DOM - Feldeine: "Fingers crossed I’ll go to Caracas"

MADRID (FIBA Americas Championship/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - There are players all over the world just itching to get their chance to wear a national team shirt in a major international competition.

James Feldeine is one of them.

The New York-born point guard with a Dominican Republic heritage badly wants to represent the Caribbean country.

He was in camp this past summer at the University of Kentucky in Lexington where Wildcats’ boss John Calipari, who coached the Dominicans for the second summer in a row, was putting the national side through its paces.

If Feldeine does make the final roster for next summer, he’ll compete at the FIBA Americas Championship in Caracas, Venezuela, and try to help the team qualify for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain.

The 24-year-old has the perfect stage to audition for a spot in the national squad.

Feldeine, who spent his first two professional seasons at Breogan in Spain’s LEB Oro following a four-year career at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, has graduated to the Liga Endesa and now starts at point guard for Mad-Croc Fuenlabrada.

He spoke to FIBA.com after his side’s season-opening defeat at Valencia on Sunday.

FIBA: James, how important is it for you to play for the Dominican Republic one day?
Feldeine: It's very important to me. My family originated from there. My mother was born there, my grandmother was born there. A lot of my aunts and uncles were born there so it's very important for me to represent them one day. Hopefully I can do it this summer or next summer. It's on the top of my list.

FIBA: Did you watch the Dominicans this summer when they played at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) and came up one win shy of making it to the London Games?
Feldeine: I was following them closely, watching them online (on FIBATV). I was with them practicing for two weeks in Kentucky. I felt I was part of the team, so I watched them closely. My best friend was on the team, Edgar Sosa.

FIBA: How did you rate their overall performance?
Feldeine: It was a tough road for us, but Edgar wasn't 100%, Francisco (Garcia) wasn't playing as well as he can and we only had Al Horford and Jack (Martinez) playing really well so, hopefully next year we should be fine.

FIBA: How do you see this team playing in the coming years?
Feldeine: I think we have a lot of young players, Dominicans, who are coming up. There are a lot of 21-year-olds, 22-year-olds, a lot of other players playing overseas. With Al Horford, our NBA player, I think we should be fine in the future. We just have to get together in the summer, come together as a family, a team.

FIBA: How close were you to making the team this summer?
Feldeine: I was going to be on the team but they could only take one naturalized player and they took Josh (Ashelin).

FIBA: The arrival of Coach Cal at the helm helped bring even more attention to the Dominican squad. Is he coming back for another summer?
Feldeine:  He’s done. He's definitely done.

FIBA: So who replaces him?
Feldeine: Hopefully another American coach. I think it was good for us to go on a college campus and become a family real fast and a team. Hopefully they'll get another college coach or NBA coach, or assistant coach or something like that?

FIBA: You expect Al to come back, but what about Charlie Villanueva? Why didn’t he play last summer?
Feldeine: I don't know. I don't know Charlie like that. I don't know what happened. There were a lot of rumors but I didn't want to ask about that. I just know that he wasn't there and there was something between him and Coach Cal, him and the president, or something. It's unfortunate because with him there, we would have won.

FIBA: You’re hoping they take you to Caracas for the FIBA Americas Championship?
Feldeine: Fingers crossed.

FIBA: Tell us about competing in Spain.
Feldeine: I love playing in Spain. Two out of my first three years, I was at Breogan, straight out of college. It was a real good experience, a great league. They moved me up to ACB and I think this is definitely right behind NBA level so this is a great opportunity for me.

FIBA: How is the basketball in Spain compared to what you find in America?
Feldeine: It's a different type of basketball here. The United States is more isolation, more one-on-one, whereas here it's more tactical, more team play and it always gets me that foul at half-court on a fast-break, it always gets me.

FIBA: You mean the unsportsmanlike foul when you try to stop a fastbreak?
Feldeine: Yes, but I'm getting used to it. It's weird to me, and the travelling.

FIBA: What about when players interfere with the ball when it’s on the rim?
Feldeine: I'm used to that. I love it here. The ACB is a great league.

FIBA: What about joining a club like Fuenlabrada that has a rich tradition?
Feldeine: That's all I'm hearing about, the tradition - the players coming here and going to higher places after they play here (Gustavo Ayon and Bismack Biyombo went to the NBA last year, and others have moved on to bigger clubs in Spain). I'm still young, still learning, hopefully I'm the next one moving on up but it's a long season.

FIBA