By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Marco Belinelli talked to Italian newspaper “Gazzetta Dello Sport” about the upcoming pre-Olympic tournament with the Italian national team, but also about his future in the NBA with the Sacramento Kings.
Italy, which will host on of the three pre-Olympic tournaments, wants to be Rio and the opportunity couldn’t be bigger: “The pre-Olympic allows us to dream about the Olympics in Brazil. It’s a big goal, we have excellent chances to reach it because we are a young and motivated team. Our strengh is the team we have. I started in the national team with people like Basile, Galanda and Marconato and now we have a unit, which has grown a lot in the last 2-3 years. It will make the difference, as did it when I won with the San Antonio Spurs: it was there that I realized the importance of chemistry which is critical to win Coach Messina has won everywhere. I had him when I was 15-16 year old with Virtus Bologna, then I found myself under him when he was an assistant in San Antonio. Now I am lucky enough to have him as the head coach of the national team. I expect from him a different attitude compared to the Spurs, but he will bring us experience and winning mentality which is what we need”.
For his NBA season he added: “We didn’t have a good unit in Sacramento and there wasn’t enough trust in the coach. We didn’t train well all season. Now I saw that they’ve made some changes, they fired George Karl and hired Dave Joerger. I think that Joerger is a good coach, he can do a good job. I still want to win. Coming from San Antonio, I immediately noticed that several teammates in Sacramento hadn’t a winning mentality. But I do have a winning mentality and I want to win now. To make that happen, something has to change. I’m still under contract with Sacramento and I have trust in the organization but in the NBA you never know what may happen, we’ll see in the summer”.