Until 2014, Flamengo had not reached a Final Four in the League of the Americas. Since then, the Red-Black team has reached two, but unfortunately ended up being eliminated in his second participation. At the press conference after the game, coach José Neto lamented the defeat, but remembered the strength of the opponent and wants the team to already think about the future. The Mais Querido will once again focus its efforts on the dispute for third place this Sunday (15.03) and, then, in the Novo Basquete Brasil.

Now it's time to lift our heads. They defended well and had a very good offensive performance. Their team also had good offensive rebounding, so we were a bit stuck in that situation. But I think it was much more to their credit than our team's fault.

We never feel like failures. The ones who should feel like failures are those who aren't here or who don't step on the court because they couldn't compete in a competition like this. Now, if you ask me if I'm sad, of course. We didn't prepare to lose, but to win. And, unfortunately, we didn't win.

History
No one can forget that Flamengo had never reached the Final Four before, and they made it twice in a row in these two years. Of course, Flamengo is always associated with victory, and we work for that very thing. 

I always say that in a defeat where we give our all, it's difficult to blame one player or another. We had a very good preparation, the athletes gave their all, and the opponent was better than us. One thing that mattered: they knew how to capitalize on our mistakes. But there was no lack of commitment. These players have great spirit and a huge commitment to victory. And they gave their all there.