By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
A few days ago, Fenerbahce forward and Italian national team captain Gigi Datome became the first EuroLeague player to announce that he won’t participate in the World Cup Qualifiers.
Among other things, Datome emphasized on the fact that none of the upper echelons in the decision-making centers asked him or his teammates about the “formula” of the midseason windows, stating that the players’ opinion should matter and that their involvement is nothing less than necessary.
This is an issue that also bothers other EuroLeague players, more specifically members of Spanish club Unicaja Malaga, as they explained to Eurohoops.
Almost a month before the launch (November 23) of the World Cup Qualifiers, internationals Adam Waczynski (Poland), Nemanja Nedovic, Dragan Milosavljevic and Dejan Musli (Serbia) saw their names included in their national teams’ preliminary rosters but find it extremely difficult to decide if they’ll leave Unicaja Malaga during the windows.
Torn between their obligations to the club that pays their salaries, and their unquestionable devotion to their national teams, they are frustrated with the whole situation. But perhaps moreso, because they are asked to make a choice on matters that were discussed and subsequent decisions that were taken while they, the true protagonists, weren’t even asked for a simple feedback.
Adam Waczynski (Unicaja Malaga – Poland)
“The NBA runs all year and all of its players are excluded from this”
“I know this is the hot subject right now. I’m really confused because I don’t understand why we need to play now. Of course, there are reasons to play now but also reasons not to play. The NBA runs all year and all of its players are excluded from this. The EuroLeague was having this schedule already last season so everybody knew what was coming this season too. I don’t want to be a judge. I know it’s going to be hard physically with all those travels. This is going to to be a tough thing for us, for our bodies. For our head also. Because we start thinking, “Do I go with the national team or not?. “What if I don’t come?”. Stuff like this. It’s difficult for everybody. We need to find a solution. And FIBA with EuroLeague should actually listen to us players. Because we are the ones who actually play and put our bodies out there.
I want to play in the World Cup Qualifiers. But I need to see things more realistically. We got games, we need to travel a lot. We have a tough schedule. In our team (Malaga) we have 12 good players and every game matters for us.”