The Lithuanian coach of the Greek National Team, Jonas Kazlauskas was unhappy with Papaloukas' and Diamantidis' decisions to skip Eurobasket 2009 and did not try to hide his feelings.
In comments made to the Greek sports newspaper "Sportday" Kazlauskas said:
"I didn't expect them not to join the National Team. I talked Papaloukas before the start of Greek A1 play-offs and he told me that everything was OK and that he would be in Poland, now he tells me he is in pan and can't play, what can I do?
Diamantidis on the other hand delayed the surgery to fix his injury, maybe him or Panathinaikos could not have found a better time to do this surgery… I don't know what happened. Maybe they found a better doctor or a doctor that could not perform the surgery another time.
If I start saying things I could end up saying the wrong things", Kazlauskas concluded.
Having no other choice Kazlauskas called up two new faces to the National Team preparation, experienced guard Manolis Papamakarios and shooting guard/small forward Giannis Georgalis, both players of Panellinios Athens.
