On September 10, 2014,

Serge Ibaka

played what until now had been his last game with the national team.

Unfortunate memory, those quarterfinals of the national World Cup in the Palace against France, always seemed like the end of a relationship of 50 nights, three tournaments, a continental gold and an Olympic silver.

Now, seven and a half years later, his name resurfaces along with that of Spain: the Bucks center, as confirmed by EL MUNDO, has shown his availability to attend the next Eurobasket.

What a priori seems like good news for

Sergio Scariolo , more so with the goodbye of

the Gasol brothers

last Olympic summer

, seems, however, to be a problem for the Spanish Federation.

Because just these days the news was leaking that, given the urgent need in the point guard position (

Ricky Rubio and Carlos Alocén injured,

Sergio Rodríguez

retired from the national team

...), the mechanisms had begun to be activated for what never , nationalize an American director.

And the chosen man was

Lorenzo Brown

.

The return of the nationalized Ibaka, then, would close the doors to that possibility: by FIBA ​​norm only one per team can go, there was already a conflict when the Congolese and

Niko Mirotic

were available years ago.

In fact, Serge's relationship with the FEB, with which there was permanent contact but his return never materialized, has always been marked by controversy.

After that World Cup, it was the Mirotic era at Eurobasket 2015 (gold) and the Rio Games (bronze).

Neither of them attended the 2017 continental tournament and their names crossed again for the World Cup in China.

So, the now Barça player rejected the selection and thought again, too late, about an Ibaka (that year he won the ring with Scariolo) who had already planned his summer with his Foundation.

"invent something"

But the possible express 'signing' of the UNICS base opens a unique precedent.

In all the previous cases of nationalized players there was always a link with Spain.

From pioneers

Wayne Brabender and Clifford Luyk

in the 1970s, to

De la Cruz, Sibilio, Johnny Rogers, Mike Smith and Chuck Kornegay

, all ACB players at the time.

The most recent, Ibaka and Mirotic, were formed in our country.

Brown is almost 32 years old and hardly seems like a punctual patch for the tournament that will be played from September 1 (Spain plays the first phase in Georgia, the final will be in Berlin).

He spent two seasons with Scariolo in the Raptors and, as far as is known, he has only set foot in Spain on visits to Euroleague games with Red Star Belgrade, Fenerbahçe and UNICS, his last team.

Lorenzo Brown, in a match this season with UNICS.Euroleague

A few months ago the coach spoke of "inventing something" - "

we will have to make an effort of imagination" -

to alleviate the hole in the base position, where Spain always showed off muscle and abundance.

Without Ricky or El Chacho,

Quino Colom, Guillem Vives, Alberto Díaz, Ferrán Bassas or Dani Pérez

are running as alternatives and thus have successfully defended the team in the Qualifying Windows where NBA or Euroleague players cannot attend.

Sergio Llull, Jaime Fernández and Alberto Abalde

would be other options for a group in full reinvention and that will be led by the

Hernangómez brothers and the promising Usman Garuba and Santi Aldama

, among others.

The Lorenzo Brown option, in addition to the blisters it would raise, does not seem administratively simple or economically cheap.

As AS advanced, the procedures should go through the Council of Ministers and would go a long way.

Ibaka, for his part, has returned to compete and was part of the Bucks rotation after back problems that kept him away from the courts for almost all of 2021.

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