“The purpose is to win the matches; I cannot say how many of them would be won, but I can freely say that our goal is to win the matches and move on with qualifications. We will continue to play; it will not be easy, I assure you, but no one said it will be easy. We will try to do our best on the court to win as many matches as possible and move on with qualifications”, stated the U.S. Coach Brad Greenberg on Sunday, at a press conference organised at the Basketball Federation of Kosovo residence, where he introduced himself as the new Kosovo National Team Selector.
Present in the press conference was the President of the Basketball Federation of Kosovo (BFK) Erolld Belegu, too, who revealed the information before the sports journalists that a one-year-contract has been signed with the new Selector Brad Greenberg. The contract is subject to conditioning the Selector with winning first results of pre-qualification phase for the World Cup “China 2019”.
Belegu told the sports journalists about the serious work that the BFK is doing in the Kosovo National Team A programme and the signing of the contract with the U.S. Coach Greenberg, which is the first step towards building a strong team, which would be a “hard nut” for the Group C opponents in the pre-qualification matches for “China 2019”, part of which are Estonia and Macedonia, too.
“We work very hard in providing the services of adequate coach for the National Team and following several weeks of talks, we have managed to reach an agreement with Brad Greenberg who, we believe, would be able to reach our goal, which is beating the opponents of Group C and moving on with other qualifying matches of World Cup “China 2019”. As a BFK, we are very content to have reached an agreement with Greenberg and we believe that upon the will of everyone involved, we will manage to succeed and overcome this great challenge of Kosovo”.
On the other hand, Brad Greenberg, who answered many questions of the sports journalists present in the press conference, said, among other things, that he is happy to be in Kosovo and that he would work very hard in the next coming days, weeks and months. He also talked about the players that would be part of the National Team, underlining that, in the first wider gathering, he would want to invite all those that have defended last year’s Kosovo National Team jersey colours.
“The first gathering would be comprised of a larger group of players, including some young basketball players, who would have the opportunity to gain experience. There are some players who, last year, were not part of the Kosovo National Team, however they have expressed their wish to do so this year and we shall invite them. Additionally, I believe that players that would play in the Kosovo National Team would be those that will appreciate the national team’s jersey, so that when July and August approach, the only thing they would think of would be the National Team”, stated among other things Greenberg.
He talked about the fact why he has chosen to leading Kosovo in this phase:
“I think that it is challenging to run a new National Team such as Kosovo one. We have talked rather long and in the end I decided, and I believe it was a right decision because I think that time would prove it. I was an assistant to the Venezuela National Team and I liked this experience, namely because it was unique, different from the one when you lead a team, therefore when this opportunity was offered to me, respectively leading the Kosovo National Team, I wanted to test myself and this is why I decided to be in the lead of Kosovo National Team”.
Moreover, President of BFK Professional Council Anton Krump talked before the journalists and shared a statement:
“I am happy to have been part of a process in a country such as Kosovo, where people love the game of basketball and this matters a lot. I believe that upon the great will of people that lead basketball in Kosovo, great things at both, Kosovo National Team level and working with young generations, then education of coaches, judges, etc. would be achieved. I am very convinced that Kosovo would manage to be ranked fairly high in FIBA and something like this could be achieved with hard work only”.
Kosovo will play friendly matches against Tunisia (2 matches in Kosovo), Slovakia (2 matches abroad), Austria and Albania.
Brad Greenberg is currently a basketball coach to Eskisehir team, which is a member of Turkey’s First League, which currently is ranked in the first position of the League and which would commence the “play-off” phase, where 2 teams that would end up as the first teams, would be qualified for Turkey’s Super League of Basketball.
Greenberg has previously led the team of Hapoel Midgal Jerusalem, with which he won the title and the same results, Greenberg reached with Maccabi Bazan Haifa, too. He was an assistant to the Venezuela National Team, as well as vice-president of Portland Trail Blazers, and assistant coach to New York Knicks and LA Clippers.