Luanda -The NBA's Atlanta Hawks player, Bruno Fernando, has joined Angola’s national basketball team ahead of their Pre-Olympic Tournament to take place on July 2 to 7 in Valencia (Spain).
The 2.06m tall power forward joined the four-time African champions due to an NBA clause, although he was in Porto (Portugal) much earlier, where preparations are underway for the event, which qualifies for the Paris Olympic Games.
Bruno Fernando was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers as the 34th overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft, becoming the first Angolan and the only one to date to play in the world's biggest basketball league.
With the Hawks, the player, who started his career at Angola’s 1º de Agosto, completes the group of players playing outside the country, namely, the point guard, Selton Miguel (University of South Florida), the power forward Jilson Bango (from Löwen Braunschweig in Germany).
Completing this group are point guard Sílvio de Sousa (Chorale Roanne, from the French First League) and Eduardo Francisco, who recently won the championship with Sport Lisboa e Benfica.
After preparation in Portugal, dominated by the physical and tactical aspects, the team will head to Serbia on Friday to continue preparation matches against teams from the first division of that European country.
For the Intercontinental Tournament, the national team is in group A with Spain and the Bahamas, while group B includes Lebanon, Poland and Finland, with the top two teams from each group qualifying for the semi-finals.
Angola is seeking its sixth appearance at the Olympic Games, after participating in the event in 1992 (Barcelona), 1996 (Atlanta), 2000 (Sydney), 2004 (Athens) and 2008 (Beijing).
National team players:
Childe Dundão, Elcane Paca, Eduardo Simão, Dimitri Makonda, Aginaldo Neto, German Obama, Gerson Lukeny, Selton Miguel, Eduardo Francisco, Jerónimo Luís, Jonathan Ndjungo,Wheza Panzo, João Fernandes, Aboubakar Gakou, Jilson Bango, Teotónio Dó, Luís Faial, Macachi Brás, Bruno Fernando and Sílvio Sousa.
WR/MC/DAN/AMP
