ITA - Belinelli: "Italy is ready to step up"
KOPER (EuroBasket/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - The career of Marco Belinelli has been a consistent progression. The 27-year old guard was champion in the Italian league at age 19, he then played his first tournament with the senior national team at 20 and then moved to the NBA, becoming the first Italian player to get past the first round of the playoffs. ...
KOPER (EuroBasket/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - The career of Marco Belinelli has been a consistent progression. The 27-year old guard was champion in the Italian league at age 19, he then played his first tournament with the senior national team at 20 and then moved to the NBA, becoming the first Italian player to get past the first round of the playoffs. In the upcoming 2013-14 season, he will try to become the first Italian player to win an NBA title with the San Antonio Spurs.
But before then, his main mission is in Europe, as the Azzurri's offensive leader at EuroBasket 2013 in Slovenia.
The Italians will look to achieve a top-six finish in order to qualify for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
They start their campaign on Wednesday night against Russia, an immediate do-or-die clash vital in advancing to Round 2.
"I want to be a leader, an importance presence in the team," Belinelli told FIBA.com.
"I played EuroBasket in 2007 and 2011, and both editions were disappointing for us," said Italy's top scorer (with 15.5 points per game) of the 2007 edition in Spain, when Italy were eliminated in Round 2.
In Lithuania in 2011, the Azzurri squad did not even get out of Round 1.
Belinelli's scoring abilities will be even more important for Simone Pianigiani's squad in light of the fact that they will be without a number of key players - Andrea Bargnani (pneumonia) and Danilo Gallinari (rehabilitating from a torn anterior cruciate ligament).
The Italians are also without regular captain Stefano Mancinelli, Italian League Finals MVP Daniel Hackett and center Angelo Gigli who suffererd injuries during the team's preparations and won't play in Slovenia.
However, Belinelli says there are no excuses to be made.
"Italy cannot cry for absents (because) last summer we reached EuroBasket by winning all the Qualifying Round games," he said.
"We have 12 rotation players, starting from Gigi Datome, who deserved a call-up from the NBA, and Travis Diener's passing and shooting skills can be a crucial addition for our team.
"We are ready to step up. We could lack some size, we will be unselfish, looking for more fastbreak plays."
First up for Italy - who haven't won the EuroBasket since 1999 - will be Russia, another team hit very hard by absences, as the 2007 European champions are without Andrei Kirilenko, Viktor Khryapa, Timofey Mozgov, Sasha Kaun and Andrei Vorontsevich.
"The first game is usually the most important, as a team needs to provide an immediate 'stamp' into the tournament," argued Belinelli.
"It will be the most important game for Italy's standings, too. We need to be ready.
The top six sides (plus Spain) will qualify for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
Italy squad for EuroBasket 2013: Andrea Cinciarini, Travis Diener, Giuseppe Poeta, Marco Belinelli, Pietro Aradori, Alessandro Gentile, Luigi Datome, Guido Rosselli, Luca Vitali, Nicolo Melli, Marco Cusin and Daniele Magro.
For full and in-depth coverage of EuroBasket 2013, go to the official website http://www.eurobasket2013.org.
FIBA