By Stefan Djordjevic/ info@eurohoops.net
Due to disharmony of the calendars, the EuroLeague Round 10 and FIBA World Cup Qualifiers overlapped completely as all of the games in both competitions were played out on November 29 and 30.
The clubs were forced to make tough decisions as well as the players, and only a handful of them managed to spend minutes on the floor for both their club and the national team. To be more precise, seven of them with two clubs standing out – Buducnost and Maccabi – as their rosters featured three players each while one came from Anadolu Efes. The list includes the following players.
Dogus Balbay (Efes/Turkey)
Filip Barovic (Buducnost/Montenegro)
Petar Popovic (Buducnost/Montenegro)
Suad Sehovic (Buducnost/Montenegro)
Jake Cohen (Maccabi/Israel)
Yovel Zoosman (Maccabi/Israel)
Nimrod Levi (Maccabi/Israel)
Without a doubt, there was careful control over the players’ playing time as their minutes decreased drastically in some cases.
In addition to the above list, eight more EuroLeague players helped their respective national team but in their case, it meant they would sit out the EuroLeague matches. Interestingly, five of them are Turkish:
Metecan Birsen (Efes/Turkey)
Bugrahan Tuncer (Efes/Turkey)
Sertac Sanli (Efes/Turkey)
Sinan Guler (Fenerbahce/Turkey)
Oguz Savas (Darussafaka/Turkey)
Nikola Ivanovic (Buducnost/Montenegro)
Andrey Vorontsevich (CSKA/Russia)
Ivan Ukhov (CSKA/Russia)
UPDATE: Also on Sunday and Monday games the following EuroLeague players played for their national team.
Andrea Cinciarini (Milano/Italy)
Christian Burns (Milano/Italy)
Simone Fontecchio (Milano/Italy)
Scottie Wilbekin (Maccabi/Turkey)
John Di Bartolomeo (Maccabi/Israel)
Petr Gubanov (Khimki/Russia)
Joel Bolomby (CSKA/Russia)
Petteri Koponen (Barcelona/Finland)
Stefan Jovic (Bayern Munich/Serbia)
Vasilje Micic (Efes/ Serbia)
In total 25 EuroLeague players competed for their national teams in Europe during the last FIBA qualifiers window.
Of course, it goes without saying that many chose not to overexert themselves by playing on both fronts and decided not to join their respective national teams. The November ‘window’ has been the prime example of the players’ wish to satisfy both their clubs and their national teams, even by playing back-to-back games in different competitions.
Photo Credit: FIBA