By Semih Tuna/ info@eurohoops.net
Riga, Latvia – Latvia superstar Kristaps Porzingis will face two NBA All-Star big men just during the first round of the EuroBasket that begins Wednesday (27/9): Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic and Houston Rockets’ Alperen Sengun.
“Jokic… This guy is probably No. 1 in the world. This is my opinion,” Jokic said on the eve of the EuroBasket. “It’s going to be a tough-tough challenge for us. We still have Turkey and Estonia first, and then Serbia. We have a little bit of time. We aren’t focused on Serbia yet, but we’re going to have our hands full.”
On the EuroBasket opening day, Latvia, the host of Group A, will play against Turkey, and Porzingis will clash against Sengun.
“He’s a beast,” Porzingis said of Sengun. “He’s a great player. He’s been better with each year. We have a challenge in front of us. His passing ability, his talent offensively…. we’re going to have our hands full. It’s going to take a team effort.”
Porzingis is unsure whether this is the best Latvian team of the last couple of years. “It’s always like recency bias, you want to be like, yeah, yeah, we’re the best, but there’s always been some good players, high-level players, your league players. You know, at one point we had 5 NBA guys, you know, so now it’s only 1, you know, but, but of course we have a, we have a talented and experienced team, and we have the young guy like Zagars coming up also. We have a bunch of guys who are really good and didn’t make the roster, but they’re going to be really good.”
Despite the fact that Latvia plays at home and will try to compete for a medal, Porzingis doesn’t feel any pressure.
“I personally don’t feel it. I only see it as something valuable that you’re able to play at home in front of your crowd. You have the home advantage. You’re supposed to have the home advantage, but then of course there’s some extra pressure to perform well, and that’s what we have to do, and that’s why we’re here working all summer long. Hopefully, we can show our best basketball.”