By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Sabonis spoke about the failure of the Lithuanian national team to qualify for the Eurobasket quarterfinals, said that he will support Latvia for the remainder of the tournament, but the real surprise came from his criticism on the FIBA calendar.
This is the first time that a person directly connected to FIBA, the president of a national federation speaks against the World Cup qualification windows. Sabonis’ comments come from the fact that NBA players are not going to join their national teams and the same is expected to happen with EuroLeague players: “People who understand basketball should be disappointed. Fans come to the arena to watch the best players. We are not Spain, where you may not have ten players, but there are also other ten who are really good and will create interest. We don’t have that. The loss of any player is a knife wound”.
Despite that, Sabonis doesn’t expect something to change soon: “We are preparing for the November windows. Women’s games will start in early November and the men will play at the end of the month. We will see what will happen with the EuroLeague. Who will play and who will not. Of course, I want everyone to be able to play, but unless something dramatic happens, I don’t think that something is going to change”.