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Nicola Mezzadri recently met with Viktor Sanikidze on behalf of 48MoH. Nicola met Viktor in Cremona on the evening before the game against the local Vanoli team.

As 48MoH reported in early December, Sanikidze is playing for Italian powerhouse Virtus Bologna in the Italian league and has become a fan’s favorite there with his high energy game off the bench.

Outside the court, however, Sanikidze presents himself as a nice, silent and polite guy, willing to spend some 30 minutes with us and share the occasional good laugh.

NM: We would like to know something more about you, since the American readers don’t know much about you. Do you know who Keyser Söze is?

VS: Keyser Söze, of course, it’s my favourite movie. One of [my favorites].

NM: Well, Timothy Varner from 48MoH said you are like Keyser Söze, a man of mystery!

VS: [LAUGHS] Keyser Söze!

NM: So, you started playing basketball in Georgia…

VS: Yes I started to play in Georgia, I started a little late…

NM: You were a football player before, right?

VS: No, I wasn’t. You read it in that interview? I only said that nobody addressed or forced me to play basketball and that everyone in Georgia plays football, because playing football it’s easier, you just need a ball, while in order to play basketball you need a basket and a basketball ball, so I had never shot a ball before I started playing. Also I wasn’t a tall guy.

Then my brother, who is 2 year older than me, grew up very fast and they let him practice with a team. When I came back home and I noticed that my brother wasn’t there, they told me he was at practice and I was like “What’s practice?”. [LAUGHS] I was crying and going crazy, my mother couldn’t hold me home, so my brother asked the coach to let me participate to practice and that’s how I got in.

NM: How old were you at the time?

VS: 13 years old, maybe 12.

NM: You had an experience in the USA when you were still very young?

VS: Yes, when I was 16 and I just graduated, I was good enough to attend college in New York.

NM: Did you enjoy your time there?

VS: [HESITATES] It was a very, very hard time for me. First time outside of your family, very, very far away, I didn’t speak English at all, nothing, so everything was hard for me. No good living, they didn’t pay us since it is not legal there to do so. We missed a lot of thing and the college had no organization at all, nothing. In American colleges they don’t give you basketball shoes…

NM: No basketball shoes?

VS: Could you imagine that happening in Europe?

NM: Actually no! You were supposed to buy them yourself?

VS: Yes, I was lucky I brought them over from Georgia!

NM: That’s crazy. While you were growing up, was there a player you tried to shape your game after? Since you are an excellent rebounder, one would guess Dennis Rodman.

VS: Yes, but when I was 14 or something for me basketball was just the points, whoever scored more, I knew Rodman was one of the best rebounders ever, but nobody wanted to be a good rebounder, everybody wanted to be just a scorer.

NM: So who was your favorite player?

VS: At that time, Jordan. Absolutely.

NM: And now?

VS: I like Nowitzki, for sure the best non American player in the league for me now, and Ginobili. These two players are just crazy.

NM: You would like to follow his path, I think, from Bologna to there.

VS: [SMILES] Sure!

NM: And European players? It’s a big comparison, but I think you’ve got something of Matjaž Smodiš in you.

VS: I really don’t know. I don’t even try to think about who I can be similar to, if I stop and think, I would find someone for sure, but I never thought about it.

NM: You played in the Summer League with the Spurs. Was it a nice experience?

VS: Yes it was a good experience. In the first games I didn’t really get the playing time, but after I got some playing time and I played two nice games. Bad luck struck and I twisted my ankle badly, they thought it was broken, called doctors and my summer league was over.

NM: Did you have a chance to know Coach Popovich?

VS: Not at the Summer League. But I worked with them before, since I spent like 7 months there.

NM: Which aspects of your game did you worked more on when you were in the States? First of all, did they consider you a 3 or a 4?

VS: When I was at the college, they played me power forward. With the Spurs, I always played as a 3.

NM: And which position do you like most?

VS: 3 or 4 is pretty much the same to me, I don’t know. When I play 4, I’m faster than the other 4s, while when I play the 3, I am taller than them. On the other side, I am not that strong for a 4, while I can shoot over opponents as a 3. There is not so much difference for me.

NM: You don’t shoot so many threes notwithstanding the fact that you are a good shooter [INTERVIEWER NOTE: At the time of the interview, he had hit 5 threes on 9 attempts in the last 9 games and he was 8 on 19 in six official games this summers with Georgia] and sometimes you pass the shot. Is that something in the game plan or what?

VS: Well, the coach always tells me “Whenever you are open, you have to shoot”. To be honest, I don’t remember so many games in which I have passed the shot, maybe in the last one a little bit.

NM: You played with your international team this summer…

VS: Every summer! [LAUGHS] I’ve been playing with them for 6 years now or something like that.

NM: It was a pretty successful summer… [I.N.: Georgia was promoted to European Championship A Division this summer after winning its group and the Promotion Round series against Belarus. Sanikidze was the top scorer and rebounder in the two matches with Belarus, with 19 points and 11 rebounds in the first game and 18 points and 10 rebounds in the second.

VS: Yes, this summer was just unforgettable. The day we won against Belarus was the most important day of my life, on the basketball side, because the whole country was supporting us. I mean, a whole country. We became like heroes, the people was really happy, also because we had difficult times because of the war and the people really needed something to avoid concentrating just on problems. We were just glad we made all this people happy, even if maybe for just one second.

NM: I saw the highlights and the crowd was huge.

VS: Yes, they said that no other sport event gathered a larger audience in Georgia in years. Tickets were sold out three days in advance, save for a small number which they sold on the game day. On the game day people was standing there to purchase tickets at 7 A.M., even if they were to be put on sale at 11:30.

NM: Let’s talk now about those first months in the Italian league. At the very start you had some foul troubles and now you are finishing games.

VS: I was worrying at the beginning, but I talked with coaches and they said it was ok because I was new and I had no respect yet. They told me to relax and take my time, to just practice and work on myself. Just patience.

NM: I noticed you have a special relationship with your teammate, veteran Dušan Vukčević, he talks a lot to you, at the start of the games, coming out of time outs…

VS: First of all, my teammates are all my friends. Dušan is the captain and he knows how to do his job, both as a player and as a leader: he tries to help me out with all the things, just making me understand the Italian League and what I am supposed to do on the court, so I really appreciate this.

NM: You mentioned patience and patience started to pay off with that block in Teramo.

VS: [LAUGHS] Everyone starts everything from such a block!

NM: Because it was a huge last second block. How did you feel?

VS: Actually, I just felt that we had won the game, it took a while to me to realize what I had done.

NM: What about your game against Varese? I think that’s your best game so far [12 pts on 75% shooting, 15 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block].

VS: Yes, so far. We were missing Diego [Fajardo], so we were only three bigs and I knew I was going to play a lot and I had more responsibilities. That’s the kind of situation in which you want to step up and to prove to yourself, to prove to the coach and to prove everybody you can be trusted on. In addition, we had the injuries to Blizzard and Scoonie Penn, so we were in a really difficult situation. I just tried to be more, more, more concentrated and focused, not to make mistakes and that’s what you got.

NM: And apart from stats, you impacted the game with little things, deflections, hard D, good help D. Your help D in particular, you played great help D in a couple of possessions. Is that something that comes natural to you?

VS: I think you have to start from something you have in you in order to improve, but I am putting a lot of effort in order to improve these facets of my game. As you said I am not always shooting a lot, so I am trying to be more involved in the game with help D and these things, you know, just try to fill the spots, so even when you don’t shoot, do something else, you just try to be useful for the team.

NM: And that’s a big thing about your game, you don’t need the ball in your hands all the time to be effective.

VS: Exactly, you can’t have it all the time, so you have to do something.

NM: Let’s talk about the aspect of your game that comes more easily to the audience: dunks. You are a pretty impressive dunker!

VS: [SMILES] If you can jump enough, dunks are the shortest and more effective way to get points, it doesn’t force you to find other less effective ways to score, you don’t risk being blocked and things like this.

NM: I noticed you slap the backboard now after dunks.

VS: [LAUGHS] Not now, I always did. Maybe in Italy I wasn’t doing it at the start, but I always did it since I learned it in college, in the States.

NM: Which is your favorite dunk this year?

VS: The one against Varese, after the penetration from the three point line. [00:58 mark]

NM: What’s about your future?

VS: I have a 2+1 years contract, with an NBA escape clause at the end of the second year. I feel really good here in Bologna… [HESITATES]

NM: Let’s forget he [Virtus’ Team Manager] is here…

VS: [LAUGHS] He’s my friend first and then he works for Virtus, so… Seriously, I really like this place and this organization, a club with such history, it was my dream to come here, so as of now I see my future here, I would not leave even for top Euroleague teams such as Barcelona or Real Madrid, I don’t feel there is a huge difference with Virtus. I would only leave for the NBA.

NM: Do you think about the NBA?

VS: Of course I think about NBA. That’s my dream.

NM: Do you have contacts with the Spurs organization?

VS: Yes I have contacts with them.

NM: Is there a possibility to see you in next year’s Summer League?

VS: I think so, they already invited me a couple of years, so maybe I’ll be there.

NM: One last thing. In the previous blog entry about you, I made just one criticism: it was about your weight and upper body strength. Two questions: do you work in the summer to add muscle? Is that something that you would like to do or do you fear it could spoil some aspects of your game?

VS: I would really like to add some muscles, but after the season finishes, I start to play with the national team, so I never had time to work on my body in the gym. I cannot really tell the coach that I cannot practice with the team because I have to do weightlifting! [LAUGHS]

Should I have huge problems in my game due to lack of strength, I would definitely spend one summer adding muscles, but I really do not feel uncomfortable with my upper body strength now.

It could be better, it can always be better, but it could be worse.

NM: It could actually be much worse! Thank you for your time.

VS: Thank you.