It looks like Nenad Krstic and Boki Nachbar will be playing this summer in international tournaments. Krstic made his commitment to the Serbian National Team this past January. Here's what he said in an ESPN chat room... Q. Nenad are you going to play for serbia, we really need you. A. Yeah, definitely! We have a new coach and he'll be visiting me this weekend and I'm very excited about playing for Serbia. It's an honor to play for my National Team and I'm looking forward to playing this summer. Serbia is not in the Olympics, but will participate in the Diamond Ball Tournament in Nanjing, China, starting July 29. The other teams on hand will be China, Iran, Australia, Argentina, and Angola. Serbia opens against Iran on July 30. Nachbar hasn't (to my knowledge) said anything this year about playing but last June when he announced he wouldnt play in the European championships, he made a commitment to the team: "I can confirm that I will again join the national team after this EuroBasket," Nachbar said. Slovenia is playing in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Athens July 14-20. Twelve teams are battling for the last three spots in the Olympics. The others are Cameroon, Cape Verde, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Canada, Lebanon, Korea, Greece, Germany, Croatia and New Zealand. Both teams should start practice around July 1, maybe earlier. July 1 is also the date when teams can make their first offers to free agents. I guess they expect to make deals quickly.
Normally I'd say this is bad but both need to find some consistantly and they both will get plenty of shots off for their country. Only problem is that NBA GM's can scout them pretty easily in a new enviroment maybe to get a better feel of how they would play for their team.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>A. Yeah, definitely! We have a new coach and he'll be visiting me this weekend and I'm very excited about playing for Serbia. It's an honor to play for my National Team and I'm looking forward to playing this summer.</div> The only reason he's playing is because Serbia always threatens him.
The competition should be good for both...not to mention confidence building for Krstic. Serbia will be playing teams with NBA big men Bogut (Australia), China (Yao) and Argentina (Scola). Besides, it will give us some hoops to talk about.
They should...they need the practice, competition, change of scenery, whatever but they need to do something different to get out of the rut they're in...
