BallinEurope’s Emmet Ryan caught up with CSKA Moscow’s Aaron Jackson at Thursdwy’s practice in Milano to get his thoughts on Friday night’s big game.
“Since we got here it’s all business. This year we communicated much better about the pressure [on us]. We knew who had pressure but we didn’t communicate well. Now we know the people on the team feeling pressure and we let them know we have their back,” Aaron Jackson of CSKA Moscow told BallinEurope.com.
Jackson made the comments at Thursday’s practice session before Friday’s Euroleague semi-final with Maccabi Tel Aviv. Jackson said talk of coach Ettore Messina possibly leaving CSKA for the NBA hadn’t distracted the team.
“He’s still 100 per cent focussed on the team and on what we need to do to win. He’s been really professional in dealing with the rumours he had bern hearing and he’s doing a really good job.”
Jackson said that going the full five games with Panathinaikos and closing the series out in Moscow would stand to his side this weekend.
“That was an elimination game, there was a lot of pressure, we were playing against a legendary team with legendary players. It was just a tough battle going through that series and it showed that, as a team, we can stick through it together,” said Jackson.
“My job is to just do whatever it takes, whatever coach needs me to do. I keep it simple and I’m real proud. It would be real sweet to end it with a championship this weekend.”
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