Stankovic Cup to start without several key players
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Stankovic Basketball Continental Cup is to start on Wednesday with the absence of a few key players including China's Yao Ming, Iran's Hamed Haddadi, Australia's Andrew Bogut and Slovenia's Goran Dragic.
"Bogut is injured," said Brett Brown, head coach of the Aussies, at the pre-match news conference on Tuesday. "He is still in the recovering process." The Australian centre missed the latter half of the last NBA season because of the injury.
Australia is not the only team losing the front-court centerpiece. The host team has been without centre Yao Ming for even longer time. The Houston Rockets leader started training recently, but he still needs time for full recovery.
Haddadi from Iran is competing in the NBA Summer League, fighting for his place in Memphis Grizzlies. The centre planned to join the national team several days before the Turkey Basketball World Championships.
NBA star Primoz Brezec enables Slovenian manager Mehmet Becirovic to avoid frontcourt trouble, but Goran Dragic's withdrawal weakens his backcourt.
All the four teams said that they are here to warm up for the Turkey worlds, and that missing several key players are not unacceptable.
Stankovic Cup is an inter-continental basketball tournament, held annually in China since 2005. There are four national teams - China, Iran, Slovenia and Australia - showing up in this year's event. Two of the four, Australia and Slovenia, have ever won the cup, while the host team China is still in want of a title.
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