Cancar-Nebo, controversy remains alive: Slovenian coach Sekulic goes down flat with Olimpia Milano

Just days after Luka Doncic’s jibe at Olimpia Milano over the reasons behind the unavailability of Vlatko Cancar and Josh Nebo for EuroBasket 2025, and the response of Christos Stavropouols, general manager of the Red Shoes, who clearly reiterated the need not to risk the two players from the physical point of view, the controversy remains alive: the technical commissioner of Slovenia, Aleksander Sekulic, in fact went on the counterattack in an’interview with the Serbian portal ‘Meridian Sport’.

“We are not satisfied with the fact that some players were not able to be there – Sekulic commented -I am talking about Cancar and Nebo, whose home club did not allow them to play with Slovenia, even though they had great desire to be there. On the one hand it is a hard blow, on the other hand we have to use the opportunity to give space to young people”.

The absence of the two Olimpia basketball players, according to the coach of Slovenia, was also heavy from an organizational point of view: “We assembled on July 23: Cancar notified me two days before that he could not come, because the club told him that he had not passed medical tests. A month earlier I had talked to him and he was very motivated, eager to play for the national team. Interestingly, a year ago he was in worse physical condition, and Denver had allowed him to play. Now he is in very good shape, so it seems very strange to me”.

“Nebo? I know he had a difficult season because of injuries–he later pointed out Sekulic -He played little, but we had received assurances that he was healthy and ready. However, the club told us that he is not fit, that he needs to recover. He himself said that the club would not allow him to play, he did not want to create problems”.

“When you lose players who are in the NBA or Euroleague it is a very important problem for us. We don&#8217t have that many basketball players, when we are missing those who play at the highest level it hurts. I told the team, though, that we have to take advantage of this situation to be even more motivated, to also feel a little bit freer: maybe something good will come out of that” said Sekulic again, who in any case at EuroBasket 2025 will be able to count on one of the strongest players in the world, Los Angeles Lakers ace Luka Doncic.