Basket, Pozzecco and Italy: “Belinelli and Hackett will not be at the European Championship”

Marco Belinelli and Daniel Hackett will not play EuroBasket, scheduled for September with Italy in the group in Milan. The announcement comes directly from the coach Pozzecco, in the press conference in Trieste after his debut match for the Azzurri in the friendly lost against Slovenia.

sentences

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“I talked to Marco and Daniel, we decided by mutual agreement that there will be no European Championships. A choice that saddens me, but today, inevitably, a basketball player has to make choices. I thank Marco and Daniel for talking to me as a friend, we all shared a choice of this type here, the president, the federation. As our president Petrucci always says, full speed ahead “.

the situation

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The recovery of veterans like Belinelli and Hackett, excluded from the end of the Sacchetti management, was one of Pozzecco’s objectives in his first days as a coach. If a yes came immediately from Gigi Datome, with Melli immediately returning to him the captain’s armband brought to the Olympics last year (already from the 4th July match in the Netherlands for the world qualifiers), the two Virtus Bologna players who had announced their farewell to the blue took some time to reflect. And in the end they decided, in agreement with the coach, not to rejoin the group. In any case, Italy will have Danilo Gallinari at the European Championship, absent with Slovenia. And he is aiming for an important result, especially in the group in Milan.