Vasiljevic had made himself accessible for the two-game ‘Boomers in the ‘Burbs’ collection, to be performed at Wantirna’s State Basketball Centre, on February 23-26.
The NBL will pause its finals from February 20-28 for the FIBA window and the Kings guard wished to play for Australia to boost his probabilities of World Cup choice.
Vasiljevic had Sydney’s blessing to play for the Boomers, however he determined towards the transfer in a bid to give attention to profitable one other NBL championship.
“If it was during the year I’d play, but now we are in the back end of the finals,” Vasiljevic informed News Corp.
“We had to make the decision today (Thursday) and I didn’t want to say I’d only play if we got knocked out because someone else needed that spot.
“I spoke to Chase (Buford) and CP (Chris Pongrass) about it, and they said I could play, but they’d rather me stay to focus on the NBL finals.
“Plus, we (Australia) have already qualified.
“I also spoke to BA and the coaching staff and explained the situation.
“I told them it’s really important because we are trying to go back-to-back.”
Vasiljevic, although, stays eager on making Australia’s squad for this 12 months’s World Cup.
The occasion might be performed in Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines from August 25 to September 10.
“100 per cent and that is what I told BA,” he mentioned.
“I’d turned down one (Boomers squad) last year because I’ve always wanted to go to the Summer League, but after that I’ve wanted to play.
“Obviously, being a part of it puts my name in the (conversation) for World Cup extended squads, so that was the main goal for it.”
Vasiljevic hopes to let his basketball do the speaking in the course of the NBL finals collection, which begins subsequent Wednesday for Sydney.
The Kings have to attend for this weekend’s Play-In outcomes to see who they’ll face of their semi-final collection.
Vasiljevic concedes Sydney turned overconfident after locking in first place, however he expects the depth to raise within the playoffs.
“In the last two weeks we’ve lost four of our last six games and we just became complacent when we locked in top spot officially,” he mentioned.
“We took a step back defensively, but on Thursday we had one of our best practices in a month or two.
“We emphasised getting back on the defensive end and that being our identity and our offence will then flow moving forward.”
Originally printed as NBL news: Dejan Vasiljevic commits to Sydney Kings’ championship push over Boomers
Source: www.news.com.au
