In response to Shinkin's previous comments that Alphabet wasn't a very good passer, Spanoulis fired back for his favorite under his command after the quarterfinal game.

Spanoulis said, "First of all, I want to talk about what Shinkin said about Yannis. Shin Kyung is still a very young kid, not enough to talk about Yannis. Secondly, we heard a lot of different opinions from people who don't know anything about the game. They say that the Turkish team locked up Yannis and that's pure nonsense."

"Our whole team was in bad shape, their defense against Yannis was no different, Yannis missed four layups himself and six others found his teammates, only for them to miss the shots. So I don't want to hear any more nonsense about Yannis being defended or anything like that. That kind of talk is just for you guys in the media and people who don't know anything about the game."

"I'm a guy who just tells the truth and has a lot of respect for Coach Altaman. We're close friends and will bounce ideas off of each other, and he's a great coach, but that's a whole other thing."