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Barcelona Basketball | Kalinic: “We are not ready to win the Euroleague yet”

03/20/2023 at 16:18

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The Barça forward is confident that the team will continue “moving in the right direction”

Kalinic leaves his presence in the Serbian team in doubt: “It is becoming more and more difficult for me due to my physical problems”

He FC Barcelona is in the final stretch of the regular phase of the Euroleague. The team of Saruns Jasikevicius will start the last five league games in the third position: with the ticket for the quarterfinals virtually achieved, the goal is finish in the top four to have the track factor in favor in the crosses prior to the desired Final Four.

A four-way final in which he hopes to be a Nikola Kalinic who is living his first season at the Barça club, and in which there are high hopes for him to be a important man in the decisive moments of the course, and can contribute to the team that mettle and seniority that it may have lacked, without going any further, in the last two Final Four of the European competition, in which Barça could not win the title.

After being one of the references last season in the Red Star, Kalinic has had to adapt his role, losing prominence in attack. So far, the forward averages in the Euroleague 6.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game in almost 25 minutes of play. A statistic that may seem somewhat insufficient, but that does not reflect the importance of Kalinic on the court, with that virtue to set an aggressive defensive tone, and use his physicality to punish the defender in attack.

Kalinic: “Experience and composure can be decisive”

With the Final Four dispute less than two months away, they have been quite amazing Kalinic’s statements with the Serbian media outlet ‘Sportklub’, in which the Barca ’10’ has had a pessimistic message about Barça’s aspirations to get the third Euroleague in its history: “I don’t think we are ready to win the EuroLeague right now. It is perhaps a bit of a scary statement, but I think we still have time and we are moving in the right direction. Some things are getting better, things we were failing at. Experience and composure can be decisive in playoff matchups where the game slows down and more free throws are taken. Under these conditions, I think this team can be successful,” explained a Kalinic who, despite the pessimism in the initial part of his message, is confident in the team’s evolution.

His physical condition casts doubt on his participation with Serbia in the next World Cup

His message about his physical and some problems that, although they have not taken their toll so far at Barça, They make him consider his future in the national team, in a 2023 in which there is a World Cup. “I don’t know, really. We’ll see what happens for the summer. Honestly, each season it becomes more and more difficult for me, my knees, Achilles tendons and back feel more and more. We’ll see, I’ll talk to the coach and the family, with everyone, we’ll find the best decision”, argued a Kalinic who regrets not having taken more care in his first years in the elite: “Change your lifestyle, pay more and more attention to nutrition, recovery, sleep… That comes with age, and it is natural that you are much more responsible. If I had lived like this when I was 20, who knows what I would have done. It’s the ‘I wish I had this brain when I was younger’ story.”

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