ARG - Fabricio Oberto: "We’ll get better as we advance in the tournament”

SENDAI (FIBA World Championship) - Fabricio Oberto has been a member of Argentina's national team for over a decade and has played an instrumental role in the team's silver medal finish at the 2002 FIBA World Championship in Indianapolis and their gold medal success at the Olympic Games in Athens two years ago.

The former Olympiakos and Tau Vitoria star made a lasting impression at the McDonald's Championship in Paris in 1997 drawing interest from several NBA teams.

But Olberto always turned down offers from America until the right opportunity came along last year: a chance to play alongside his fellow countryman Manu Ginobili and help the San Antonio Spurs defend their championship.

While he did not get to play much due to an already crowded Spurs frontline, Oberto was just happy to play and learn a lot from Manu.

However, the 31-year-old will have a very important role in this year's FIBA World Championship where he will regain his familiar role of last line of defense for Argentina.

FIBA's correspondent Simon Wilkinson caught up with him ahead of the Olympic champions' Group A opening clash against France.

FIBA: How do you see Tony Parker's injury and withdrawal from the French team affecting Argentina's approach to tomorrow's game?

Oberto: When a team loses a player of Tony's calibre, it obviously takes a lot out of them. He brought a lot of experience and quality to France's game. But for us, as opponents, we have to be careful because sometimes in these situations, you focus so much on some players that you can forget about others and they can hurt you. So we just have to play our game as always and really apply ourselves on the defensive end.

FIBA: Argentina's preparations for the FIBA World Championship have been a bit of a mixed batch, especially with three losses in your last four games causing a bit of concern. Does the team feel ready after a few days in Japan?

Oberto: Yeah we really did have a bit of a tough time on our European tour and in Singapore. We didn't really play at the level that we usually do. But we've been here in Sendai for the past three or four days and we've been able to work on what went wrong in our warm-up games. We listened to the coach and learnt a few things. It took a little bit of time to recover but these last few days have been really good for us. We may not be a full 100 per cent when we start the tournament but we're going to get better as we advance in the tournament and hopefully we'll be at our best very soon.

FIBA: France's head coach Claude Bergeaud said that Argentina play some of the best basketball because of the unique culture its players have been able to develop on the national team but also in the Euroleague and even something that's reached the NBA.

Oberto: I think really it all comes down to the fact that we're a bunch of friends and we really enjoy playing basketball together. We're able to play hard but still have fun in doing so and the results in recent years just show that it works for us. Sometimes people get too carried away into trying to figure out how long our good run is going to last and how far we will get into this or that event. We don't really think about it all that much. We just put our heads down and work hard, help one another and play for our fans.

FIBA: What are your thoughts ahead of the game against France?

Oberto: It's going to be a tough test. It's not the easiest game to open up against France even if they are without Parker. But beyond that game, we will have to be at our best because the other teams will be motivated to play against the Olympic champions and trying to cause an upset.

FIBA: Looking at the other big team in Group A, the defending world champions Serbia & Montenegro, what are your thoughts on the changes they've made since the last FIBA World Championship.

Oberto: Sometimes the best team that you can make doesn't need to have all the best players that you can bring in. You can make a good or even great team without so many stars. They are a very young team and we expect them to be very hungry because they want to restore the country's basketball greatness.

FIBA: How far do you expect Argentina to go?

Oberto: It's really hard to tell because when the knock-out stages begin you can come across some really good teams from the other pools like Germany and Spain just to name a couple of them. So it's really going to be tough.

By Simon Wilkinson
FIBA