By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Those three players were included in the initial 24 players list and while Hackett of Brose Bamberg is injured, it’s obvious that the Italian basketball federation doesn’t want to create a conflict with Datome and Melli or ask for their punishment.
The Turkish players of EuroLeague champions Fenerbahce Dogus announced that they are not going to play for their national team during the FIBA World Cup windows and now the same applies to Datome and Melli. Datome, the captain of the Italian national team, had also already announced that he will not be available.
That leaves Awudu Abbas and Simone Fontecchio of EX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milano as the only EuroLeague players included in the list of 16. The rest of the players are the following: Pietro Aradori, Paul Stephane Lionel Biligha, Christian Charles Burns, Andrea Crosariol, Amedeo Della Valle, Ariel Filloy, Diego Flaccadori, Raphael Gaspardo, Alessandro Gentile, Marco Giuri, Antonio Iannuzzi, Achille Polonara, Brian Sacchetti, Luca Vitali.
It has to be noted that after the changes made in the national team qualification games, each national team can changed its roster between games and also the list of the 24 players called between different “windows”.