By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Partizan Belgrade coach Zeljko Obradovic criticized the conflicting schedule of the FIBA Windows and EuroLeague regular season games, emphasizing the problems it creates for players who participate in both competitions.
“The ones who pay the price are the players,” Obradovic said after the EuroLeague loss of Partizan to Olympiacos Piraeus. “It’s more difficult for them than for any other person.”
Obradovic was asked in light of the upcoming 2023 World Cup Qualifiers of November. European national teams will compete on 11/11 and 14/11 while there’s EuroLeague action on 10/11, 11/1, 17/11, and 18/11.
The vast majority of international players of EuroLeague teams will miss the first match of their countries since it overlaps with Round 7 of the regular season. The ones who’ll join their national teams for the second game will do it after little rest and then will have to immediately return to their clubs ahead of EuroLeague’s Round 8.
“This isn’t new. Everybody talks about this,” Obradovic said. Partizan’s Danilo Andjusic and Uros Trifunovic didn’t travel for the clash vs. Olympiacos since they are at the Serbian national team training camp. “They need to sit and talk. My national team has a very important game. They asked us to give them three players and one [Balsa Koprivica] was injured after Panathinaikos.”
“It’s bad that the national team plays without the best players”, Obradovic mentioned. “This is obvious. Everybody will say the same. They need to sit and discuss this.”
Meanwhile, Partizan hasn’t allowed forward Ioannis Papapetrou and guard Yam Madar to join the Greek and Israeli national teams respectively. “I am just the coach, I can’t answer you that”, said Obradovic regarding Papapetrou specifically. “It’s something that has to do with Partizan’s management and the Greek national team management”.