By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
While FIBA attacked EuroLeague for a decision which was more than expected, the international federation has also published in its website an open letter by Vlade Divac in favor of the national teams.
The core values of Divac’s letter are right, but it’s ironic that this letter is written by the General Manager of the Sacramento Kings. FIBA has already agreed that NBA players will not be available during the World Cup qualification games. The players from Divac’s team will be able to play.
FIBA insists that everything they do in relation to the EuroLeague is protecting the interest of the many, compared to the interest of the few big European clubs. This can be accepted only if you don’t take into account what has happened until this point, FIBA’s effort to “take over” the EuroLeague and also the fact that the NBA gets special treatment.
And that’s the elephant in the room. Yesterday one more star left Europe for the NBA. Teodosic is one of the players that only those mean EuroLeague clubs can afford to keep in the old continent and give the chance to local fans to watch them live. This will not be possible by default in the qualification games of their national teams, if they play in the NBA. Despite this fact, FIBA decided to declare once again war to the best league in Europe, which is widely considered second best only to the NBA.
And what if a national team has a lot of NBA talent? “France gives to the NBA and then our national team is in pain”, said Jacques Monclar without any hesitation.
It’s obvious that the EuroLeague is not the NBA and has to take many steps in order to be in the same conversation with the best league in the world. However, nobody can really believe FIBA’s argument that it was a “joint strategy” to exclude NBA players from qualification games in order to produce new stars. And how can anyone expect the EuroLeague clubs – many of them are still losing money in order to present the best possible rosters – to just follow FIBA’s lead without having any input in FIBA’s decisions? Specially when those clubs denied the chance to participate in FIBA’s initial Champions League project one year ago for their own reasons and they don’t get anything from FIBA in order to comply with the new calendar.
In the end, it’s all about the result and it should be also about the fans. And the result at this point is national teams’ qualification games which in Europe will not include the NBA and the EuroLeague players.