By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
The Greek federation announced the pre-selection of the Greek national team, which includes Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nick Calathes despite his open issues with FIBA and Kostas Koufos, but not Vasilis Spanoulis who will take this summer off in order to rest his knees.
The federation confirmed that the absence of Olympiacos‘ captain has to do with his body, however three more players of the Reds, Giorgos Printezis, Vaggelis Mantzaris and Kostas Sloukas are called. You may remember the hard stance of Olympiacos‘ owners on the matter of the insurance of the players and the decision of the club to keep out of the Greek U20 NT Papapetrou, Agravanis and Christodoulou until the last moment.
The last week before the start of Eurobasket U20, Olympiacos announced that they were letting the players compete in the tournament and the club was ready to pay the extra money needed for their full insurance as a “sponsorship agreement” with the federation. With Spanoulis out, the situation is quite simple in the case of the senior team. Under the current insurance policy of the federation, both Mantzaris and Sloukas whose contracts’ expire next summer are fully covered. On the case of Printezis, however, who recently extended his contract, the demand of Olympiacos about a full insurance coverage of his contract is not satisfied. It remains to be seen if the club will stay firm in its initial position on the matter and asks from Printezis to forfeit the FIBA World Cup.