Ádám Hanga: The new goals help process the defeat

– How are you feeling? It's been a few days since the final, has your frustration eased?
– I have had better days...," Ádám Hanga, the 33-year-old Hungarian player of Real Madrid, who lost Saturday's EuroLeague final to Turkey's Efes Anadolu by one point, told Nemzeti Sport. – The fact that we finished in second place hurts terribly. I haven't seen many positive things in the last few days. If I had to say anything about what makes this silver medal worth a lot, it would be that two months ago, we didn't even believe we were going to get this far. For me, however, second place is worth almost as much as the tenth place.

– Can you talk about the atmosphere that characterized Real Madrid after the final?
– We have to be proud, but we are, were sad. The hardest thing to accept is that we didn't succeed, that we were within reach of success. Plus, I had two lost finals in a year, which I obviously experienced differently. Of course, last year's lost final with Barcelona hurt, but it was a different situation, I hardly played at that time. I was a key player now, and we lost the game we controlled.

– You said in advance that if you became a EuroLeague winner, any other result would be considered a gift.
– That's right, which is why this defeat is so painful for me. The first thing that came to my mind after the final was whether I would be so close, if I would ever have the chance to win the EuroLeague again... Getting to this point is already a big deal, especially with a team that has been criticized a lot this season. Our will to win is exemplary, but the picture is not complete. We're left with licking the wounds.

– Does your family help with this?
– Totally. I try to view my life from a different perspective: I have a loving family, I have healthy children, and we live in prosperity, which we don't think about every day. I turn to this because it gives me comfort. My little girls don't care why Daddy's grumpy. When I'm with them, I have to put aside my disappointment. A new goal must be set because it helps. After such mental and physical exertion comes the feeling of emptiness when one would like to hide from the world.

– Let us guess the new goal: it can be no other than winning the Spanish League.
– Exactly, and on Wednesday, we will play a match: the first match of the quarterfinals against Manresa.

– What was said in the locker room after the final that you can share with our readers?
– Head coach Pablo Laso said almost the same thing as I did: we have to look to the future. We lost the Spanish Cup final to Barcelona like the one against Efes, and then we got into big ups and downs, but something like this can't happen ever again. It's our job, and it's in the cards that we might lose.

– What would you say about your own performance?
– I always want to be better. The final was a low-scoring match, which was not dominated by attacks, and I put one of the best performances of the season in defense. If I had scored only one point and my opponent scored 40 off me, it wouldn't have mattered if we won, but that didn't happen.

– The team threw the 3-pointers horribly. Only six out of the 33 attempts were scored. Do you know the reason for this?
– We had a bad day, maybe we were nervous, I don't know. Eighty to ninety percent of the three-pointers were good throw choices, but they didn't go in. This is basketball. You can't get angry about it, you shouldn't get angry about it, because whoever throws it is doing it to score points. Perhaps in hindsight, we can polemize that, at a one-point disadvantage, it would have been more worthwhile to make a personal foul, but it would not have been a guarantee of success either.

– What impact can the tournament in Belgrade have on you and Barca that finished third?
– We finally believe that we can beat Barca... that also went to Belgrade with the intention of winning, so the team was equally disappointed.

– What is the secret of Efes?
– The club reached the Final Four four years in a row and won the last two. The recipe is simple: continuity. When a big club can hold the core of the team, six or eight good players together, it has a good chance of such a result. It's not a guarantee, but it creates the opportunity.