FIBA – FIBA U17 World Championship Quotes of the Day: Day 1

HAMBURG (FIBA U17 World Championship) – Day one of the FIBA U17 World Championship provided some great action and an interesting collection of comments, quotes and statements. During the course of the Championship we will be making a selection of the best and most entertaining.

Quote of the day:

“Now news from a fringe sport currently going on in South Africa. Brazil is leading Netherlands 1-0.”
FIBA U17 Public Announcer, during the Poland Australia game.

Selected quotes from Day 1:

“They will enjoy the tournament, try to take the nerves out and play basketball the way they like it” Argentina head coach Enrique Tolcachier ahead of his team’s opening game with pre-tournament favourites USA

“There’s a lot of talent here and I wouldn’t be surprised if we heard many of these names in the future.”
Canada head coach Roy Rana on the Championship

“It’s cool in the hotel. We have a players’ lounge with computer games, a table soccer game and loads of ice cream.”
Martynas Paliukenas, scorer of the first basket in the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship; the arena certainly wasn’t cool as the temperature climbed towards a sweltering 30°C.

“This has been an intense game for both teams. As of today the U.S. players backed us down under the basket – they simply were stronger.”
Argentina head coach Enrique Tolcachier.

“I was of course nervous at first. We are playing in front of a home crowd, but it was also an advantage for us.”
Germany guard Besnik Bekteshi following his team’s last minute win over Canada

“The first game is always a key game, it was really important to win.”
Jery Szambelan, Poland head coach following his team’s win over Australia

“Overall I like the way our team played together as a unit.”
USA head coach Don Showalter on his team’s performance

“The depth of field is maybe as strong as any World Championship, so every team has a chance.” Canada head coach Roy Rana.

“It was not a great game, I think that both teams were very nervous, so I am very glad we won”
Germany head coach Frank Menz

“We have picked the biggest side we had available to us. It is an issue but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Australia head coach Guy Molloy whose team came up a little short in their game against Poland.

FIBA