Panathinaikos flew to Spain and Canary islands with an added problem as one of the best and most well shaped player in the last five – six games American forward De shawn Thomas increase temper and remain in Athens to hospitalized. His team-mates waive at him and flew to Las Palmas in an early afternoon flight on the 27th of February.

Just some minutes before the departure of Panathinaikos plane (charter flight) the American Head Coach Ric Pitino, stated the following:

“Gran Canaria may not have direct interest in the tomorrow’s game but that doesn’t mean anything for us.. It doesn’t matter if the Spaniards are lying in the last positions of the league and have no direct objective at this last six games of the competition. Our team need to play some serious ball. Gran Canaria can harm us if we are not ready to “fight” them . If my team starts playing exactly as they play in OAKA our home court, then we can actually have some major chances to play for the top 8 positions and take over the mathematical chances that we have and against all odds to succeed it… All these of course have a meaning if we play some decent basketball in Las Palmas otherwise we are lost….