By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Team USA advanced to the Second Round of FIBA World Cup and will clash against Greece and Brazil in Group K. It also means facing the reigning NBA MVP in Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Giannis’ Milwaukee Bucks teammate Brook Lopez has no doubt that the ‘Greek Freak’ will ‘go for the kill’: “He’s going to come out to kill us, there’s no question. He’s going to want to tear our heads off. I wouldn’t expect anything otherwise.”
Coach Gregg Popovich also had praise and not only for Giannis: “I think that our opinion has been all along that all these players from overseas that play in the NBA are obviously good players or they wouldn’t be there. Giannis is pretty special as far as good players are concerned. But when they play for their countries, we like to say that they become superheroes. They get together and, through their relationships and their views about their game, they just form a team that – they fall in love with each other, they enjoy playing with each other. And that goes across the board for everybody that’s in the tournament and you can see that. A lot of them have grown up together and a lot of them have spent a lot of time playing together, and you can see that and it shows.”, he said.
Coach Pop also compared the World Cup with the NBA as far as strategy goes: “As far as preparing, each team is obviously very different. In the NBA, you pretty much know every night the O’s and X’s of what people are going to run and that sort of thing. But here, every team has a different take on the way they want to play, so it’s actually enjoyable and challenging at the same time because each team is a different war, a different artwork to be figured out. It makes it very interesting.”
Photo Credit: FIBA.BASKETBALL