“A betrayal”: the Italians have across the throat the supposed about-face of the rookie of the NBA season Paolo Banchero, who will face Tuesday in the quarter of the Basketball World Cup with the Americans the Nazionale, which he had promised, according to them, to wear the shirt. The opposition between the two selections (2:40 p.m. French time), Tuesday in Manila, promises to be all the more electric as Banchero’s Team USA has just fallen for the first time in the competition, against Lithuania.
“His decision is legitimate, but he could have made a phone call to let us know. Instead, we learned about it from the press,” stormed Petrucci, president of the Italian Federation, to La Gazzetta dello Sport. “It’s a betrayal. It happens from time to time, and I’m used to it. He deceived us, he was to be one of our figureheads in terms of communication,” he added. This quarter-final promises to be electric.
