikos' other games, and no turnover count to make the figure verifiable. The internal arithmetic is more revealing than the headline number. Of those 37 points, 26 came in the first half and only 11 after the break — meaning the damage was front-loaded and the second-half correction was real. The original report stated both facts in separate paragraphs without ever connecting them. Obradović's rhetorical sequence reads as a textbook exercise in deflecting pressure: amplify the opponent, protect the players, externalise the cause to a schedule with more games than training sessions, concede one quantified fault to buy credibility, and offer a single unfalsifiable prescription — that the team must play more calmly. Notably, conceding 101 points is never treated as a defensive problem by either the coach or the reporter. Aris's scoring is framed as a by-product of Panathinaikos errors rather than as Aris executing. The coach also revealed, inside a quote rather than as a reported fact, that his team has now had more turnovers than assists in two consecutive games and lost both. The standings, the two-game slide, the competition, the round and the date are all absent from the body of the original piece. Aris get no voice at all, and all but one of the journalists' questions were deleted — which is why the unprompted praise of Vassilis Spanoulis reads as a non sequitur. What remains unverifiable: the free-throw numbers behind the headline's second claim, the turnover count behind the first, Panathinaikos' record and position, the absentees implied by the training-deficit argument, and any defensive explanation for 101 conceded points. Until those are checked against the official box score, the coach's diagnosis should be read as reported speech, not reported fact.