Today the organizers of the 10th Annual Vladimir Kondrashing and Alexander Belov Cup sent out a fax with the official decline from the Spanish club Tau Ceramica regarding participation in the tournament, which begins this weekend in St. Petersburg.
The Spanish club’s leadership explained the decision by saying they couldn’t bring a strong roster to the tournament. After their center Andrew Betts was injured, Tau Ceramica head coach Dusko Ivanovic had only five players: Louis Scola, Sergi Vidal, Arvydas Macijauskas, Tiago Splitter and Kornel David. Putting together a roster in the short period of time wasn’t possible wasn’t possible because of Russian visa problems.
The Spaniards are prepared to reimburse the organizers for the unused plane tickets.
PBC CSKA CEO Sergey Kushchenko commented on the situation:
“The team’s decision a few days before the start of the tournament basically means a break in the tournament. Furthermore, because the clubs are in the final phase of their preseason preparations. Over the course of the entire day today I tried to resolve the situation. Even the most unthinkable scenarios were considered. In the end we were able to save the tournament and replace them with the Yugslav team Hemofarm, which agreed to our offer. The team will arrive in St. Petersburg on a charter flight with CSKA. I’m very grateful to the Hemofarm leaders, who understood our problem and agreed to work with us.
Background information:
Last season Hemofarm, the club of No. 2 NBA draft pick Darko Milicic, finished 5th place in the Yugoslav Championship last year, losing in the quarterfinals to Buducnost. In the FIBA Cup, the club from Vrsac made it to the Final Four, where it lost by 7 points to the future champion, the Greek club Aris. This season Hemofarm is playing in the FIBA Euroleague in the same group with the Russian club Khimki.
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