Kendrick Perry has had a great season - the Montenegrin representative won the FIBA Champions League with Unikah, and was also named the most valuable player of the final tournament in Belgrade. In the Endesa League, the team from Malaga, after first place in the regular season, ended the season in the semi-finals, where Murcia was better.
And after the club, Peri devoted himself to representative duties. Starting Tuesday, Montenegro will have a qualifying tournament in Riga to go to the Olympic Games (OI), and the guy from Florida believes that our selection has a great chance, which it has earned with good performances in previous years.
"A big, exciting chance for us. With the work and results of the previous years, we deserved to be at this tournament," said Peri.
Montenegro is in a group with Brazil and Cameroon. In the second group are Latvia, Georgia and the Philippines. Two selections from each group will qualify for the semi-finals, and the winner of the tournament will go to Paris for the Olympic Games.
"The stake is a placement at the OI. All selections will be ready for the tournament. But we don't have to worry about the form of our rivals, but rather try to concentrate as much as possible on what we do in attack and defense. And enjoy as much as we can." , believes Perry.
Boško Radović's team will play its first game on Tuesday (14:30 p.m.) against Brazil.
"It is not a decisive game. We have to have the right approach, to think like that during the entire tournament," said the Unikaha point guard.
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Montenegro is weakened in the Baltic, and Peri is one of the most experienced in the team.
"We have a lot of young players, who don't have the experience of the players who are away. My job as a playmaker and Nikola Vucevic's is to help those players fit in as well as possible, to have confidence as always, which is the most important thing for them."
Ahead of the matches in the Baltic, Peri does not feel pressure.
"I feel more excited, but I don't feel pressure. I've always said it's just a basketball game after all. It's important to prepare as best you can and go out on the court and try to do the right thing. It's not good when you create a big pressure, when you think too much... I'm a playmaker, and my job is to keep the team relaxed, but at the same time focused as much as possible."
The coach, Boško Radović, will have the first five from Manila at his disposal in Riga - in addition to Peri, there are Petar Popović, Dino Radončić, Marko Simonović and Nikola Vučević.
"I think it's very important. Everything starts from the coach, then goes through me and Vucevic to all the other players. As long as we are calm and play with confidence, the younger players will follow us," explained Peri.
Montenegro prepared in Podgorica, and played two control matches at the Akropolis Cup in Greece, where they were defeated by the home team, while they beat the Bahamas.
"The game against Greece was marked by our bad start. But, despite that, I think it was a good test for us. We were able to measure our strength against one of the strongest teams in the world. Against the Bahamas, we were better and more relaxed, we played with more self-confidence. In both matches we had good things and bad things. We have to keep the good things and transfer them to the field in Latvia."
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