“My full focus is initially on the Final Four in the Euroleague.” Pleiss won the title in Europe’s premier class with his club Anadolu Efes Istanbul last season. This weekend he is again in the finals of the top four teams with Istanbul and can become the first German to win the title twice.
Istanbul meets Olympiacos Piraeus in the semifinals in Belgrade on Thursday. The two top Spanish clubs will play in the second semi-final real Madrid and FC Barcelona against each other. The final will then take place on Saturday. Bayern Munich narrowly lost to FC Barcelona in the quarter-finals.
Pleiß is criticized and not nominated for a long time
Pleiß played his last international match on September 7, 2016. At that time he had left the national team in the middle of the European Championship qualification because he was in contract negotiations with clubs from the NBA and Europe after his time with the Utah Jazz had previously ended. The national coach at the time Chris Fleming had heavily criticized the center afterwards, and in the years that followed he was no longer nominated.
With the current national coach Gordon Herbert but Pleiß is in contact. “He recently visited me and the other players playing in Turkey“, reported Pleiss. The willingness to return to the national team is basically there, “but I have to listen to my body and see what health says“. Germany will take part in the European Championship from September 1 to 18 with the preliminary round in Cologne and the final in Berlin.
Source: dpa