By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
SHENZHEN – The Czech Republic achieved one of the biggest wins in its history over Brazil and has a real chance to get to the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Tomas Satoransky missed the triple-double for one assist and three rebounds. So the question was made in the press conference. Why Satoransky was benched for most of the last quarter and lost the chance to make history?
“Thank you for the question! Why coach?” Satoransky said with a huge smile while joking. Coach Ronen Ginzburg also smiled: “You know we care about wins, not about stats and numbers. We are not the NBA”.
And that doesn’t change the fact that the Czech Republic can make it to the FIBA World Cup quarterfinals, despite missing Jan Vesely.
The team is just riding the wave, after a disappointing Eurobasket 2017 where they couldn’t make it out of the first round. “I am happy for those guys because they are the most humble group of players I have been part of and we are coming from a really bad result two summers ago”, said Satoransky.
Coach Gizburg added: “This is a great moment for the Czech basketball and I can’t but say great things about my players and their effort”.
Can they make it on Monday to the quarterfinals? It will be more than interesting to watch…
Photo credit: FIBA.Basketball