Nikola Vujcic on Russian clubs' future in EuroLeague: 'It will take some time' / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: YouTube capture/LKL TV Credit YouTube capture/LKL TV

Since the war in Ukraine began, all Russian clubs were suspended from competing at the highest level of European basketball. Many players have already left, some are still playing in Russia, while some have even received threats from the clubs.

2-pointers this season

53%20,5Points made:20,5Accuracy:53,3%Place in standings:3Record max:27Record min:11Most made 2FGs:Ante ZizicTeamEuroLeagueStatisticsSchedule

Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) held a virtual conference yesterday with the sporting director of Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana Sani Becirovic, the managing director of EuroLeague Players Association (ELPA) Bostjan Nachbar, and the general manager of Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv Nikola Vujcic where the group shared their thoughts about the most pressing issue in European basketball today.

"This is something unpredictable, like COVID, something that you never expected. Nobody thought about it for any kind of moment until it happened," Vujcic recalls. "We're not in the mood of predicting things and doing scenarios of what if. There's no clear decision yet. You're always waiting until the last moment until the deadline to make the decision."

"In the meantime, you're trying to see the possible scenarios. I'm not going to say what is going to happen. We are also a league that is played in 9 countries," he explained.

"There are different relations between the countries. Some countries are less emotionally involved with other countries. For guys in Lithuania, it's going to be really hard to play against CSKA. I remember them having the same issue with Yugoslavia and Serbia back in the day," Vujcic cited the historical examples.

"Different countries have different moments with the Russian teams. Now we're in a situation where it's going to be very tough for them to return to the EuroLeague public-wise and security-wise, however you want to put this," he continued.

"It's going to be very challenging. I believe it's going to take some time until they are accepted again to be in the European competitions. I'm not talking only about the EuroLeague, I'm talking about all sports competitions," Vujcic concluded.

Nikola Vujcic

Position:C, PFAge:43Height:211 cmWeight:108 kgBirth place:Vrgorac, CroatiaProfileNewsStatistics

Sani Becirovic agreed with Vujcic and elaborated a little further on the situation.

"We're all praying and hoping that the war stops for all the people that were hurt. Basically, I think it's going to be a bigger issue than it was with COVID because only certain countries, in this case, Russia, are hurt by this war, so the consequences are big," he told during the conference.

"We may have experienced this in the past with the war in Yugoslavia, and we all know how the games were played," he continued. "These emotions should never be a part of sports events."

"The damage that was done to the clubs is not so easy to repair. Rebuilding a club that was years and years at the highest standard of European basketball is not so easy," Becirovic explained his view. "It's easy to destroy what was built in 15-20 years in a couple of months. All the last 15-20 years of investments are now gone."

"There are so many issues with bringing the players back, so it's going to be very difficult for them to be competitive and to be at the level they used to be before. This is also something that we will have to see how the clubs themselves are going to react to this crisis," the Cedevita Olimpija representative concluded.

With some of the players left stranded in Russia, the EuroLeague Players Association (ELPA) had to step in to help with the contract negotiations and the process of continuing to play basketball.

"In the beginning, it was mostly about helping players feel safe," Nachbar remembers. "When the war started, there were so many unknowns about what this actually meant on the world scale, especially having a lot of foreign players in Russia, high-level players."

"From our side, we did not want to, especially in the early stages, interfere with whether the players should stay, whether the players should go, or whether the players should terminate their contracts or not," the managing director of ELPA explained.

"We had to wait a little bit to see what the situation is actually going to bring. That's why it was the most important for the players to feel safe. In some cases, or in most cases, I would say, the players did not have any difficulties with leaving and finding flights," Nachbar assured.

"There were some players who hesitated a little bit, so it became a little bit more difficult to talk to the players and their agents on trying to find ways how the players could leave Russia and get back home," he recalls.

"The next step was the contract situation. As the situation became what it became, some players decided that they felt safe enough to go back," Nachbar continued. "On the other hand, there were some players that felt for whatever reason that they could not return and they did not want to return."

"With ELPA, we support both decisions as we feel it's important for each player to feel safe and that he is in an environment where he can grow as a player and that his contract is respected as it was agreed upon," the ELPA representative explained.

"Currently, apart from three players, the rest of the situation is either completely calm or safe," Nachbar assured. "The players found terminations and left, the players are playing for the rest of the season, and some players are still waiting to resolve their contractual situations."

"Regarding the summer, most of the players who remained in Russia either have expiring contracts or have agreed that their contracts will expire at the end of the season even if it was a longer contract," the managing director of ELPA explained. "The questions will remain with those few players that have a contract beyond this season."

"Now we are in May, and we all know that early July it's usually when the teams for the next season are confirmed. The players will have to remain patient to see what happens in connection to the Russian teams in the EuroLeague next season," Nachbar explained his position.

"Even though we know what kind of answer we can expect, the official confirmation still has to be done before some players can take additional steps to leave Russian clubs and terminate their contracts," he concluded.

Later on, Nachbar also elaborated on his views on the globality of the aspect as well.

"At the end of the day, we can discuss as much as we want about predictions or what we think is going to happen, but I think the politics dictate this," he told during the conference. "As much as I don't like this view, sports depend on the politics of Europe and the world, and they are going to dictate how this Russian crisis is going to evolve at the sports level."

"We know that the Russian market was an important partner for everybody in sports," Nachbar continued. "For us, it's about securing the players first so they'd be feeling safe both in real life and with their contracts. You can only adjust to what's happening in the world; it's not up to the competition organizer or us to decide these things."

"At the end of the day, they can make decisions about the competition, but the situation in the world is about politics. We're in here for this conflict to finish as the first step, and then we can move forward not only as sports but as a society overall as well," he concluded.

The full conversation about the Russian clubs' future (starting at 1:07:55):

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