This Wednesday morning, Sergio HERNANDEZ announced the list of 10 players that will represent Argentina in the Olympic basketball tournament in Beijing 2008.
The squad will be formed by 12 players so we are going to have to wait for the remaining pair that will join those from the list below:
Nicolás GIANELLA (PG)
Antonio PORTA (PG)
Pablo PRIGIONI (PG)
Emanuel GINOBILI (SG)
Carlos DELFINO (SG)
Federico KAMMERICHS (SF)
Fabricio OBERTO (PF/C)
Luis SCOLA (PF/C)
Leonardo GUTIERREZ (PF/C)
Andrés NOCIONI (SF)
HERNANDEZ also named a list of players for the South American Tournament that will be played in June in Chile and said he will work for a period of time with a pre-selection of 15 players to prepare for the Olympic Games.
He will eventually cut three players out of those 15 and we'll have the final list of players that will go to Beijing.
The squad that will go to the South American Tournament is the following:
Maximiliano STANIC, Nicolás DE LOS SANTOS, Diego GERBAUDO, Luis CEQUEIRA, Paolo QUINTEROS, Matías LESCANO, Matías NOCEDAL, Javier BULFONI, Matías SANDES, Roberto GABINI, Sebastian VEGA, Diego LO GRIPPO, Andrés PELUSSI, Leonardo MAINOLDI, Federico AGUERRE, Juan GUTIERREZ and Roman GONZALEZ.
These 17 players will all be trying to showcase their talents to convince Sergio HERNANDEZ they are worthy of a spot in the Olympic team.
With Pepe SANCHEZ and Walter HERRMANN already announcing they won't be available for selection, the surprises are on the absenses of Olympic champions Ruben WOLKOWYSKI and Gabriel FERNANDEZ.
What HERNANDEZ said about them is that they are not in the list for the South American Tournament because after being in the national team for 15 years they have nothing to prove to him and they can still be considered if he feels the Olympic team needs them.
Finally...HERNANDEZ said a few things about Argentina's Group A rivals in Beijing:
"Russia is a very powerful team. They are the European champions and they have defeated the World Champions, Spain. A very difficult task."
"Lithuania? I know basketball in Lithuania is not a sport, it's culture. They'll be very tough".
"Australia will be a hard team to beat and Iran will go there to learn and make a good experience. But the Olympics are a short tournament, very intense and most of the teams are really good. So we'll have to give our best and play against all our rivals at the top of our game".
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7 comments:
That team looks a little small size wise. One of the remaining two must be another big man.
What's Kammerichs like? I've never seen him play. He a big combo forward like Hermann or more similar to wing like Delfino.
Lithuania , when I hear that name the first thing that pops into my head is Marciulionis. Remb him? what a great pro he was.Also can not forget Sabonis. Both were pure class in the NBA. Sabonis could of been the greatest European ever and prob one of the greatest basketball players to ever grace the court if he never got hurt so much. Ah I kinda miss the old NBA. But way to go with Manu tonight! what a game he had for the Spurs. Like I said if San An protects homecourt they are fine, one game@ a time. And if they do win that game, the next game in NO can be HUGE! But like I said one game@ a time.
Jack!
Yes, Manu is playing for Argentina!.. I'm rooting for Argentina. I'm really excited for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. =)
Overall it's strong which I like it.
But what nbaroundtable said it's true, we need some big men in the team.
The best possible name I can think of Roman GONZALEZ. He played well at the FIBA Americas last year in the absence of OBERTO & WOLKOWYSKI.
By the way as four your question NBARoundtable, I would say KAMMERICHS is more similiar like HERRMANN.
Hey Seba,
The Olympics is going to be exciting, although Pepe Sanchez and Walter Herrmann will be missed. Pepe brought his savvy, defense and playmaking while Herrmann brought his relentless hustle, length and huge hands.
The competition looks very tough, as there are the USA, Spain and Russia, but as long as Manu, Scola and Nocioni are on the team, Argentina will have a realistic fighting chance at repeating.
Last but not least, scout the competition by watching this highlight reel of J.R. Holden, Russia's star point guard :
http://cmnetwork.blogspot.com/2008/05/mad-ballin-episode-11-jr-holden-first.html
Regards,
VJ Rabid
cmnetwork.blogspot.com
Wow! I just realized that I left the last paragraph in Spanish! I should have deleted it. I'll change that.
nbaroundtable: KAMMERICHS is a very athletic kind of player. Funnily enough, you mentioned 2 players when asking with whom can he be compared to and I'll say he is like a mix between HERRMANN and DELFINO. He is bigger than DELFINO but he is more athletic than HERRMANN. I lost track on him since he went to play in Europe but I was impressed by his game when he was a youngster coming through in Argentina.
John, I think you are right. I think Roman GONZALEZ should be added to this Olympic squad. He is a huge talent and I reckon he'll do a great job if he's called up.
VJ Rabid, thanks for that link, man! That JR Holden guy sure looks fast and with a bag full of tricks!
¿Walter Herrmann no va? Que pena, es un buen jugador.
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