Yovel Zoosman will make his Eurobasket debut for Israel against Finland on Friday at 2pm local time. The ALBA Berlin forward will look to use his tough defense, aggressiveness and all around know how to help take the Blue & White into the ink out stages of the competition.
Just ahead of tip off, The Sports Rabbi spoke to “Zoos” about how he feels about experiencing his first ever senior European championship.
“I feel good and we worked all summer long. I hope we can show our qualities and what we can bring to the table in the competition. Hopefully it will be a full arena and we want to focus on ourselves as this is the first time that I am playing in this type of large tournament and I hope that we will be ready.”
Playing in the Championships:
“This isn’t something that only happens every four years and in this case we waited five. For most of us this is the first time playing at the Eurobasket and it’s exciting, unique and we are on the largest stage in Europe. We have to show what we can do and make our country proud.”
Yovel Zoosman – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman
What Zoosman needs to be careful of:
“I have to be more aggressive than I was in the last game and you will see that there will be more aggressiveness and intensity from the entire team.”
Sticking together:
“The players are keeping to their own teams at the hotel and most of the time we are eating together and watching video together and hanging out with one another.”
Stopping Lauri Markkanen:
“Let’s see what we will do tomorrow. I don’t have an answer right now but he’s a good player on the NBA and we gave to try to limit him as much as we can and let’s see if our adjustments will make a difference.”
Lauri Markkanen – Photo Credit: FIBA
ALBA teammate Jaleen Smith received Croatian citizenship:
“It’s a great story. When we won the league title, we had a gala event with all of the players in the club and he asked me how it works with being part of a national team. Two weeks later he got Croatian citizenship and that was cool. He’s very happy and loves playing basketball. He’s a very upbeat and good person and it’s great to be on the same team as him. He’s a great player but fitted and foremost a great person. It’s great to hang with him and he’s such a good teammate.”
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