Three NBA players await Spain in the final of the pre-Olympic tournament in Valencia (20.30, Teledeporte). Deandre Ayton, a 25-year-old, 2.13m center from the Portland Trail Blazers, and the shooting guards Buddy Hield, 31 years old and 1.93m, recently traded to the Warriors, and Eric Gordon, 35 years old and 1.91m, signed by the Philadelphia 76ers, are the powerful threat hidden in the Bahamas team. Scariolo’s team will have to keep a close eye on the three and match the high physical pace that the Caribbean team imposes in its matches. The Bahamas defeated Lebanon 89-72 this Saturday with 24 points and 15 rebounds from Ayton, 19 points and 10 assists from Hield and 13 points from Gordon. It will be the last step to climb to be in the Paris Games, the most difficult one that the national team will face.
The Bahamas have never been to the World Cup or the Olympics, and their only major international event was the 1995 FIBA Americas Championship, when they finished eighth. However, the recruitment of the three NBA players now gives them the chance to be among the 12 teams that will compete in Paris. Ayton and Hield were born in the Bahamas, and Gordon has joined thanks to his dual nationality, since his mother is Caribbean, and after having already played internationally with the United States team: he was champion of the 2010 World Cup in Turkey.
The Bahamian federation has fished in distant waters, even casting a line at Klay Thompson, who has just jumped from the Warriors to the Mavericks. His father is Bahamian and the player’s brother, Mychel, is an assistant on the current team, coached by Christopher Demarco.
“Ayton, Hield and Gordon are three NBA superstars. They are of a different individual dimension, and we can’t reach those individual heights,” said Scariolo about tonight’s opponent. “One by one, we have everything to lose. There is no chance of winning that way, so we have to be more of a team than ever. This team is going to stand up to it,” added the coach, who once again stressed the complexity of this path to the Olympic Games: “When you see the danger, the kind of hardship that is coming, you prepare better. Each match has been more difficult than the previous one, and against the Bahamas it will be the most difficult of all.”
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