By Stefan Djordjevic/ info@eurohoops.net
The 25-year-old Sergey Karasev will wear Russia jersey at the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China, and although his national team hasn’t been considered a contender for a top spot, he doesn’t take it as a bad thing:
“Not a lot of people are talking about us, but it doesn’t really matter because we know our talent and potential. Being out of the spotlight isn’t a bad thing because we can do our work and keep improving to be in the best shape and dynamic for this very important tournament.”, he told fiba.basketball.
Karasev is set on showing the world that Russia is still competitive: “We can surprise a lot of people. We have plenty of experience, players that have very good talent and the mindset is very positive. We are ambitious and we will play every game with all of our heart and energy. That is super important for all of us, for the national team and for the country. We are ready to show that Russia is solid, and still very competitive”
His father, Vasily Karasev, was also playing for Russia in the past and led them to two silver medals (1994, 1998): “He had so much success in the World Cups he competed at, I have always been so proud of that. I don’t remember a lot about it as I was very young, but I saw some videos about it as I got older and it was so great to see him and the national team winning medals in a competition like the FIBA Basketball World Cup”
And Sergey also received some very valuable advice from him: “We talked often about it, and he gives me very good advice about how it is to compete against the world’s best, even if it was more than 20 years ago. I can feel that playing in a World Cup is a unique opportunity to compete against the world’s finest in a long format competition, where there are so many steps and games to win to reach the medal spots. I feel very proud to have him as someone from whom I can get advice, and he taught me a lot about the game, showing me examples of when the national team played in the past. That is a priceless learning process.”