By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Marcin Gortat may have retired from his international career but, naturally, he follows the Poland’s non-stop efforts quite closely. In the literal sense of the word.
Most recently, the Washington Wizards center was spotted in Wloclawek, Poland, where his country’s national team faced, and beat, Portugal and Belarus, making it 2/2 in the Eurobasket 2017 qualifiers.
“Let’s be honest, qualifying to EuroBasket is a duty for our team,” Gortat said in an interview for Polish Sportowe Fakty. “I do not see another solution. We should win hands down this group and prepare for the next EuroBasket calmly. I know that the fans who want to see the national team be successful again share this view.”
After watching Poland defeat its opponent rather easily, Gortat had only the best to say for the game of his ex teammates. “Wacynzski is a leader of this team, he is in the best period of his career and he shows it on the floor. He reads the game superbly, gets important shots, he is not afraid to take the responsibility on his shoulders.”
“Maciej Lampe is a player who can play at a high level and the the only issue is for him to adapt properly to the team. You can see that he is in great shape physically, he’s lost a little weight and I believe that in the following games he should play under the basket even more and attack rivals.”
“I am an old man,” he mentioned when asked if he will might come back to the national team. “It’s now up to Przemyslaw Karnowski to take over as the center of the national team. It is a pity that the injury kept him away from this campaign but Szymon Szewczyk stepped in for him and is helping the team with his experience.”
Even though many other Polish veterans will soon follow him in retirement from the national team, Gortat puts his trust in the player that emerge from the youth squads to carry their torch. “I am already gone and soon Lampe, (Adam) Hrycaniuk and Szewczyk will also go, Karnowski will be left alone (in the frontcourt) but I hope that youngsters from the U18 and even the U16 sides will step up and make the difference on the (senior) national team.”