The naturalization of players has become a trend in the FIBA world. It is common for countries to reinforce themselves for large tournaments with athletes born outside their borders, taking advantage of the flexibility of the regulations, which allows one per team. However, this policy has detractors, such as the Angola team.
The Africans were left out of the second round of the 2023 World Cup after finishing with a 1-2 record in group A and the head coach Pep Clarós took advantage of the opportunity to shoot against the norm. «We can sign an imported player like most of the teams and maybe we will score more triples. But I don’t think this is right and I really think FIBA should stop this as soon as possible,” he urged.
Angola faced Italy, the Philippines and the Dominican Republic. Of the three, only the Asians have a naturalized -Jordan Clarkson- and precisely they achieved their only victory against them. In the case of the Caribbean, Karl-Anthony Towns and five other players were born outside the Dominican territory, but due to their ancestry they received a passport before they were 16 years old and thus can play as natives.
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“There are players who don’t even speak the language of the country they represent. There are countries that have seven or eight players who were born outside of that country. In a few years there will be no local product. Each country has to develop its own players, that’s what I think,” the Spaniard concluded.
After the defeat against the Dominican Republic, which left them out of the next stage, he made a comparison between the point guards of each team. “We have to create bases with size because ours are very thin and young, while theirs are 1.90 meters tall and weigh 95 kilograms,” he pointed out.
(Cover photo: Yong Teck Lim/Getty Images)
2023-08-31 02:24:18
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