By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Franz Wagner fell shy of confirming participation in the EuroBasket 2025 with Germany, but Goga Bitadze stressed his intentions to represent Georgia after the end of their 2024-25 journey with the Orlando Magic.
“That’s going to be a conversation,” the 23-year-old German forward replied to a question about the upcoming international tournament during an end-of-season interview, “I love playing for my country, and I love the guys that I play with there. It’s always a great time. It’s also at the end of this summer, so there’s still a lot of time left before that. I hate to always promise stuff.”
“I’ll see how I feel and how the summer kind of goes,” Wagner added, labeling himself as questionable for the EuroBasket, “Other than that, plans are kind of tentative at this point, but, obviously, we’ll make sure I have a good setup to make sure I get better.”
Germany is unlikely to feature his brother, Moritz. Stuck on the injury list of the Magic to end the season, the 28-year-old forward/center is focused on rehabbing a torn ACL in his left knee and hoping to be cleared for the 2025-26 NBA Regular Season. “There’s no benchmark or anything like that,” he explained on Thursday.
Coming out of his rookie NBA campaign, Tristan da Silva is another potential option from the Magic for Germany.
From aforementioned players being questionable to doubtful for the team coached by Alex Mumbru, Bitadze plans to play for Georgia in the EuroBasket.
“I take that very seriously,” the 25-year-old center said about suiting up for the senior national team of his country, “I’m going to prepare for that and got to stay in shape all summer. Hopefully, we win a lot of games with the national team.”
In the preliminary round of the EuroBasket, Germany will be in Finland and Georgia in Cyprus, hoping to clinch a berth in the knockout stage, which will be played in Riga, Latvia. The schedule stretches from August 27 to September 14.
Photo Credit: FIBA