For several months now, it seems that the Euroleague management has been adding a team from Dubai, alongside teams from Paris and London, in order to expand the market to which the league is exposed and make it profitable. Many fans across the continent did not like the move and spoke out against it. But now comes a surprising voice from the other direction.
Nikola Kalinic, a Barcelona player who will meet Maccabi in Belgrade on Thursday, was interviewed by Serbian media and provided an interesting statement: I hear people say, "Dubai is not in Europe" and I really don't understand the logic. Tel Aviv isn't in Europe either, and Maccabi has been playing in the Euroleague for years, so what's the difference? There's no problem with that."
"The participation of teams from Dubai, London and Paris can make the league more interesting," Kalinic explained, admitting: "In the end, what matters is the money, that's what talks about, and if there's a team from Dubai, economic conditions will improve."
Kalinich. "Tel Aviv is not in Europe either," Photo: AFP
When asked about his former coach Željko Obradović, Kalinic did not spare compliments: Zeljko is someone who lives with basketball 24 hours a day. When he came to the gym in the morning for training, he would ask us, "Did you watch the NBA games at night?" But my name isn't Zeljko Obradovic, so I spend those hours sleeping."
"Zeljko loves basketball and tries to watch every game he can. After practice, he would go to the players of the young team and talk to them, take part in shooting drills and throw them the ball. I've never seen a coach of this caliber do anything like this before. You can see that the "basketball fire" inside Zeljko is still burning, so he is the best.
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Željko Obradović. "The Best", Cinematography: Alan Shaver
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