By Dionysis Aravantinos / info@eurohoops.net
SHANGHAI – Tomas Satoransky and the Czech Republic didn’t manage to qualify to the semi-finals, after falling to Australia on Wednesday night.
Despite that, it definitely was a great ‘Cinderella’ story for a team that was competing for the first time in a FIBA Basketball World Cup.
Satoransky, who flirted yet again with a triple-double and missed it just for one rebound, focused on how his team remains and will remain motivated in the future: “It’s motivational enough to be here and fight for the country. I think just because it’s our first time in this stage, it just gave us extra motivation. We’ve been trying hard and I’m really proud of the guys. Australia was the best team we’ve faced so far, but we left everything out there”.
After France defeated Team USA, the Czech Republic won’t compete for a spot in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 through this competition, but through a pre-Olympic tournament. Satoransky wasn’t informed about it, but as he said, the team will fight to be there: “We still have a chance? No? We didn’t know about that before. Obviously it would be amazing, a cherry on the top, but right now we are fighting for the best results. What can you do about it?”
As for if this could be the next great generation of Czech basketball, Satoransky definitely believes a new revolution could occur: “Yes, definitely. We still missed Jan Vesely, the MVP of the EuroLeague. It will definitely give us an addition, and I think with the qualification to the Olympics, with us hosting the European basket of 2021, it could be a big revolution. There were people who stopped working, to watch basketball”.
Photo Credit: FIBA.Basketball