By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Boban Marjanovic and the Serbian NT will know on Tuesday if the center of the San Antonio Spurs will play in the upcoming Eurobasket, as the unexpected mystery of his injury will be resolved.
Marjanovic had to travel to Los Angeles and now to San Antonio in order for the Spurs to evaluate his condition. But is there a condition at all? That’s the question in Serbia as the Eurobasket approaches and Marjanovic may miss it. The Serb center passed the medical exams of the Spurs in Milan, Italy, before signing his contract. However it seems that a post in Bleacher Report about him “playing with a broken foot” – according to Crvena Zvezda assistant Bosko Radovic, Bobby’s previous team – in the Serbian league finals and risking his potential NBA future, changed all this.
It was known during the Serbian league finals that Marjanovic was injured, but there were reports about him having ankle issues. Nothing about a fracture. According to his agent, Misko Raznatovic, that was also confirmed by his medical exams in Los Angeles. There only a “big swelling” and that’s why he got a special boot in order to protect his foot.
Back to Serbia, however, where the national team has started its training camp, the medical staff denies any kind of injury and national team coach Sasha Djordjevic, an icon for Serbian basketball, has voiced his displeasure about the whole situation. Even if there are many alternatives in the roster for the center position, Serbia after the silver medal in the recent FIBA World Cup, aims for the top of Europe in the upcoming tournament, so every top player is needed.
And here’s an even more interesting twist. Djordjevic and Raznatovic don’t have the best of relations, the agent criticized publicly some of the coach’s choices of players and according to the general basketball consensus in Serbia, this is also a factor in the whole bizzare situation. In any case the final word belongs to the Spurs and on Tuesday we will know if the “Bobinator” will be cleared to play or not…