Klemen Prepelic talked to Basketball Sphere ahead of Aba League tip-off this week, mentioning Davis Bertans, sharing his experience with Galatasaray, Cedevita Olimpija and Valencia, previewing upcoming match with Crvena Zvezda.
Dubai BC sharpshooter Klemen Prepelic had an interview with Basketball Sphere this morning, talking about numerous topics, he started with thoughts on Dubai project:
"The project is honestly very good. At the time we spoke, I still had a valid contract with Galatasaray, but I roughly knew that the coach would not retain any foreigners, which turned out to be the case."
"He wanted to change the whole team, which I respect, every coach has his own philosophy, and I left Galatasaray without any complaints."
"I had a great offer from Dubai, a multi-year contract, coach Jurica Golemac and Dejan Kamenjasevic as general manager made a good effort and it is certainly the conditions and a project that is very ambitious."
In the previous season, Klemen Prepelič played for two clubs, Galatasaray and Cedevita Olimpija. What he regrets the most is that he did not manage to stay in Valencia, where he wanted to finish his playing career.
"The beginning of the summer was very difficult for me due to leaving Valencia where I really wanted to stay until the end of my career, I turned down a lot of better financial offers in the three years I was in Valencia where I played very well until the last season when coach Alex Mumbru came."
After Valencia, it was time for a come-back home to Ljubljana.
"I had some offers during the summer that didn't satisfy me and of course at the same time I was preparing for the World Cup with the national team with the hope of getting a good job, but that didn't happen," Prepelic claims.
"Cedevita stood out to me as a phenomenal move, and from Cedevita's side, I'm only sorry that we couldn't win a serious game in the Eurocup, where we had three very heavy defeats in Venezia against Hamburg and in London, which could change the course of the season completely, but that's in the past."
Prepelic is excited about a chance to play with Davis Bertans:
"It just shows how ambitious that club is, the project of the people around the club and everything." Davis is a phenomenal player, many years in the NBA, a phenomenal guy who played with Luka Doncic. I think he is perfect for our team."
Slovenia NT Guard was elected as a first captain in history of Dubai BC, and he is a guy controlling the atmosphere in the locker room.
"Well I think that's my role. Especially since the preparations started in Slovenia and I tried to do as many strong activities as possible to make that team fit, after all, it's 12 new guys, 12 new characters."
The staff is great, great people, I can say that apart from the national team, I haven't been somewhere with such a good atmosphere in a long time."
"They are all great guys, there are many competitions in training, but after training they are all friends, it is difficult to collect 12 guys and kudos to Dejan and Jurica, they did a great job."
Dubai has their ambitions set, and so does Prepelic.
"There are the goals of the club that we respect. But we as players have our goals and we are here every day and we have much bigger goals than that, and the most important thing is that you said that the club exists. We have the quality and I think anything is possible."
"I've been playing professionally for 15 seasons, so I've seen everything and been at the bottom and the top, so I wouldn't want to skip some things. The preparations are quite good."
In their inaugural match, Dubai will host Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade in their Coca-Cola Arena.
"We are not skipping anything, but the coaching staff will do a great job of preparing us for that game, as they prepared us for the pre-season games, and I have no doubt that we will be ready for Crvena Zvezda."
"And of course there's no going back, when the ball is dropped, the season starts and that's it," concluded Klemen Prepelić in his interview with Basketball Sphere.
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