MKD - A new fairy tale now in the works

SKOPJE (Olympic Qualifying Tournament) - The story of last year's run to a fourth-place finish at the EuroBasket in Kaunas that is told in Skopje is known as the "Lithuanian Fairy Tale”.

The most popular part of the fairy tale is about what transpired in the last 17 seconds of the Quarter-Final against the host nation.

Vojdan Stojanovski stole a pass from Lithuania’s Darius Songaila and handed it off to his FYROM teammate Bo McCalebb in the right corner.

The guard then passed to an open Vlado Ilievski, who stepped into a go-ahead three-pointer with just 11 seconds to go that falls through the hoop and makes him a basketball god in his homeland.

Simas Jasaitis missed an opportunity to put Lithuania back on top with a jumper just two seconds from the end.

The FYROM players celebrated on the court and with their fans in a surreal, dreamlike atmosphere after the game.

Those images are being played again and again this week as FYROM gather to begin their preparations for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Caracas, Venezuela.

No coach, player or team can replicate the type of summer that FYROM had in basketball last year, which may explain why boss Marin Dokuzovski decided not to remain in charge.

New coach Marjan Lazovski will still have the same players, though, unless a newcomer or two or three breaks into the squad.

Lazovski held smaller workouts last week with some of the emerging FYROM players and is gathering now with a full squad, though some stars are late arriving since their clubs are still in action.

"Last week was a kind of introduction to the true work that begins today," Lazovski said.

"All praise should go to these young guys who are the future of our basketball, which has worked hard up to today and will now unite with the more experienced players.

“The first training will occur and all of the invited players except Ilievski, who is rehabilitating (an injury) in Slovenia, and McCalebb, who still has obligations with Montepaschi Siena in the Italian play-off finals.

“(Point guard) Marques Green will join 8 June, and Pero Antic will rest a day before joining after the hard final series in Greece, which ended over the weekend. He was crowned with another title."

Antic, the FYROM captain, won not only the Turkish Airlines Euroleague crown this season but also just captured the Greek title with Olympiacos.

The first official training session was due to take place on Monday night.

FYROM will take on Angola and New Zealand in Group D of the 12-team OQT, where three places for the London Games are up for grabs.

FIBA