Navaro Before Zalgiris: Odzelej Plays, Djurisic Out

The Belgrade Arena stands were nearly empty when Ibon Navaro sat down with reporters yesterday, an hour after Red Star’s final training session before the EuroLeague opener. The Red Star coach did not talk about winning, but about the injury list, and that was the day’s first piece of news: Semi Odzelej is ready, Nikola Djurisic is not.

Navaro laid out the situation plainly ahead of the match.

“Semi will be ready to play, while Djurisic still isn’t training, so he won’t play. We’re still working on his recovery, so we don’t have an exact date for when we’ll see him on the court. Once the doctors and physiotherapists finish the rehabilitation, he’ll start working with the team,” Navaro said.

Odzelej was injured ten days ago during preseason in Cyprus, when he was playing as vice captain against Aris and twisted his ankle less than a minute and a half into the game. He left the court with help from the medical and physio staff, a scene that worried the club, but the injury turned out to be minor. Djurisic, on the other hand, got hurt in August at a national team training session; he’s dealing with a quad problem and hasn’t trained with the team even once since, and even the coach doesn’t know when he’ll be back.

The game against Zalgiris tips off Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Belgrade Arena, the opening round of the new EuroLeague season for both clubs. The Lithuanians are flying straight into Belgrade on a charter flight from Kaunas, taking off only after an afternoon training session at home, so they’ll land in the Serbian capital in the evening.

Coach Tomas Masijulis is bringing a team missing two players. Deividas Sirvidis and rookie Kaodiri Akobundu Ehiogu are staying behind in Kaunas because of injuries, while a decision on guard Sejben Li will be made on game day.

“Thirteen players are traveling, if nothing happens in training. As for Sejben, we’ll decide on match day. When we travel for a double week, 14 players will make the trip, but usually it’s 12 or 13 players who travel,” Masijulis said before leaving for Belgrade.

Even without Li, Zalgiris still has Najdzel Vilijams Gos, Karsen Edvards and Maod Lo in the backcourt, along with Jonas Valancunas, the signing that changed the Lithuanian team’s outlook the most over the summer. They opened their domestic season with a 93-69 win over Neptunas, arriving in Belgrade with the kind of game rhythm Red Star has yet to find.

Navaro admits as much, without sugarcoating it.

“This is a team that made major changes with Valancunas and Edvards, but kept the core of the squad together. They have better game rhythm than we do. They started training and working together before any other team, so it’s certainly a team with more rhythm than us. But we’re playing at home. I think we did the most important things on time to be able to compete. There will certainly be mistakes in some areas, but the most important thing is that we have energy and that we do what we need to do the right way,” Navaro stressed.

For Red Star, it’s not just the court that’s an advantage, it’s the crowd too. Ahead of his first game on the Red and White’s bench, Navaro spoke openly about what he expects from the Arena.

“Basketball here in Belgrade is more than a sport. It’s culture, passion and emotion. It’s not just a sport, it’s something more than that. We can’t wait to see the Arena tomorrow full of our fans, and to feel the energy they’ll give us,” Navaro said.

Why Zalgiris Is Playing With the Biggest Budget in Club History

The Lithuanian club has a record budget this season. President Paulijus Jankunas unveiled a plan worth 28.8 million euros, of which 19.7 million goes directly to player and coaching staff salaries. Last season Zalgiris spent 24.8 million euros in total, 14.5 million of that on salaries, meaning the payroll jump is more than five million euros in a single year. That money shows in the roster: alongside Valancunas and Edvards, the club also kept the core of the team that reached the EuroLeague playoffs last season.

Navaro, by the way, is one of three Spanish coaches currently working in Belgrade, alongside Alber Rijera at Red Star’s football club and Cavi Penjaroja at the neighbors across town. So far, he says, they haven’t even managed to grab a coffee together.

“I’ve seen Rijera about as much as I’ve seen Penjaroja. We haven’t had much time to talk. I ran into one of them in a parking lot, the other in a shopping mall. Briefly. There used to be a time when all the Balkan coaches were working with us in Spain, now we’re the ones here. Those are cycles, there’s no real reason why it’s like that. Just the current cycle,” Navaro said.

We wrote earlier this week about the match time and the Arena’s reduced capacity. Now everything is ready, and all that’s left is for the game everyone has been waiting for since May to actually be played: the season’s first real test. Judging by how calmly Navaro talked about the gaps in his roster, Red Star isn’t panicking over Djurisic. The real test comes Thursday at 8 p.m., when the Arena roars for the first time this season.