It's rare but Spain does not yet have its ticket for the Olympic Games, and Sergio Scariolo's players will first have to compete and win the pre-Olympic qualifying tournament (TQO) in Valencia. The draw was rather lenient since, from July 2 to 7, Spain will face Angola and Lebanon in the group stage, before crossing paths with the Bahamas, Finland and Poland. Remember that there is only one ticket for six training courses.
In the squad of Spain, no Ricky Rubio. At 33 years old, the former leader of the Wolves and Jazz still does not know if he will extend his career, and he did not want to be selected, solely on his name.
His future comes before the Olympic Games
“On Monday they started training. I didn't have enough time to be 100% ready because my sporting career depended on this summer, in terms of continuing to play or not.”, he explained. “I think it would have been selfish of me to play for the national team without being 100% ready. I also had to think about myself at that moment.”
To replace him, Sergio Scariolo recalled Lorenzo Brown, and it will be Rudy Fernandez's last dance. Alongside them, Santi Aldama, Sergio Llull, the brothers Juancho and Willy Hernangomez and Alex Abrines.
As for Ricky Rubio, he had already explained that he wanted to take a step back again before considering what comes next.
“I don’t know if I will continue next year”he admitted at the beginning of June. “I don’t want to make a decision in the heat of the moment. With my head rested, I would like to take advantage of a few weeks to be able to evaluate everything. This has not been easy. Now it's difficult to decide in the heat of the moment. »
