The absolute Spanish side are already training in Madrid ahead of the FIBA window at the end of the month and the Eurobasket, which starts on September 1. It’s a very renewed team, with significant absences due to resignation or injury, so the medals seem far away at the moment.
Sergio Scariolo explains that “it’s a new team with little experience, but we have all the enthusiasm and the desire to do a good job and, above all, to become again a team that plays as such and plays great basketball. That we have”. been doing for so many years.” and it was recognizable and admired by all”.
The coach added, questioned by Lorenzo Brown, that “there have been players who have played while being born elsewhere. The place of birth, or the color of the skin has never been an identity value of this team. There are no complications, the important thing is that the player is united and consistent with the rest.
On the medal options and the new FIBA Ranking and Spain appearing fifth after many years as Europe’s first or second team, Scariolo commented that “there are obvious real situations and we give them the weight they have. This is perhaps the year where we are the furthest in the prediction of medals, but for now the goal is to form a team with new people. Now we don’t think about final goals anymore and it will also be difficult to qualify for Berlin, for the second phase.
Captain Rudy Fernández, who a few days ago criticized the nationalization of Lorenzo Brown, this time preferred to emphasize that “Brown is a player who comes to help the team, it must be specified and I prefer players who are linked to this team, although we are 22 years old, to others who could set aside Sergio Scariolo’s call to come this summer”.
Regarding Eurobasket and the fact that many don’t see Spain as a candidate for a medal, the forward pointed out that “in the 2019 World Cup we weren’t favorites either. Surprises may or may not happen, but we are all preparing. The team is rebuilding. You have to take advantage of the moment and have the feeling of having given everything. The results will come or they won’t come, but we have to give it our all.”
For his part, Llull considered that this tournament “is not the end of an era nor the beginning of a new one. The selection evolves and there is a generational change. From now on, the older among us will try to transmit to the younger ones how we work and that the effort and the desire are not negotiable”. Regarding Brown, he said “he is one more colleague who arrived with great enthusiasm” and declined to comment on his nationalization.
Willy Hernangómez underlined that this European Championship “is a very difficult objective, and the competition will put us in its place, but we will not give up. It’s a responsibility to be one of the veterans in the team, and it’s an illusion to have that importance on the youngsters.”