Spurs' Marjanovic 'so sorry' for missing EuroBasket with Serbia
As disappointed as Serbian basketball fans may be to have lost Boban Marjanovic for EuroBasket 2015, nobody seems more disappointed than the gargantuan 7-foot-3 center.
The San Antonio Spurs signed the behemoth in mid-July, and later in the month flew him to San Antonio for further evaluation on a troublesome left foot. Marjanovic was using a walking boot at the time, with rumors he played through a fractured foot in the Serbian League finals getting shot down.
The evaluation revealed significant bony edema in his left ankle, the Spurs announced this week, and the team made the decision to keep Marjanovic from playing in the international tournament. While it's probably unnecessary to apologize for getting injured, Marjanovic did just that this week.
"I'm so sorry for everything that happened," Marjanovic told Blic Sports, as translated by Paul Garcia from Project Spurs. "I had a great desire and motivation to play for the national team."
Marjanovic will be under a strict Spurs-guided rehabilitation plan, one that will limit him to a walking boot and swimming exercises for at least two weeks. Marjanovic's agent took to Twitter recently to express displeasure in the team's diagnosis, but they're entirely within their rights to protect their $1.2-million investment.
Serbia will be left to try to qualify for the 2016 Olympics without their near-300-pound center. The top two teams at EuroBasket will qualify, while teams three-through-five qualify for the 2016 Olympic Qualifying Tournament. FIBA ranks Serbia as the No. 7 team in the world, but the European region is loaded and no team qualifying is certain.
Serbia hasn't leaned on Marjanovic a great deal in international play, as he's often been left on the candidates list and off of the final roster. He appeared in two games at EuroBasket 2011 but totalled only 19 minutes of action.
That's in part because the 26-year-old only recently broke out, getting named All-Euroleague first team and European Center of the Year in 2014-15.