The basketball temple, the famous friendly tournament and two matches that could show whether Montenegro is on the right path before the battle for Paris and going to the Olympic Games...
Montenegrin basketball players arrived in Athens today, where from tomorrow in the "Hall of Peace and Friendship" they will face the Acropolis Cup and two strong tests - against the hosts Greece (Tuesday, 19 p.m.) and the Bahamas (Wednesday, 19 p.m.).
The duels in the port of Piraeus will be the only preparations for Boško Radović's team before the Olympic qualifications in Riga.
"For sure, the matches against selections that are also playing qualifiers for the Olympic Games will be extremely strong, but also very useful," said Petar Popović.
Greece will be led by Janis Adetokumbo in the Olympic qualifiers, and the Bahamas by NBA aces Deandre Ayton, Eric Gordon, Buddy Hield.
"We want to see what condition we are in and to check certain things after the mini-preparations in Podgorica. Of course, like any preparatory tournament, it will be useful for us to see what we can fix, to be better, so that we can travel to Riga for the Olympic tournament as prepared as possible." , added Popović.
From July 2 to 7, Riga will host a tournament where only one ticket to Paris is distributed - Montenegro is in a group with Brazil and Cameroon, two selections will go to the semi-finals, and there they will cross paths with a group in which Latvia , Georgia and the Philippines.
"The dream of all of us is to go to the Olympic Games, and in the qualifiers where the tournament is played, I think we have a chance and I hope that we will be ready and that we will achieve the result that we all dream of," Popović said clearly.
It is known that Montenegro will travel to the capital of Latvia weakened - Bojan Dubljević, Nikola Ivanović, Vladimir Mihailović, Nemanja Radović, Marko Todorović, Zoran Nikolić will be missing.
"It is known that the selection has been rejuvenated, but I think that this youth can be our trump card. Of course, in addition to that, the energy must be at an exceptional level. For the first time, my generation (age 96) was among the seniors in the national team - so it's a novelty, but the motive and combativeness must adorn us in every game," concluded Popović.
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