Žanis Payner | Photo: Screenshot
Former basketball player and analyst of the Latvian basketball team Žanis Peiners in the conversation “Sports Studies” expressed his thoughts on the upcoming Paris Olympic Games qualification in Riga in the podcast.
It should be reminded that in the Olympic qualification tournament scheduled for Riga, Latvians will play two games with the teams of their group, Latvia will meet with Georgia and the Philippines and the two best teams of each group will enter the semi-finals. The semi-finals will be played against one of the two best teams from the other group (Brazil, Montenegro and Cameroon).
The qualification tournaments will be held from July 2 to 7, 2024, while the men’s basketball tournament at the Paris Olympic Games will take place from July 27 to August 10, with the group tournaments held in Lille, and the decisive battles in Paris.
“For Luke, I guess [Banki] I have believed in everyone 100%. No matter who comes, I think he will still push the maximum once again,” Peiner said about the upcoming Olympic qualification. “Of course it’s a sport, one game, a semi-final, a group… Something doesn’t work out and the goal may not be fulfilled, but I hope everything will be fine.”
“I’m not even that worried about the players’ composition. In theory, everyone should be in line. Pretty guy, as far as I understand, I don’t know if it’s official or unofficial, but he had an operation. I have a feeling that he is probably not to be reckoned with. At least he is a key person for us. Now David [Bertāns] and bit in the rhythm of the games, got minutes and showed a good performance. If Kristaps is healthy, they will be able to somehow replace Gražulis’ minutes.”
“We might as well lose every one of those games and there wouldn’t really be any particular reason to call ourselves favorites,” Payner believes. “But there is simply a premonition that home games, home fans, the arena, Luka’s miraculous strategy always works. It makes you think positively. If we take on paper, we have no reason to be that’s it self-confident.”
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