Armoni Brooks not thinking about'Nba and focusing on'Olimpia

Armoni Brooks spoke to La Repubblica about his second season at EA7 Emporio Armani Milano: “Staying in Milan has been a big boost for me, I am more familiar with the whole environment, I continue to add experience and learn from very strong players. My teammates encourage me to be aggressive, the staff tells me the same thing, I work hard every day on my shot and the confidence I feel comes from my work ethic: the fact that at Olimpia everyone believes in me is a huge thing. We are a good team, as we were last season, but this year we have a different approach because there&#8217s a group of guards who can score a lot. The younger ones are athletic, eager to learn, humble. Every game is different and you never know beforehand what can happen because each of us, in every role, is capable of scoring a lot: it is just a matter of supporting those who are having their moment. It&#8217s the beauty of having such a deep roster, we are good together, on the court and off, and we are happy with each other&#8217s success. It helps the team because there is no conflict within us.”

In the Euroleague, Milan comes from a glorious success against Olympiacos: “Maybe we were under-regarded due to too many absences, but we accepted the challenge, threw the first punch, defended, sustained our pace to match theirs, fought until the end. The schedule is heavy, today there&#8217s Hapoel who is a rookie built to win right away, but I don&#8217t think we play too much: it depends on how you can recover mentally and physically, how you take care of yourself. It’s our job, you always try to give your best, sometimes you succeed, sometimes you don&#8217t but the approach doesn&#8217t change. Basketball is a mental sport, if you start telling yourself that you are tired, then you feel tired. You have to leave out of your mind the negative things or the little injuries that bother you.”

“Nba? I don’t think about it now, the Euroleague is a big league, every game is a challenge to take on with Armani. I don’t want to put limits on what this team can achieve. Everything depends on injuries, if you are not healthy the situation drains you. We have everything on paper to reach the Euroleague Final Four and win the Scudetto, the team, the organization, the facilities, the public. We must also embrace adversity, ups and downs to find ourselves at our best in the second half of the season. In the playoffs then anything can happen.”