The Spanish National Team will not have a naturalized player in the defense of its global crown in the 2023 World Cup. The chosen one was, of course, Lorenzo Brown. The Rockford point guard (32 years old), Lorenzo de Albacete, as he was baptized by Usman Garuba after the incredible gold medal in Berlin, was part of Sergio Scariolo’s plans in this cycle that, for Maccabi, began last summer and should having had continuity in this with an eye on the Paris Games. But Lorenzo argued that he had suffered injuries throughout the season and that he was not in a condition to be with the National Team, a blow at the base position to which was later added the goodbye in full concentration of Ricky Rubio. The one from El Masnou was MVP in the 2019 World Cup, Lorenzo entered the Best Quintet in the 2022 Eurobasket.
Without Lorenzo, the naturalized place was once again free. An issue that has generated a lot of debate in recent times but on which the FIBA general secretary, Andreas Zagklis, was emphatic before the Eurobasket: “In basketball, we have the country that invented this game producing at least a thousand players per year capable of making a difference in other teams. A country with a lot of immigration and large communities from many parts of the world. Our idea is to be very strict with the other eleven places in a team. The twelve place can be for a player who acquires nationality with more than 16 years. We have talked about this and it is not going to change or expand, he will continue to be one of the twelve called up at most. It is the federations that have to make good use of this rule”.
Before Lorenzo, Spain already used that formula from the times of Wayne Brabender and Clifford Luyk to the two that preceded the American point guard: Nikola Mirotic and Serge Ibaka. Both are active, so they could have been options for the World Cup. However, they were not considered by Sergio Scariolo and his work team.
The two, Mirotic and Ibaka, disappeared from the scope of the National Team before the 2019 World Cup. In the months prior to that championship, to which Spain did not arrive as a favorite but from which it emerged crowned for the second time as champion (the first, in 2006) , both were in the accounts for an inside game that I already knew would not have Pau Gasol. In principle, Mirotic was going to be the chosen one, but Ibaka had worked with Scariolo in the Raptors who were proclaimed champions (also with Marc Gasol) of the NBA that summer. Finally, no one came. Mirotic signed for Barcelona and assured that he wanted to work all summer to prepare for his return to Europe. Ibaka also resigned and Scariolo assured, when he presented a list of 16 without them, that “they had not given an option.”
Afterwards, none has counted again although Ibaka offered himself last summer, before the Eurobasket, in a management that did not take too many strides. Now, the center (33 years old) is trying to find a place in an NBA in which his role has been significantly reduced in recent seasons, as soon as his physical prime has passed. Mirotic has had a very difficult summer, with his departure from Barcelona and a soap opera that placed him in half of Europe before signing with Ettore Messina’s Milan.
Ibaka, who played for Congo in the lower categories, arrived in Spain in 2007 and played for Hospitalet and Manresa before joining the NBA in 2009. In 2011, during the Major League lockout, he signed a two-month contract with Real Madrid. His debut with his national team came that summer, with gold in the European Championship in Lithuania. A year later, he was in the group that won silver at the 2012 Games.
Mirotic came later. A Montenegrin by birth, he signed for Real Madrid at the age of 14. He was bronze in the 2010 European Championship and gold in 2011 (also MVP) with the U-20 National Team. In 2015 he entered the group that was European champion in France, and a summer later he was in bronze at the Rio 2016 Games. A year later, he resigned from Eurobasket 2017 and has not played with the National Team again.
2023-08-22 04:00:53
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