By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Zalgiris Kaunas coach Andrea Trinchieri reacted to the news about Los Angeles Lakers guard D’Angelo Russel’s reported interest to join the Lithuanian national team as a naturalized player.
“Of course, it caught me on guard,” Trinchieri said in the post-game presser after the EuroLeague win of Zalgiris – the biggest and most storied Lithuanian team – over Panathinaikos Athens. “I’m happy for him and I’m maybe happy for the national team if they really do it. But this is a political thing and I don’t want to get into it.”
Russell has reportedly expressed his interest to the Lithuanian Federation. The fact that he’s married to Lithuanian Laura Ivaniukas could aid the process of him potentially getting the citizenship needed to play for the national team.
If that happens, Russell will join a very long list of American-born players who represent European countries in international competitions. Trinchieri was then asked about his opinion on the naturalization of players
“I believe there are two countries – Lithuania and Serbia that don’t want to explore this thing about bringing a foreign player to help you build a better roster or giving a passport to a player who can help you where you’re short,” Trinchieri said. It’s not if I’m in favor or not. It’s depending on what you want. Both Serbia and Lithuania are countries with a lot of basketball pride. They are two countries where they think of basketball as the main sport. They say ‘no’. They say ‘We’re going to do it with our players’. If you want to do it you have to push to the basketball world of Lithuania or staff to produce more players. The thing is there.
“I believe that the production of domestic players isn’t the same as in the past,” Trinchieri added. “Neither in Serbia nor in Lithuania. It’s a political decision. There are good things both ways. If you want to keep and be proud of the thing that you play all Lithuanians or all Serbian players we have to think what we can do to have more choices in picking the players for the national team. Producing more talent.”