Baskonia players won’t join their national teams for FIBA World Cup qualifiers

Baskonia has joined Olympiacos on the list of EuroLeague teams that will not participate in the upcoming FIBA World Cup qualifiers.

Latvia’s Janis Timma announced the news himself on Instagram that he won’t play for Latvia in the qualifiers. The same goes too for his teammates.

Diemžēl, bet mēs – ULEB Eirolīgas spēlētāji, esam nostādīti situācijā, kurā mums nekad nevajadzētu būt – kad ir jāizvēlas starp darba devēju, kurš uztur mūsu ģimenes un savas valsts izlasi… Šī situācija nav mūsu atbildība un tās nav mūsu ambīcijas, taču lēmums ir jāpieņem tieši mums. Klubā kopā pārrunājām šo situāciju, un, ņemot vērā slikto sezonas sākumu, kā arī neseno kluba galvenā trenera nomaiņu, pieņēmām kopīgu lēmumu, nepievienoties izlasei uz šo spēļu posmu! Vēlu veiksmi Latvijas izlasei Pasaules čempionāta kvalifikācijā un ticu, ka izdosies, taču šoreiz bez manis.

A post shared by Jānis Timma (@janistimma6) on Nov 13, 2017 at 4:30am PST

Translated into English:

We as EuroLeague players are in a situation in which we should never be. We have to choose between an employer which keeps our family and our country. This situation is not our responsibility but we have to make a decision about that. In the club we discussed this situation and considered the bad start of the season, the new head coach, we made a joint decision not to join our National Teams in the first stage of the Qualifiers”.

Marcelinho Huertas (Brazil), Jayson Granger (Uruguay), Johannes Voigtmann (Germany), Vincent Poirier (France), Ilimane Diop (Spain) and Tornike Shengelia (Georgia) won’t join their respective national sides.