Bulgaria NT

[Juan Carlos Nadal]

Actually it may come as a surprise but we are indeed talking about Vasco Evtimov and not his younger brother Ilyan. It's kinda funny. In a pretty much unprecedented case, Vasco took permission by FIBA (following an allowance letter by the French federation) to play for the Bulgarian NT despite having played for the French one in the past (I heard something about him being eligible to play for another NT because he did not play for France for more than 6 years or something but I did not quite get it). Funnily enough the French federation did not give such a letter for his younger brother as they believe that he can develop into something good enough to be eligible to play for them in the future (in reality they will probably give him the letter too but only after some time).

I know, it's kinda weird I have to say

[arturcia]

VASCO EVTIMOV played in France NT, and in Bulgarian NT likely to play his brother, ILIAN EVTIMOV.

[rikhardur]

Does Evtimov is allowed to play for Bulgaria? He played for France in Euro'01, so how can he be in Bulgarian preliminary roster then?

He simply can't play then. It's either another Evtimov or a typo. JCN please do enlighten us

[Mindozas]

18 players selected in Bulgaria's roster for Euro 2009


The head coach of Bulgarian national basketball team Pini Gershon selected 18 players for the up-coming European championship. Bulgaria is in Group D, together with Lithuania, Turkey and Poland.

The team starts preparation at July 15th in Sofia. Only 8 players will practice during the first week – Stefan Georgiev, Tencho Banev, Dimitar Anguelov, Boyko Mladenov, Deyan Ivanov, Kaloyan Ivanov, Vasil Evtimov and Filip Videnov. The other players including the captain Todor Stoykov will gether the team at July 20th after the Universiade in Belgrade, Serbia. Both players from the U20 National team Bozhidar Avramov and Aleksandar Yanev are going to join at August 1st.
Bulgaria has games with Portugal, Belarus, Cyprus, Russia, Belgium, Montenegro and The Serbian KK Hemofarm during the preparation period and a friendly tournament in Slovenia with the home team and Greece.

Bulgaria’s roster:
Todor Stoykov, Tencho Banev, Dimitar Anguelov, Chavdar Kostov, Hristo Nikolov, Stefan Georgiev, Boyko Mladenov, Stanislav Slaveykov, Zlatin Georgiev, Asen Velikov, Deyan Ivanov, Kaloyan Ivanov, Filip Videnov, Vasil Evtimov, Ivan Lilov, Aleksandar Yanev, Bozhidar Avramov and Ibrahim Jaaber.

Is Evtimov allowed to play for Bulgaria? He played for France in Euro'01, so how can he be in Bulgarian preliminary roster then?

[jugoplastika]

// 08 December 2008

Of all the attributes that Pini Gershon possesses, the most important to Bulgaria's national side may be his expertise in the field of psychology.

Gershon was appointed coach of Bulgaria at the end of 2007 and made his "underdog" players believe they would qualify for EuroBasket 2009.

The Bulgarians finished second in Group A behind Serbia with Italy third, Finland fourth and Hungary fifth, and that put Gershon's team in next year's Final Round in Poland.

Now they face heavyweights Lithuania, red-hot Turkey and hosts Poland in Group B in Wroclaw and Gershon, as always, is using the psychological aspects of coaching.

The 57-year-old says of the forthcoming group games: "It could be better, but it could be worse.

"We got an awful draw for the (EuroBasket 2009) qualifications, but we did our job.

"I hope we can do the same as underdogs in this group. We should play good basketball."

Gershon is a coach who is humble and respectful of opponents when he needs to be, yet he is never short of confidence.

His job with Bulgaria has gone something like this.

After learning of their qualifying round opponents for this summer's (2008) games, he used the word ‘possible' and not ‘impossible'.

He planted seeds of belief in his players' minds and watered those seeds at regular intervals with forecasts of a successful summer.

By the time his players ran onto the floor for their qualifiers, they weren't just Bulgarian basketball players. They were confident Bulgarian basketball players.

Right now, he is planting new seeds of belief.

"We need to win at least a game to qualify for the next phase," he says.

"It won't be easy, because Poland are the hosts and it will be very difficult against their team.

"The other two teams are better than us, but you know, you may be outsider and with God's help to win, everything is possible."

Divine intervention is how many in Bulgaria considered the arrival of Gershon to the national team.

The Israeli was attracted to the country because it was the birthplace of his grandfather.

While he recently took the helm of Maccabi Tel Aviv for the third time in his career, Gershon will often think of the EuroBasket in the coming months.

"It will be my first European Championship for me as a head coach, so it will be a great challenge for me," he says.

"I hope I will have good start. I know the Bulgarians played with Turkey and Lithuania in their last EuroBasket in Serbia, but I believe that these two teams are very different than in 2005.

"Lithuania has some great players, who play for the best clubs in the world. They are one of the greatest teams in Europe now.

"Turkey played very well in the qualifications. They always have had good and very talented players, but if we play better than last summer, we may believe that something good will happen."

Gershon's approach allows his players go into games loose and with no pressure.

He also has a knack for getting into the head of his opponents.

"We are going to the EuroBasket as outsiders, underdogs, so it will be easier for us," he says.

"We have no such pressure as the other teams. It will be difficult for other teams to play against a free-from-pressure team.

"There is a lot of time. I hope my players will play more at their clubs, so they will gather in the summer better than last summer.

"We showed we play good as a team, so I suppose, we can do it better."


Jeff Taylor, FIBA Europe

http://www.fibaeurope.com/coid_nmgfFjIcIQc8ae0hWPsma3.container_frontpage.articleMode_on.html

[Mindozas]

What I don't get is why would a team like Russia naturalize Holden. I know he's a great player but I'm sure that there are many talented Russians that can play in his position.
(Actually our NT tends to go for naturalizing centers since we're a small country and we don't have tall players. We did it with Joe Vogel and he's been playing with our NT since 2001.)

IMO first of all, it's CSKA initiative, he could play as Russian in local league, cause there are limits for the players (2 russian must be on the court all the time during the game). That's why CSKA decided to do that, they just had more space for other foreigners in their squad. The same did Dinamo M. with T.Hansen and Khimki with K.McCarthy.
Secondly, Russian NT had the problems with players in this position. In the nineties they had good guards like Karasev, Bazarevich, Babkov, E.Pashutin, Kudelin or some others, but after they left few years ago, they had none reliable player there. Russian bball was in some kind of downtrend, so to naturalize J.R. was also the option and as we see it helped a lot to their results.
Still, I'm against naturalization. I would never ever agree on it if there would be decided to do it in LT NT.

[Mojado]

They are naturalizing players so they can play in other European leagues as Bosman A-players, that's why.It's about money which some guys in the Bulgarian Basketball Federation are getting... I'm friends with a lot of Bulgarians and I've been to BG a lot of times. Bribing happens on a daily base, so no big deal right here to naturalize for cash...

[Khalid80]

It's a fashion trend to have at least one naturalized player in your national team these days.

What I don't get is why would a team like Russia naturalize Holden. I know he's a great player but I'm sure that there are many talented Russians that can play in his position.
(Actually our NT tends to go for naturalizing centers since we're a small country and we don't have tall players. We did it with Joe Vogel and he's been playing with our NT since 2001.)

[Khalid80]

Bulgaria hands out passports with a snap of fingers, that's why he and others have Bulgarian nationality. Don't ask me why they do it, I don't know, maybe JCN will tell us more. (The same happens with Georgia and other countries btw.)

Since FIBA allows naturalizing 1 player on the NT, I don't see why Bulgaria shouldn't do this (if this is going to help improve the level of their NT in a positive way). At least this will help improve the level of play of weaker teams.

[rikhardur]

Bulgaria hands out passports with a snap of fingers, that's why he and others have Bulgarian nationality. Don't ask me why they do it, I don't know, maybe JCN will tell us more. (The same happens with Georgia and other countries btw.)

[Pistol Pete]

Thanks for the info. So how did the guy end up being selected for the Bulgarian NT? Is it because the NT lacks PG's of good caliber?
(I don't know much about Bulgarian bball ).

It's a fashion trend to have at least one naturalized player in your national team these days.

[Khalid80]

His dad is Egyptian as far as I know, and Ibrahim himself is a devout Muslim.

Thanks for the info. So how did the guy end up being selected for the Bulgarian NT? Is it because the NT lacks PG's of good caliber?
(I don't know much about Bulgarian bball ).

[Juan Carlos Nadal]

His dad is Egyptian as far as I know, and Ibrahim himself is a devout Muslim.

[ArnoldPettybone]

He is originally from Brooklyn, new york...
Seriously now, I guess one or both of his parents are probably immigrants (like that guy, barack something..), I don't get the big deal.

[Khalid80]

http://www.fibaeurope.com/coid_Xe,J-...leMode_on.html

His name sounds totally Arabic. Any clue where he is originally from even though he has the American passport?