Henrik Dettmann, former coach of Germany national team, resents the Spanish team’s decision to naturalize Lorenzo Brown, calling it a shame.
A former coach of Germany and Finland national teams discussed about player naturalization in European basketball for finland portal Helsingin Sanomat “Quick nationalizations threaten to make national teams look like club teams,” says Henrik Dettmann, the top director of the Basketball Association.
China strengthened its national basketball team just before the FIBA World Cup by granting citizenship to NBA player Kyle Anderson. 29-year-old NBA player, Anderson was born in New York and spent his childhood in New Jersey.
His connection to China is that his great-grandfather is Chinese. “Anderson’s case is very obscure in the current world political situation. It hasn’t been decided at a very low official level in China,” says Dettmann.
As head coach of the Finnish national team, Dettmann came across the same phenomenon several times. In the qualifiers for the 2011 European Championship, Finland faced Montenegro twice, whose team was played by Omar Cook, who was born in the United States and got the country’s citizenship.
“When Cook was asked what he likes about Montenegro, he replied that he has never been to the country.”
In last summer’s European Championship final tournament, Spain had granted express citizenship to the American Lorenzo Brown. Ricky Rubio was injured, and Spain head coach Sergio Scariolo recalled Brown.
Scariolo had previously coached Brown as an assistant coach of the NBA team Toronto Raptors. Brown had never lived in Spain, has no roots in Spain and has never played for a Spanish team. Before the European Championship.
“I always resent this for all Spaniards. It’s a shame if you have to resort to such a trick to be able to beat Finland” says Dettmann.
The FIBA World Cup will be played from August 25th to September 10th in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan. Finland will play in group E, with Germany, Australia and Japan.