Even I usually don’t like statements like this one, this time I must agree with David Blatt. In interview to Russian News portal, David Blatt expressed his frustration about this matter.

David Blatt, Israeli coach, current coach of Maccabi Electra, and coach of Russian National team, believes that British basketball team does not deserve its place in the London 2012 Olympic tournament.

He also believe that his team, Russian National team should be already qualified for Olympic Games as having placed third at the European championships.

Asked about if British National team deserved the berth as Olympic host, David Blatt said: “Sports-wise, no.” He also continues: “Only because the Olympics are in London this year, the British team received a free pass, and that was at our expense, basically.”

I am sure that most of us from Basketball will agree with David Blatt in this case. All we know very well how much all coaches and their teams struggling to reach some high results and qualify for Olympic Games or any other Championship, and then it is normal to be frustrated to see that other teams are qualified just beacuse their country host that competition.

Russia has to place in the top three at the 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Caracas, to make sure of a berth in London. This tournament will be played in Venezuela, in July, a month before the Games begin.

I believe that this shouldn’t be big problem for Russian National team to qualify, but as David Blate said: “We’re going to do what we have to do in order to minimize that problem. This is the world we live in and the tournament is going to be played in an atypical climate for the Russian team and in an atypical time zone, but we will travel to the United States early, get acclimatized to the weather as well as to the time zone. We’ll be fine.”

At this tournament Russia will compete with following teams: Venezuela, Macedonia, Lithuania, Greece, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Angola, Nigeria, Jordan and Korea.

Photo: espn.go.com