By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The Unics Kazan playmaker excelled in his country’s first two World Cup Qualifiers, including a performance in Burgos against EuroBasket 2017 champions Slovenia, to garner the praise of everyone from Galicia in the northwest to the Canary Islands.
Colom was so good, such a steady influence for Sergio Scariolo’s team, that a lot of fans were left wondering why he had not played before now.
“I had been close but my role is very well covered,” Colom said to Onda Cero radio. “There are many guards of a very high level and there is competition.”
The point guards selected before Colom in recent years have been Ricky Rubio, Jose Calderon, Sergio Llull, Sergio Rodriguez, Guillem Vives, Victor Sada and Raul Lopez. Colom has been named in preliminary squads but this was the first time, against Montenegro and Slovenia, that he made the team and played in important games.
The 25-point, 9-assist performance in a 92-84 triumph over Slovenia was one of the outstanding efforts in the World Cup Qualifiers. He finished with an efficiency rating of +30 in that game.
Colom not only wants the chance to do it again, but an opportunity to show he can contribute on the huge stage of the World Cup itself. His chances of doing that are now much better than they were before the November Qualifiers, that’s for sure.
“It’s always a pleasure to return to the national team and it’s an honor to wear this jersey and help the team,” he said. “I hope in the future I can play in a big tournament and compete for a medal, which would be amazing.”
The doom-mongers in the days leading up to the World Cup Qualifiers concerning Spain’s chances irked Colom. Some claimed that, with no players in the team from this summer’s side that finished third at the EuroBasket, that Spain was like a ship headed for craggy shores.
Montenegro is a Balkan nation that has produced some wonderful players over the years and Slovenia are the reigning EuroBasket champions.
“It’s clear that the other (Spain) players are world class but it’s true that we have been slightly disrespected because we don’t play in the NBA or even in the EuroLeague (Colom did play in the EuroLeague last season for Unics),” he said.
“It seemed as though we couldn’t beat anyone, that we didn’t know how to play. In the end, there’s a lot of talent. We see it at the youth levels where they win medals but they struggle to find a place in the ACB.”
“It’s a way of proving that there’s Spanish basketball for a long time. I believe that is the case. There’s young people here that have a good future ahead of them.”
So the message that Colom and his teammates delivered with their play, more than anything else, was that Spain’s talent pool is deep.
There are so many players that are itching, and deserving, to get a chance with the national side, that they could put together a new team and still knock off the country, Slovenia, that won the European title just a couple of months ago.
“We know the high level that the regular national team players have but there are also other players behind that have quality and do well,” Colom said.
Source: fiba.basketball