By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
With the French national team not including NBA players, the Italian basketball federation has also announced its own preliminary roster which does not include NBA players and according to “Mozzarsport”, the same is expected for the Serbian national team.
As it was explained by the French coach Vincent Collet, the NBA doesn’t permit its players to compete in the upcoming Eurobasket qualifiers window. It remains to be seen if there can be any kind of exceptions since NBA players are included so far in the pre-selection roster of Lithuania and Ukraine.
EuroLeague players are also expected to be missing, even if in the case of Italy, Paul Biligha and Davide Moretti of Olimpia Milan are on the list. However, those two players have so far a very limited role in Milan’s rotation.
In Russia’s expanded national team roster list which consists of 29 players, a total of 13 EuroLeague players are included, however, it remains to be seen who will ultimately be available. Those players are the following: Vyacheslav Zaitsev (Khimki Moscow region), Denis Zakharov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Ivan Ukhov (CSKA Moscow), Vitaly Fridzon (Zenit St. Petersburg), Dmitry Khvostov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Alexander Khomenko (CSKA Moscow), Semyon Antonov (CSKA Moscow), Andrey Zubkov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Nikita Kurbanov (CSKA), Andrey Lopatin (CSKA,), Vladislav Trushkin (Zenit St. Petersburg), Joel Bolomboy (CSKA), Anton Pushkov (Zenit St. Petersburg).
EuroLeague clubs are not willing to permit their players to compete during the season with the national team, since the schedules of the EuroLeague and the national teams ‘ competitions include the same dates.
As for the NBA, it was revealed that the US-based league stated that the FIBA-NBA agreement doesn’t cover in this case the Eurobasket windows which are played in November plus the NBA raised concerns related to the Covid-19 health protocols.
Stars like Giannis Antekounmpo, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, and more will not be able to help their national teams secure a spot in the Eurobasket 2022.