The Basketball World Championship in China (31.8 - 15.9./The FCBB will be present with five players: Captain Danilo Barthel, Maodo Lo and Paul Zipser are still fighting for participation in a qualifying tournament for the 2020 Olympics after the German preliminary round debacle, while their new team mate Mathias Lessort will compete with France (on Wednesday eleven points at the 90th World Championships):56 against the Dominican Republic) as well as the big co-favourite Serbia with Vladimir Lucic (preliminary round: 20.5 MpS, 4.3 PpS, 2.3 RpS).
Here we give you their impressions of the tournament, today our co-captain "Lucca" Lucic announces himself:
Hello together,
many greetings from Wouhan, where we moved to after the preliminary round of Foshan: get up at 6 o'clock 30, two hours to the airport, almost two hours flight and another hour to the hotel. I don't know why you have to change cities every few games in such a tournament.
But I'm glad I'm here, even though I only had six or seven days off after the season. Because I was injured at the worst time of the preparation, after a blow on the quadriceps: I missed six preparation games and wasn't quite sure if I would be in the team.
That's why I'm still missing the rhythm offensively. But we have so much talent as a team with big stars like Bogdanovic, Jokic or Bjelica. My job now is the "dirty jobs", and then at some decisive moment to improve myself. This role is okay for me, I don't care if I score two, four or 20 points - we only count the victories here. They count.
Because of my lack of preparation, I'm playing with Nikola Jokic here for the first time ever. We haven't really found each other yet, because I missed - and because he is simply an unusual player, with an extraordinary style. A bit too fat, they once said about him, but now he has 140 kilos and an incredible body - and a fabulous touch. It's fascinating to see him up close and personal as he finds his way around the different kind of World Cup basketball.
Not just because of him, I'd say it's one of the most talented teams we've ever had. Of course, people at home want us to get gold. But we have to stay humble despite all the euphoria and just look at the next game as the most important. That's how you get to the highest goal.
We've seen what can happen in a tournament like this. For example, I really believed that the Germans would be one of THE surprises.
Well, somehow they are now, too, but different than they thought. . .
I hope Danilo and the others will keep their heads up. I'll get in touch with him now, but I wanted to wait for the preliminary round.
See you around,
yours