Pistoia relegated from Serie A: coach Okorn reflects on a difficult season

The last dance in Serie A, too bad that for Pistoia there will be no glass slipper to wear, no Prince Charming and above all the ending will not be the classic 'they all lived happily ever after'. With today's match in Reggio Emilia (tip-off at 18.15) Estra will say goodbye to the greatest stage of the basket Italian and who knows when he will be able to play it again. An incredible season ends, in which everything happened and unfortunately nothing positive.

"It wasn't easy – he says Coach Gasper Okorn, probably also him at the last dance on the bench of Pistoia – I did not expect to experience all this and what happened will leave a deep mark in all of us that we will remember forever. They say that you learn from negative experiences but at the moment I am very disappointed and I only have negative feelings. It would be easy now to point the finger at some people but I am not that type of person, I take my responsibilities and I can only say that I am very disappointed. The ending was written, there was no way to change things: we tried but things went as they had to go. Whoever did all this has some responsibility but unfortunately it went that way".

Not even the great sense of belonging that is very strong in these parts has managed to work the miracle and say that the team and staff have felt this great affection and coach Okorn is sorry for this too, for the fans. "Before coming to Pistoia I had heard about the environment - continues Okorn - but if you don't experience it you don't realize what you feel when you enter here. The surprising thing is that the last few months have been surreal and the ending was already written but here inside every Sunday the arena was full and ready to give us the energy and this was something special. Almost three hundred fans will come to Reggio and it's another impressive thing for the last match".

"On a human level I am very happy to have lived this experience because it gave me something special - he recalls -, when I went to the city people greeted me, they knew who I was. But on a sporting level I am disappointed because a coach is a man of sport, my goal is to compete and we were unable to do so for various factors. Another important aspect is that the players who remained always gave their all, we managed to snatch two victories in an absurd climate. I came here for Christmas and I saw what the situation was, but when I arrived it seemed out of the ordinary, an impressive situation because there were different decisions from all sides, wrong decisions, everyone went their own way and in the end you pay for all this and we paid for it with the relegationRegardless of who was the coach the last few months or other aspects, we were fighting against a wall and I want to emphasize that all this happened because of one person: Ronald Rowan."

The fact has happened and now we have to think about how to start again and above all how to do it in the best way. "President Joe David is here - concludes Okorn, in a sort of 'farewell' - and I hope he works for the future with a vision and a very precise plan, because in sport but also in general planning is needed. We must take into account that there is not only the field issue but also the financial ones because sport has significant costs and I hope they find the right solutions for the good of Pistoia".

Maurizio Innocenti