New LA Clippers teammates Danilo Gallinari and Milos Teodosic had a chance to play each other one final time this summer before becoming teammates in the fall. The 2017 Eurobasket competition that took place in early September saw an incredible run by Goran Dragic-led Slovenia to win the gold medal for the first time in the nation's history.
NBA stars from around the world showed up to help their respective national teams like Dragic for Slovenia, Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, Willy Hernangomez and Juancho Hernangomez for Spain, Boris Diaw for France, Dennis Schroder for Germany, Omri Casspi for Israel, and Marco Belinelli for Italy.
However, a major disappointment in this tournament came with the news that some European NBA stars would be unable to participate. Giannis Antetokounmpo sat out for Greece, Rudy Gobert for France, Teodosic as well as Nikola Jokic for Serbia, and Gallinari for Italy (following a fractured hand suffered punching an opponent).
At Clippers Media Day, we brought up the topic of Eurobasket to both Gallinari and Teodosic, which Milos cut me off to remind me that his team beat Gallinari's.
Gallinari's Italian team defeated Finland 70-57 and Teodosic' Serbian team defeated Hungary 86-78 in the Round of 16, setting up a matchup between the two. In the quarterfinals, Serbia defeated Italy 83-67 to advance to the semifinals as Gallinari and Teodosic watched together.
Despite his team falling short of their goal, Gallinari was proud of the fight the Italians showed the entire tournament.
“As far as our team in the European championship,” said Gallinari, “I thought that we both did very good. It was an interesting game between Serbia and Italy so we watched it together. Unfortunately, it was not an easy day for me, but he is my friend so I was happy for him. but I thought that both teams played good basketball.”
On the other side, despite missing key guys in the tournament, Serbia was able to reach the medal round and come away with the silver hardware. Teodosic praised his national team and spoke about how huge it was for Serbians everywhere.
“We had a lot of problems, a lot of injures,” explained Teodosic. “[Nikola] Jokic couldn't play, five or six main guys couldn't play, and we're in the Final. I think that this is big success for our national team and I'm happy for all these guys who won a medal, which was not easy to do.”
Gallinari and Teodosic now shift their attention to their new team in a new city. Both dealt with injuries at some point this summer, and both will be crucial to the Clippers this season.
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