By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
The door for Boban Marjanovic in the Serbian national team was already closed and coach Aleksander Djordjevic via a public statement clarified that things will not change this summer.
In a very long statement which includes the history of his relationship with Marjanovic in recent years, Djordjevic says: “As a national team coach, for two years I wanted for Marjanovic to play for the national team and every time I couldn’t realize what was his intention and his desire…I wanted him to be our center, he is a great guy and a player, whose characteristics, both human and on the court were necessary for the team in Eurobasket 2015. Unfortunately, he was not with the team. We all know that he started practicing at full strengh for 10 days and then after a very strange decision, he traveled to America, where he was diagnosed as “possible to get hurt”, something that applies to any athlete”.
According to Djordjevic, he called Marjanovic to the team this summer, he spoke with him but in the end all that was “empty words because he canceled his participation only a day before the first assembly of the team. We talked by phone and he explained his decision, the night before the first meeting, because of the fear of injury and the need to sign a contract”.
While the coach said that in the future Marjanovic can be part of the national team, he will not be present in Rio because what’s is now happening is “completely wrong. The media are ‘pushing’ a player in the team that called him, kept for him all the doors open and gave him the opportunity to be part of the Olympic roster of Serbia, led by a coach who believes in the players. He could achieve this goal only on the court with his play and behavior. The team does not lie, as also the court does not lie. The team will not be shaped by media announcements, surveys, interviews and forced tweets and certainly not by a manager”. The last mention is directed to the agent of Marjanovic, Misko Raznatovic, who via twitter expressed his disagreement with Djordjevic’s decisions this summer and also in the recent past.