By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
We found the Italian head coach of the “Furias Rojas” in the “Ahmet Comert” gym , where the ANGT tournament is held.
Sergio Scariolo was watching European (or possibly world) basketball stars of tomorrow showing their talent and during a break from the games, Eurohoops stole the opportunity for a discussion with him that went as follows:
– What is your opinion of the 2017 ANGT tournament?
“The level is excellent. I’ve been following few of the preliminary rounds as well. There are lots of good players. At least potentially very good players. The initiative is great. I love everything that is commited to the development of a new era of players. We are not yet in a situation that we will miss players. We are already in this kind of situation. If we don’t do something serious together. Every part invovled we will get in a serious danger of not having enough quality European players.
– And the ever hungry NBA is waiting to get them all right?
“You can’t do anything about that, can you? But it’s good. Top players go to top competitions. But it’s true that the situaton will be more and more invasive for European basketball. More spots in NBA roster. More money going to the D-League that will make it more attractive. So we have to invest more money in developing our young players.”
– Speaking of young players: The upcoming EuroBasket might be the last dance for some historic members of the Spanish national team . Should we expect a serious period of reconstruction that will include some younger players?
“We are already in transitional state and getting ready for our next generation. We already have players who are young and have just reached the maturity without being considered veterans. But we also have a couple of young players who are pushing strong from behind. For the next Olympic circle, and that’s four years max, I think we will be ok. But I think to we need to be working on the future.
– The previous/current version of the Spanish national team includes players that are pretty much irreplecable, right?
For sure we’re not going to be able to be as good as we were. But I think we are going to be better than how several teams had been when their previous golden generation had expired. That is our goal. There might be a cost but the next generations will still be highly competitive.
– Neither the NBA or EuroLeague have agreed with the FIBA calendar and the windows for the World Cup qualifiers. Meanwhile, unions of players from Spain or Greece for example have taken the side of FIBA. What is your opinion on the whole situation… which looks like an unsolvable problem from now.
I know that every side defends its own interests. And that’s sort of the problem. They are not finding a way to consider the interests of everybody. They should put the interest of basketball first. Of course logical reasons are on any of the side. But I believe that for now we are forgetting the main issue here. Which is basketball development. And our future. I believe that of course there are laws which make it impossible for a player not to respond to the national team call. On the other side there are contracts. There are many interesting parts and opinions on both sides but still… my concern is that the two sides are so far away from each other they they haven’t even been able to sit down, make the first step and talk.
– Can you imagine the World Cup qualifiers without players from both the NBA and EuroLeague?
I must. I am a coach not a politician. I am not a manager and I have to prepare. In the last six months I have been following some specific cases of players. Players that will probably play in the World Cup qualifications during these windows without considering NBA players. EuroLeague players is a different situation. Not very clear yet. On July we will have a training camp specifically for this reason, 10 days before the main training camp of the national team. We’re doing it in order to start putting new players into the system to have them work out with us. We are looking forward to that. If this will happen, and at this point it’s more probable that will happen, we will be ready.
– So the Spanish national team will be prepared for any scenario?
We are already prepared. We will be fully prepared.