FIBA Basketball
SRB - Krstic, Pavlovic out of World Championship
BELGRADE (FIBA World Championship) - Serbia & Montenegro have confirmed that Nenad Krstic and Aleksandar Pavlovic will not play at the FIBA World Championship this summer. Coach Dragan Sakota announced at a press conference in Belgrade he has called up Goran Nikolic of BC Kyiv as Partizan Belgrade center Kosta Perovic is doubtful due to injury. Serbian President Boris Tadic had appealed to New Jersey Nets center Krstic to play but the emerging NBA star, who suffered disappointment with the national side
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BELGRADE (FIBA World Championship) - Serbia & Montenegro have confirmed that Nenad Krstic and Aleksandar Pavlovic will not play at the FIBA World Championship this summer.
Coach Dragan Sakota announced at a press conference in Belgrade he has called up Goran Nikolic of BC Kyiv as Partizan Belgrade center Kosta Perovic is doubtful due to injury.
Serbian President Boris Tadic had appealed to New Jersey Nets center Krstic to play but the emerging NBA star, who suffered disappointment with the national side at last year's EuroBasket and the 2004 Olympics has elected to skip the tournament.
Pavlovic, who is trying to make his mark with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA, worked out with the national side last summer but was a late cut.
He was in the squad for the Olympics but was used sparingly.
Serbia & Montenegro are a proud basketball national after winning back-to-back World Championships in 1998 and 2002 and the EuroBasket in 1997, but they look to be in total disarray going into this summer's tournament in Japan.
They hosted last year's EuroBasket and lost to France in the elimination round which led to an avalanche of criticism for some of the team's high-profile players from the NBA like Marko Jaric and Vladimir Radmanovic.
Zeljko Obradovic resigned as coach and the Serbia & Montenegro Basketball Association (KSSCG) handed the reins to Red Star coach Sakota.
The federation and Sakota spoke of moving forward with young players and followed through on that pledge when leaving Jaric and Radmanovic out of the squad for Japan.
Sakota accepted NBA star Peja Stojakovic's decision not to play for a third straight summer because of a knee injury, but he did not expect Krstic or Pavlovic to be missing as well.
On Tuesday, the KSSCG issued a strongly-worded statement criticising unnamed young players for failing to commit to the national team.
Sakota had already lost the services of domestic league MVP Dejan Milojevic who has tendinitis in his knee and needs to rest before his first year with Pamesa Valencia in Spain.
Milojevic played for Partizan - who beat Red Star 3-0 in a controversial best-of-five Finals series in Serbia & Montenegro.
Now Perovic, another Partizan player, is looking doubtful.
PA Sport
BELGRADE (FIBA World Championship) - Serbia & Montenegro have confirmed that Nenad Krstic and Aleksandar Pavlovic will not play at the FIBA World Championship this summer.
Coach Dragan Sakota announced at a press conference in Belgrade he has called up Goran Nikolic of BC Kyiv as Partizan Belgrade center Kosta Perovic is doubtful due to injury.
Serbian President Boris Tadic had appealed to New Jersey Nets center Krstic to play but the emerging NBA star, who suffered disappointment with the national side at last year's EuroBasket and the 2004 Olympics has elected to skip the tournament.
Pavlovic, who is trying to make his mark with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA, worked out with the national side last summer but was a late cut.
He was in the squad for the Olympics but was used sparingly.
Serbia & Montenegro are a proud basketball national after winning back-to-back World Championships in 1998 and 2002 and the EuroBasket in 1997, but they look to be in total disarray going into this summer's tournament in Japan.
They hosted last year's EuroBasket and lost to France in the elimination round which led to an avalanche of criticism for some of the team's high-profile players from the NBA like Marko Jaric and Vladimir Radmanovic.
Zeljko Obradovic resigned as coach and the Serbia & Montenegro Basketball Association (KSSCG) handed the reins to Red Star coach Sakota.
The federation and Sakota spoke of moving forward with young players and followed through on that pledge when leaving Jaric and Radmanovic out of the squad for Japan.
Sakota accepted NBA star Peja Stojakovic's decision not to play for a third straight summer because of a knee injury, but he did not expect Krstic or Pavlovic to be missing as well.
On Tuesday, the KSSCG issued a strongly-worded statement criticising unnamed young players for failing to commit to the national team.
Sakota had already lost the services of domestic league MVP Dejan Milojevic who has tendinitis in his knee and needs to rest before his first year with Pamesa Valencia in Spain.
Milojevic played for Partizan - who beat Red Star 3-0 in a controversial best-of-five Finals series in Serbia & Montenegro.
Now Perovic, another Partizan player, is looking doubtful.
PA Sport