Sasha Vujačić won’t be playing for Slovenia in this year’s Eurobasket after being sent home by head coach Jure Zdovc days before the tournament.

Slovenia also cut center Miha Zupan, but the real news is Vujacic’s surprising dismissal from a team that has been asking the 6-7 guard to come home and represent Slovenia for the last several years without success.

Zdovc placed much of the blame for Vujacic’s dismissal on an existing knee injury saying “Sasa Vujacic and everyone in the national team has done everything possible so that Sasa could return and play at the EuroBasket.”

“But his injury made his effort useless.” said Zdovc, trying to convince us.

Vujacic did miss some preparation games because of the knee injury.  However, if there was really a serious problem with his knee, his NBA club, the Los Angeles Lakers, would have prevented him to play for his national team, as the Dallas Mavericks (J.J. Barea) and New Jersey Nets (Eduardo Najera) have done recently.

So what’s the real story?  Quotes from Zdovc suggest that Sasha couldn’t/wouldn’t play within the national team’s style; and word is that Zdovc was bothered by Vujacic missing exhibition games with a minor injury.

“(Vujacic) hasn’t had time to adapt to our style of play.“ Zdovc said. “I want to thank the (Vujacic) for his effort and wish him a speedy recovery from his injury.”

Zdovc is under a lot of pressure to succeed, as Team Slovenia consists of many former and current NBA players and Euroleague stars, but the team hasn’t played well showing very little chemistry with one another.

A true low point was when Slovenia lost a preparation game 63-56 to a Great Britain squad without Robert Archibald and Pops Mensah-Bonsu.

Previous to the news today, Slovenia’s roster included NBA players Sasha Vujačić, Boštjan Nachbar, Beno Udrih, Primož Brezec, Goran Dragič, and Uros Slokar, as well as Euroleague stars Erazem Lorbek and Jaka Lakovič.

(discuss the Slovenian National Team for Eurobasket 2009)