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Those Nets lucky enough to play for their countries national teams have already started competing overseas. Aleksandar Vezenko, the Nets stash taken in in June’s Draft, had 13 points, 13 rebound and five assists for Bulgaria on Wednesday vs. Portugal in the FIBA World Cup Pre-Qualifiers. That’s a competition primarily for small countries.
And starting Friday, Timofey Mozgov of Russia and Yakuba “Billy” Quattara of France, the Nets two-way, will be busy playing in “friendly” games —warm-ups for the FIBA Europe tournament— some single events, some part of tournaments.
Mozgov’s Russia, for example, with play nine games in two Russian cities; Hamburg, Germany and Helsinki, Finland over a three week period before heading off to Istanbul for the FIBA Europe tournament. That starts at the end of the month and runs almost three weeks.
Ouattara’s schedule is no less daunting, with eight games in three weeks before the real Eurobasket games begin.
Both Mozgov and Ouattara will face off against Germany whose coach, Chris Fleming, is a Nets assistant and offensive guru. Germany plays Russia twice and France once in the friendlies.
Here’s a schedule. If we can find video, we’ll let you know ...
RUSSIA
August 4 - Finland vs. Russia
August 6 - Israel vs. Russia
August 11 - Germany vs. Russia
August 12 - Hungary vs. Russia
August 13 - Iceland vs. Russia
August 18 - Germany vs. Russia
August 19 - Serbia vs. Russia
August 20 - Poland vs. Russia
August 25 - Finland vs. Russia
FRANCE
August 4 - Finland vs France
August 5 - Tunisia vs. France
August 8 - Croatia vs. France
August 15 - Lithuania vs. France
August 18 - Belgium vs. France
August 19 - Montenegro vs. France
August 20 - Italy vs. France
August 27 - Germany vs. France
In other FIBA news, Juan Pablo Vaulet, the Nets Argentine stash, was cut from the national team on Thursday. No surprise. He’s rehabbing from his latest ankle surgery. Although he was named to the 18-man preliminary squad, no one thought he be ready for the FIBA Americas tournament later this month.