By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
In what is turning to be one of the ugliest stories in the history of FIBA’s junior competitions the Croatian federation decided to leave its best player, Dragan Bender, out of the U19 world cup team for financial reasons.
As both Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress and David Hein described in detail Bender, who has a contract with Adidas which doesn’t let him use any other sport equipment, is out of the team, because he can’t use Jordan brand equipment. The Jordan Brand had a contract with the Croatian federation and Bender, probably the biggest talent of his age in Europe, will miss the tournament.