Baskonia sports director confirmed Chima Moneke's strong commitment to the club, explained the reasons for signing Luka Samanic, and talked about the team's roster status.
In his latest interviews, Chima Moneke has clarified his status with Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz. The Nigerian big man is eager to finish the season with the Spanish outfit, "honoring his contract," as he said.
During the presentation of Luka Samanic, Felix Fernandez, the club's sports director, explained that he never considered the possibility of letting Moneke go in the middle of this season.
"I don't know how to explain it. The player and the agent have made it clear," Fernandez said.
"Chima wants to stay in Vitoria and Baskonia also says so. He is an important player in the squad, like others. In addition, his commitment to Baskonia is tremendous, as is the club's commitment to him.
We are talking about an extremely important player. Baskonia and the fans have a lot of faith in him and I am sure that we are going to see a better version of him," predicted Fernandez, who also called Samanic's addition "a great option for the present and a prospect for the future", since Baskonia will have the option of extending his contract for one more season until 2026.
"We had been following him and in the summer we spoke with his agents. Now we have been able to close the deal and Luka complements the inside game well," acknowledged Baskonia's sports director, who also revealed that Ousmane Ndiaye will remain in the 14-player squad until the end of the season.
"We have a lot of games, we play every 2-3 days - and in a month we can play 11 games. All the players are working well and everyone will get their chance, that will be Pablo [Laso]'s decision. We have a squad of 14 players and the team chemistry is good," he stressed.
"In principle, we are going to continue with the current 14 players, then we will see how things go. We have a good squad and we trust all the players. They are all ready to take a step forward," Fernandez added, who made it clear that he would like Baskonia to "have greater consistency" in its performance.
"We've had good and bad moments, a bit of a rollover. We have to try to find that maturity and we're on the right track. There are lapses during the games and then it's hard for us to get back on track.
We have to avoid those bad starts because then we have to make a tremendous effort to come back," he concluded.
Like what we are doing? Support us by becoming BN+ member.
Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz
Paris Basketball
Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade