By George Efkarpidis/ GEfkarpidis@eurohoops.net
Sergio Scariolo is the only coach in the world who remains on the bench of a national team and he is also part of an NBA coaching staff.
That’s why his opinion about the FIBA World Cup is more than valuable. “The upcoming FIBA World Cup will be a great tournament because the Olympics games are limited to a very short number of teams“, said to Eurohoops the coach of the Spanish national team, who is also an assistant coach in the Toronto Raptors.
Scariolo has been permitted by the Raptors during the FIBA windows to leave the team in order to coach Spain and he is practically the only employee of an NBA team in the world who participates in the qualifiers during the season.
And he thinks that this has to change: “FIBA windows have some good things, we did great with a brand new group of players and many Spanish cities could watch the national team (ed.note: on their gyms), but on the same time there are too many problems for NBA teams, NBA players, EuroLeague players. I don’t think this is the right way, right now to continue. We had this experience. It has taught us something, but in the next Olympic circle is better to change it, to combine better different interests and to have a more harmonic schedule, coordinated between all the different parts“.
Scariolo talked to Eurohoops about being a European coach in the NBA, the future of Euro-coaches in the US and also the future of the European players in the best league in the world, which seems to be bright with stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic.