By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
The two young stars from Europe who were lottery picks in the recent NBA draft, may miss the upcoming Eurobasket 2015. Kristaps Porzingis already announced that he will not play for Latvia and now the Orlando Magic are trying to keep Mario Hezonja out of the tournament.
Porzingis himself accepted the request of the Knicks and admitted via twitter: “It was a tough decision, but I believe that in the future it will benefit both me and basketball”. The talented big man is expected to play again for his national team in the future.
However the situation with Hezonja is much more delicate. The intentions of the player himself are unclear, he had a meeting for the matter with national team coach Velimir Perasovic that was leaked to the local press and Croatia is one of the four countries which host a Eurobasket first phase round. It will be a blow for the Croatian basketball not to have him on the court in a troubled summer that also included Dragan Bender missing the FIBA U19 World Cup due to a contract dispute.