theFireBlanket wrote:blazza18 wrote:crkone wrote:[tweet]https://twitter.com/cf_gardner/status/741281335935938560[/tweet]
@cf_gardner
Giannis Antetokounmpo cleared to play for Greek national team with full support of Bucks ownership, source indicates.
15 hours after the Bucks tweeted, Charles remembers he's not a soccer reporter so he'd better tweet something about the Bucks.
He was basically the first person to break it. They don't name him to the roster without the Bucks' support.
[tweet]https://twitter.com/cf_gardner/status/740933935400509441[/tweet]
The below tweet is referring to the official announcment of the Greek Federation and the selction of the Coach.
This was officially declared. How can he be the "first to break it"?
Everybody in Greece new it at this time.
The Greek Coach was in touch with all the Greek Players during the whole past season (as he always does).
This is done to be sure which players really plan to play for Greece. In the last years there have been some unexpected
refusals / sit outs by some players so the Coach changed the process and asks the players before he invites them.
All this to be sure that no invitation is declined.
(for exemple Kaimakoglou was not invited this year. Everybody was wondering why as the Power Forward spot is quite thin
this year. After the official declaration it was declared that Kaimakoglou asked the Coach to not invite him this year as he
needs some rest. Same thing was with Papagiannis who has not been invited as the Player wanted to attend some try outs in the NBA during pre-draft)
There has been some talks between the Greek Coach and the Greek Federation with the Bucks in the past.
But I am quite sure that he the Coach did not finally "ask" the Bucks if he is allowed to invite Giannis.
Giannis officially said several times that he wants to play so why would the Coach ask for permission.
The above mentioned process is to make sure which players are ready to play for Greece; nothing else.
The regulation between the FIBA and the NBA is quite clear in this point.
Additionally the Greek media said that inviting Giannis before he got the final OK from the Bucks was done to put some
pressure on the Bucks. I think it was mainly done to take pressure from Giannis if the Bucks would not have given him
the final OK. Then Giannis would have been "not guilty" for not coming.
According to the Greek Media this was a strategic move by the Greek Coach.
I am not an insider (although I literally read everything about Giannis) but this seems plausible to me.
So it was not "the Greek coach invited Giannis AFTER talking (or Giannis) with the Bucks" but "the Invitation was
before Giannis got the final OK".
The invitation came 1 Week before the final meeting between the Bucks and Giannis so this is another indication.
So at the end of the day the tweet by cf_gardner literally came "quite" late
By the way, TEAM USA should change the process also. There have been a lot of unexpected refusals AKA "ghost-injuries" the last day. Especially Westbrook was not injured the whole season and now he is??
Same for Curry (ok some light injuries before some days but he is playing the finals putting 38P so he seems to be quite OK
).
All this late-time refusals put unnecessary pressure on the coach, TEAM USA and the players.
Wiggings declined these day to play for Canada (unexpected) and is getting **** in Canada.
There are always times that some players will not be available for their NT (even Dirk and Pau sat out some years)
so this has to be agreed between the NT and the Players BEFORE the invitation.
(I just want to add that this does not refer to Giannis. He will play every year
Just kidding.
The first free (for sure) summer will be the Summer 2018 as there is no tournament this year.
The FIBA changed the system with European Chamionschips being only every 4 years.
2017 European Chamionschip
2018 no tournament
2019 World Cup
2020 Olympic Games
2021 European
2022 no tournament
2023 World Cup and so on)
And this year is like sitting out also as he will be awy from the Bucks just for 3 weeks.
