Men's basketball: We lost the match, not Barca won it – Hanga

– The question now is: how are you?
– Thank God, everything is alright – toldNemzeti Sport32-year-old Ádám Hanga, Hungarian national team player from Real Madrid. He got injured in the Spanish Cup final on Sunday, which his team lost 64-59 to FC Barcelona. – I had an MRI on Monday because of my knee, but I'm fine, I'm going to Lithuania, and I'm almost certain to play against Zalgiris Kaunas on Thursday.

– What happened?
– The penultimate minute, I landed on the parquet floor on one foot from the air and was stamped on the side of my ankle, which then got sprained. But that wasn't the main problem, it was that my knee hurt. There was a problem with the cartilage, but the ligament wasn't damaged, it just got swollen. Fortunately, it's not that bad, but I walked off the court with help.

– We showed one of the best defenses of the season in the first half of the game, but after the turn, we made a lot of mistakes, especially in attack. In the end, we still had the ball to equalize, but Argentina's Gabriel Deck's break-in was missed at 59-61, where the fate of the cup was decided. We played at the weekend with reserve players because Fabien Chauseur of France didn't play due to injury. I wasn't feeling 100 percent well either. But sports are like that, these are not excuses. In fact, I would say that we lost the final and not Barca won it. We didn't have a chance against them in the last three matches, but we dominated now.

– How did it feel to play against your former team again?
– It doesn't matter anymore whom I'm playing against, I just want to win. Before the game, I talked a lot with the former teammates at the hotel, and after the final, the Barcelona staff and players were worried about whether I was ok.

– The team can still fight for the trophy in the EuroLeague and the Spanish league.
– If we had won, that would still be our motto. Now we are a bit sad, both physically and mentally speaking, we didn't come to Granada in the best condition. We suffered a lot of defeats before the cup weekend. This is a kind of fresh start.

– The Spanish press is already reporting that Barca is Real's new bogeyman.
– We were close to success, but Barca deserved to win because even though we led by 16 points, they caught up. The formula is simple: we have to play against them the way we played in the first half.

– The Hungarian national team will meet Montenegro in the World Cup qualifier this week, and the naturalized Mikael Hopkins will also make his debut. What do you think of the matches?
– Naturalization is not new, and both the federation and the head coach must take advantage of this opportunity. It's a good decision to employ Hopkins, but we'll see how much he can help the national team in the long run. The boys are going to fight to the extreme and I think they have a chance to win.