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San Antonio Spurs big man Sandro Mamukelashvili had hoped that Gregg Popovich’s compliments would be a sign of his return to the team.
He was still uncertain if he would continue as a Spur until it became official in July.
“Deep down in my heart, it was ‘I hope it means I will come back’,” Mamukelashvili said in an interview with KSAT 12. “But you know it’s business. So much goes on. You have to learn that as soon as you come into the league. People might love you for who you are, but something might change in their view, or something might not go the way they want, so now they’re going to shift off and go in a different direction.”
The Spurs ultimately re-signed Mamukelashvili to a one-year deal.
“You got to have faith in it,” Mamukelashvili.”I was just hoping it would be here and I’m glad it worked out.”
Earlier in summer, Mamukelashvili was busy with the Georgian national team in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament of Riga, Latvia. He led the team in scoring with 20.0 points but his squad didn’t manage to get past the Group stage.
“That was a really big deal for us,” Mamukelashvili. “We were really motivated but we didn’t get the result we wanted. I feel like it’s something I want to do it again. It will be very hard because you have to advance to the Top 16 in the World Cup. And first you have to qualify for the World Cup. Hopefully we’ll get a chance and the Georgian people will going to have a chance to go through that again.”
During the previous season, Mamukelashvili built quite a bond with Spurs young star Victor Wembanyama. It was a result of the two of them hanging out and becoming friends over non-basketball common interests.
“Me and Wemby’s bond was created off the court,” Mamukelashvili said. “We both like board games, we’re both competitive, we like stuff like Topgolf. It’s just a European thing. I think the bond was created even stronger when he came to a Georgian restaurant with me in New York. We dove into my culture. I was talking to him about my food, and he loved it. I was just happy he didn’t have any stomach issues because I would have been in trouble.”