The Slovenian national basketball team started on Saturday their training camp for the EuroBasket, to be played in Slovenia between 4 and 22 September. A total of 13 players are currently at the camp in Rogaška Slatina, and three more are expected to join the team next week.
As they arrived in Rogaška Slatina on Friday, the players said they could not wait for the trainings to start. For a majority of the roster the EuroBasket in front of the home crowd will be the apex of their careers.
"To be selected for the national team, to play in front of the home crowd and at the biggest sporting event in Slovenia's history, is a great honour," said team captain Jaka Lakovič.
Point guard Goran Dragić, the only Slovenian NBA player, added that this was the golden opportunity for the team. "We have a lifetime project in front of us, which have to be taken advantage of, because there will never be another chance for a good result in front of the home fans."
The training camp will last 41 days with only six days off. The national team will play a dozen friendly games in the process, ten of them in Slovenia, in seven different venues.
"Although we are not complete, I can guarantee that we will play good basketball at the championships, that we will fight and that Slovenians will be proud of us," head coach Božidar Maljković said.
Slovenia's road to the EuroBasket will continue in Zreče, Kranjska Gora and Serbia's Belgrade. At the end of August, the team will go to the Slovenian coast and then test the tournament venues in Celje and Ljubljana.
The first friendly, against Ukraine, will be played in Domžale on Friday, while two days later Slovenia will host Macedonia, the fourth-placed team from the 2011 EuroBasket.
A tournament featuring Latvia, Serbia and Turkey will be played between 2 and 4 August in Celje, where Slovenia will also play its preliminary EuroBasket round.
Source: Slovenia Times
