Roberto Kovac’s cry of despair must not remain without a future
Captain of the Swiss team, Roberto Kovac does not regret his spicy media outing. At the federation, Giancarlo Sergi and Erik Lehmann want to understand. A meeting is scheduled for Monday.
PostedJuly 23, 2023, 11:38 PM
Will we see Roberto Kovac again in the jersey of the Swiss team? Nothing is less sure.
FIBA BASKETBALL
His coach, Ilias Papatheodorou, did not come to meet the media. He had a plane to catch and slipped away to Zurich. Roberto Kovac, he had been claimed on the stage. Because he is a player and a voice that count for the Swiss team, decimated by injuries and absences, of which he is the captain. But at the end of a new disillusionment with Denmark, and after the snub suffered in the middle of the week in Kosovo, the Ticino had no desire to come and pretend to face the journalists. So he initially refused. Before seeing it as a nice opportunity to say out loud what many often whisper quietly. “I’m warning you. I’m going to unpack everything, ”he would have launched.
A few minutes later, seated, the back of Friborg Olympic did not go there with the back of the spoon: he notably mentioned his “shame of losing against shitty nations”, the “lack of respect for the shirt” and the failing leadership, according to him, of its leaders (“What is the line, the project? Where are the players?”). His eyes filled with tears when the one who hosted the meeting with the journalists asked him the direction that Swiss basketball was taking. “You have to ask these questions to the people concerned,” he replied. You can ask (Giancarlo) Sergi. Oh no, sorry, he wanted to go to the Ballet.
“You can’t demonize a movement of 25,000 people like that. Emotions are manageable.
Giancarlo Sergi, president of Swiss Basketball
The president of Swiss Basketball has been the general manager of the Béjart Ballet Lausanne since last summer. Less active at the operational level at the federation with his new functions, Sergi is still quite present behind the scenes, according to certain sources. After Kovac’s historic media outing, he spent his Sunday hanging on the phone. “I have no idea what took him, he told us. I understand Roberto’s frustration and basically, in what he said, there is something to discuss. But on the form, sorry, but it was not good. You can’t demonize a movement of 25,000 people like that. Emotions are manageable.
Contacted Sunday noon, Erik Lehmann wanted to see him there as a “big clumsiness”. “I don’t think Roberto meant a word of what he said, replied the secretary general to the “federate” and right arm of Sergi. He was coming out of a very difficult match on a personal level (note: the player recognized it) and spoke out of frustration. All I can tell you is that we will talk to him. It is not possible to make a counter-productive exit like this in the middle of an international window (note: Switzerland still has a match on Saturday in Friborg and on August 2). It unsettles everyone. And how can you say that other nations are crap?
“It’s as if fourteen years of frustration and helplessness have suddenly emerged.”
Roberto Kovac, captain of the Swiss team
Resting on Sunday, in Fribourg, Kovac assumes every word he uttered during these surreal minutes. “I’ve calmed down a bit since yesterday. (note: Saturday). But I mean everything I said, he told us, after receiving between 70 and 80 messages of support from the middle of the orange sphere. Presidents, team managers, former coaches and even players have written to me. Everyone told me that I was right to talk like that. It’s as if fourteen years of frustration and helplessness had suddenly emerged.
In his anger on Saturday, Kovac implied that his managers had dangled him a team with some of his best elements this summer. “I didn’t want to come but we were told that Clint (Capela) and Anthony (Polite) would be in Greece for the preparation camp. They lie to coaches and players,” he sent. “Anthony is injured and an MRI is there to prove it, defends Lehmann. For Clint, there was strong talk that he would come. I never made a definitive promise, I always said we were going to make sure he was there. His choice, he announced it himself in Meyrin when the selection had already returned from Greece.
The damage is done and not just a little. This Monday, Kovac must meet with Sergi and Lehmann, in particular. “I may have played my last match under the flag,” he said angrily forty-eight hours ago. Will he be fined, suspended, or even permanently dismissed? “I want to talk to him man to man. The goal is not to punish him, ”says Sergi. “We especially want to understand,” adds Lehmann. Should we finally see the beginning of a deeper dialogue between the leaders, the best players in the country, with the clubs too? “Yes, we must provoke this meeting with all the parties. The process is underway,” continues Sergi.
A state of emergency is declared. Because this weekend, Swiss basketball hit rock bottom. There must be a before and after Roberto Kovac’s bloodshed. “I just want honesty,” he claims. May he be heard.
2023-07-23 21:38:59
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