” The whole procedure with Evan started two or three years ago, when we played in the Final Four in Belgrade, and what he wrote on Twitter about Olympiakos and the team's fans.
We know this, and it has been mentioned several times, Evan Fournier was a big fan of Olympiakos and had warned that he wanted to wear the jersey if he returned to Europe. What Giorgos Bartzokas reveals is that the Piraeus club was interested in him from that moment on!
“I remember immediately after that I checked his salary and it was around 18-19 million. So I thought every idea about it would be a joke,” says the Olympiakos coach Eurohoops. Except that this summer, the Pistons did not keep the Frenchman, and he found himself free of any contract, and therefore available. And to listen to Girogos Bartzokas, the agreement with Evan Fournier was only a formality.
No questions about his role
“He had already negotiated with the team the financial terms and he wanted to discuss with me before signing the contract. He didn't ask me how I would use him, or what his role would be in the team. These kinds of things are not important for great players, they impose themselves by their class” he assures.
In fact, Evan Fournier wanted to know if he was really wanted, and if he could help a squad already very, very rich in European basketball stars.
“The only thing he asked me was if I wanted to and if I thought he could help us. The only thing I asked him after his NBA career, after all the money he had made, was what his motivation was for coming here, because things weren't going to be easy.. He said he was always motivated, and that's why he never missed a FIBA competition with the French team and it had nothing to do with money. We finished talking and he signed the next minute.”
