Basketball player of the Russian national team Shcherbenev: “We will definitely not get lost at the Olympics now”

Defender of the Russian national team and “Lokomotiv-Kuban” Alexander Shcherbenev told that the national team could perform well at the Paris Olympics.

Shcherbenev is currently at the national team training camp. On Friday, Zoran Lukic’s team will play a test match with Samara.

The Olympic Games will be held in Paris from July 26 to August 11.

— Is it emotionally difficult to play a friendly match with a club and not with another team? Is it difficult to adapt to such a game?

– On the contrary, it is good that in general we now have a friendly match. I think this match will benefit us. From the point of view of testing the connections of the game, our strengths and weaknesses, this match will be very useful. We now continue to prepare for the Friendship Games. And this training course and this match will be a stage of preparation for these important competitions.

— Is it difficult emotionally without international competitions?

– What can you do. But we have to play friendly matches and other interesting tournaments. For example, the same “Friendship Games”. I think it’s a great competition. It’s a great opportunity to see your strengths, an opportunity to play at an international level and a great celebration of the sport.

Of course, I would really like to participate in the Olympic Games and the World Championships. Unfortunately, at the moment we cannot. But I am sure that everything is ahead of us. I hope we return to the international scene as soon as possible.

— How would our team perform at the Olympics if such an opportunity existed?

“It is difficult to say something specific, but in any case we would not have gotten lost anywhere and we would have fought,” Shcherbenev told the correspondent.

The World Friendship Games will be held in Moscow and Yekaterinburg from September 15 to 29.