Basketball: DBB team probably without Euroleague pros

Henrik Rödl may have to forego the five EuroLeague clubs’ international players when making his debut as the national basketball coach,”We’re not sure yet whether they can play,”said the 48-year-old from Frankfurter Rundschau.

The two World Cup qualifiers against Georgia and in Austria in the first of the newly created country’s windows overlap with the EuroLeague. There is still no solution to the long-standing dispute over deadlines between the European Cup royal class and the FIBA World Federation.

“We will start on Monday with 14 players,”said Rödl, who has nominated a total of 19 players. Maodo Lo, Patrick Heckmann, Lucca Staiger (all Brose Bamberg), Tibor Pleiß (Valencia Basket) and Johannes Voigtmann (Saski Baskonia) are needed for their clubs. It is highly questionable whether they will be released.

Rödl, who took over the post of national coach after the European Championships as successor to Chris Fleming, thinks the new calendar with international matches during the club season is good:”Generally speaking, this is a great idea,” said the 1993 European Champion in 1993:”The other major sports also do it, and the national teams always have a high ranking.