Eurobasket MVP Goran Dragic said that he would continue playing for the national team if head coach Igor Kokoskov remained at the helm but the playcaller has admitted that it is impossible.
Kokoskov, who guided Slovenia to their first Eurobasket title in its history on Sunday night will now focus his attention on his assistant coaching duties with the Utah Jazz.
Due to the NBA responsibilities that he has, the coach stated that carrying on with the national side would not work.
“It’s impossible,” Kokoskov said to Eurohoops.net.
“The new FIBA calendar is something that it affects the players, affects the coaches, it’s unfortunate, but it is what it is. For me this is not a job, this is fun, this is a pleasure, it’s an honor for me to be part of the national team, to have the opportunity to coach it. But it’s impossible.”
Great Britain and Germany coaches Joe Prunty and Chris Fleming have stepped down, respectively from their national team roles due to their coaching roles in the NBA. So for Kokoskov to continue his role would always be tough to progress on with.
“In November it will be somewhere else, in February it will be somewhere else,” Kokoskov explained.
“Hopefully, EuroLeague will find a way to deal with FIBA and allow EuroLeague players first of all to play for the national teams. That’s a bigger concern for the Slovenian Federation than who is going to coach the team.
“We talk now and in about a month the qualification games will be starting. And it seems that a solution is not close. To answer your question, the biggest concern for federations and especially for the Slovenian federation is how they are going to deal with the EuroLeague.
“The NBA players are not coming. The NBA is not going to change their calendar, so it remains to be seen what will happen in the EuroLeague. That will affect teams much more than who is going to coach the team.”
