By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Following his strong ACB season with Divina Seguros Joventut, Nicolas Laprovittola is now making plans for the 2019 FIBA World Cup. The 29-year-old point guard talked with FIBA about Luis Scola and how inspiring Argentina’s Golden Generation is, before discussing his National Team’s goals at China.
“Playing with the National Team is such an honor for me,” he mentioned kicking off his interview and explained: “I’m really very attached to it. I always have the same feeling every time I go to a training camp or play for Argentina. I love my country, and there’s a unique feeling to be able to play for the National Team.”
On Scola, who recently turned 39, he said: “Luis is such an incredible player and a fantastic leader and captain. His love for the National Team is amazing and it’s such a great example for all of us. His experience is such a huge, valuable thing. He played with the best players in the world and won everything with the National Team. He’s a legend of the game. He was amazing in the Qualifiers and has helped us a lot, and I’m sure he’s going to be one of the most impactful players in the competition this summer.”
“Manu Ginobili, Andres Nocioni, Pepe Sanchez, Pablo Prigioni, Fabricio Oberto and the others are examples, idols for us” he added and went on praising Argentina’s golden generation: “They changed the face of basketball in Argentina and they put our National Team on the basketball map. We were all inspired by those amazing years of basketball in Argentina and we all like the players that wrote some of the most successful pages in the history of the sport in our country. But we’re on our own journey, keeping this fighting spirit and trying to make our fans and countrymen proud.”
Argentina will start the World Cup facing South Korea, Nigeria and Russia will follow in Group B action. “This group is very good, and all the teams are competitive so it’s going to be intense against all of them” he pointed out and added: “The team I know the most among our opponents is Russia since I’ve played against most of the players of their team since I moved to Europe. They are going to be a very tough opponent, and they play very well as a team. I don’t know that much about Nigeria, but I know that they played at the Olympics a couple of years ago and that they have some very solid players, including some that play in very good teams. I don’t really know about Korea, but I’ll know about them very soon since we’re going to start the group stage against them.”
Furthermore, Laprovittola admitted: “I am very excited to go to China with the guys. It’s going to be such a great tournament, and the fans love basketball, so it’s going to be a very good tournament. The best teams in the world will be there, the fans will pack the arenas and the venues will be great, so there’s every element to have a fantastic tournament in China.”
“We want to have a great run and go far into the tournament” he added and went on: “We know that our team is younger and a bit less experienced than the one we had in the last couple of competitions we participated in but we’ll have the same motivation and eagerness to compete in every game we play, so this philosophy won’t ever change even if the golden generation is mostly retired now.”
In conclusion, he said: “We’ll play every game like it’s our last. We’ll put our energy on the floor to try to get wins every night. That will never change: even if we aren’t the favorites for a game, we are never going to give up.”