By George Efkarpidis/ info@eurohoops.net
Davis Bertans might be playing in the NBA for the third straight season, but the Latvian forward/center still follows the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. He did appear in five EuroLeague seasons before earning a spot in the San Antonio Spurs’ roster, but his brother Dairis is still on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean as a member of Olimpia Milan’s squad.
“It’s not easy with the time difference, but I try to at least follow my brother’s games” 26-year-old Bertans mentioned talking to Eurohoops and added: “Milan had a great upgrade with Mike James. Hopefully Nemanja Nedovic could return soon, but adding Mike James was a big thing for them. From the games I’ve seen, I believe they play better team basketball both sides of the floor. They should definitely make the playoffs and hopefully even more”.
On the FIBA “windows”, he said: “They shouldn’t have incorporated the windows in the schedule before the whole situation between FIBA and EuroLeague was resolved. They changed the EuroBasket from two to four years to give the players one summer off. The rest will be a lot better for the players. They made the windows, so the players won’t have those crazy summers anymore, but the windows are just hurting basketball anyway. It’s sad they didn’t really think about the outcome before. The EuroBasket Champions out of the World Cup is ridiculous”.
He rounded up the interview talking about the Latvia’s chances to qualify to the World Cup: “Latvia’s ultimate goal is to qualify the World Cup, but it won’t be easy. We are very close. That game against Montenegro at home was very important. They didn’t win, but we’re still alive and it’s in our teams hands to actually get to the World Cup”.
Watch Bertans’ interview on Eurohoops TV: