PESARO. She could have been better. The party of 10,000 in Pesaro and who knows how many viewers with unified networks between Rai 2, Sky Sport and Eleven Sport for the second consecutive World Championship harpooned by Italbasket – the last double in a row with participations in 1986 and 1990 – can wait. The qualification remains within reach, even if the little trick packaged in 45 minutes (84-88 after an overtime) by the experimental Spain, but still world and European champion in office, by Sergio Scariolo makes the trip of Monday in Tbilisi to cross Georgia, winning in Iceland 85-88 thanks to a capital test provided by the virtuoso Toko Shengelia (27 points and 11 rebounds). The situation in the standings says Spain first (which already with Holland can endorse the qualification), Italy second, Georgia and Iceland third on equal points: a victory or a defeat within 7 points in Tbilisi would in fact guarantee (even if maybe not arithmetically) the fulfillment of the world mission, a goal reserved directly for the first three classes, otherwise everything would resoundingly come back into play, postponing any speech and making the two remaining matches in the February window against Ukraine (at home) and Spain (away) fundamental ).
It is forbidden to make mistakes in Georgia. And the coach Gianmarco Pozzecco and his willing gang, once they dispose of the regret for not having collected the scalp of Spain in Pesaro (absent from the blue collection from the 2015 European Championships), know it very well. «I am proud of my players – Poz proclaims in the umpteenth press conference show – who played with the heart in front of 10 thousand spectators and were as always commendable. For the Tbilisi challenge we will have to make a virtue of necessity, but the boys always know how to go beyond their limits. The truth is that we lack the time to train and prepare all together. In full, we won three out of three games this summer. But does a basketball management system seem logical to you in which Euroleague matches are played simultaneously with those of the Nationals? In football, for the Winter World Cup, all the club teams stop, in basketball the Euroleague continues the same. And we coaches cannot summon the best ones or the ones we want. We risk seeing a World Cup in which there will be no Greece because they cannot field Antetokounmpo in the qualifiers. With this formula we risk not seeing champions like Doncic, Jokic and Antentokounmpo at the World Cup, an event that should represent the highest representation of basketball. The Pesaro audience wanted to see the guys who had excited people at the European Championships and instead, with this situation, it was not possible. The most penalized are the players who cannot experience the national team and the club in a serene way. How can a player be asked to choose between the national team and a club that pays them? It almost seems to ask to choose between punching the mother or the father. This situation is pure madness ». After the invective, the umpteenth that will not even be the last against the Fiba / Euroleague mess, Poz gets up and goes away. See you in Tbilisi.