In 2008, Igor Kokoshkov, a Serbian specialist, took over the Georgian national team. If coaches trusted only 6-7 basketball players before, Kokoshkov distributed the load to 9-10 players. This was evident in 2009-2011, when the two five were replacing each other.
In 2010, Manuchar Markoishvili was included with the reserves and we have seen a number of spurs with their performance. Do you know who the substitutes were? – Lasha Gamkrelidze, Manu Markoishvili, Nika Tskitishvili, Giorgi Shermadini… The duo of Gamkrelidze-Shermadini worked perfectly…
In this part of the project “The Road to Eurobasket 2021”, we will tell you about Shermadini and Gamkrelidze. We’ll also present the participants of Eurobasket – Lasha Pharghalava and Nika Metreveli. Richard Matiashvili, a distinguished center of the Super League for years.
Giorgi Shermadini
– I am always happy to play in the national team. I am ready to play as long as I can and i’m needed. Especially now – when one group of Eurobasket will be held in our country, Tbilisi. This is amazing news for any basketball player: one of the five teams in the group enjoys special privilege – this is the host… and this is Georgia! It is a pleasant feeling – the whole country supporting you, close friends and fans encourage you from the stands. This will be the biggest step for the popularization of the country and for future generations, – said Giorgi Shermadini in an interview with Lelo. He will help our team both in the qualifying round and the Eurobasket itself.
2020 will be the 15th year of his national team career. We will recall only three matches here, but he has had many memorable matches.
The first – September 3, 2006, Georgia-Luxembourg 86:44. Everyone remembered this game with the quarrel between Pachulia and Jones. For Giorgi Shermadini, on the other hand, it was important for different reason – it was his debut in the national team.
Second match – Eurobasket 2013, Georgia-Poland 84:67. Zaza Pachulia and Tornike Shengelia were excluded from the European Championship held in Slovenia. In the very first match, Shermadini stopped the Polish star Marcin Gortat, the Georgians won convincingly and after the match Igor Kokoshkov said that Giorgi Shermadini was the best center in Europe.
The third memorable – December 3, 2019, Georgia-Israel 71:69. At the end of the match, there was a second that many basketball players dream of – at the end of overtime, Giorgi Shermadini played a pick-and-roll with Tad McFadden, took the ball under the shield and shot it – 71:69. “Shot” – it’s easy to write, it was very difficult to perform, and amazing to remember – at that moment, the crowd gathered at the Sports Palace was overjoyed.
– It was an amazing feeling, –Shermadini recalls,– it already meant a victory, it was even more pleasant to give joy to the Georgian fans. I felt as if I could fly.
Lasha Gamkrelidze
Lasha Gamkrelidze has been an unchanged member of the team for years. He held the first match in 2004, the last – in 2017.
After the injury of Giorgi Tsintsadze at the Eurobasket in 2011, he became a starting player, he played perfectly with Greece, but the following year he was not even included in the extended squad by Igor Kokoshkov. Several years passed, Ilias Zouros was appointed as a couch and Lasha appeared in the national team again. Two Eurobaskets were finally registered in his career – 2011 and 2017.
Gamkrelidze remembered the 11-minute debut match most of all:
– For the Division B meeting we arrived in Luxembourg after the games against Finland and Macedonia. The match was going on equally, our team was winning by only 9 points before the fourth period. Coach Drajen Brajkovic let me play 13 minutes before. Tsintsadze and Markoishvili had already received 4-4 personal fouls. I also boldly entered the court. We won 23:6 in the fourth period. Although I had played more in other matches, I had had a lot more points, I remember the debut match the most clearly today.
Nika Metreveli
Nika Metreveli is 211 cm tall center. He had to play and train in the conditions of serious competition in the nationalteam. After all, Pachulia, Shermadini, Tskitishvili, Boisa, Shengelia alternated in the front line… Nevertheless, he held 12 official matches in the national team and some interesting to remember:
– We were going from Tbilisi to Austria via Turkey. We were waiting for the Vienna flight at Ataturk Airport. Us the 7 players of the team, who were far from the rest of the teammates, had so much fun talking that we missed the flight and only half the team flew to Austria! Fortunately, the Turks exchanged in fact canceled tickets for the next flight free of charge. After arriving in Austria, I was named guilty, as I was known for always being late…
Lasha Pharghalava
Lasha Farghalava is an example of how you can get into the national team with hard work. He did a lot of work in American colleges and came to Georgia quite strong. In 2011, Igor Kokoshkov included him in the 12-man application on Eurobasket and he became the creator of one of the highlights in the first match.
Pharghalava also has one uncomfortable reminder from this European Championship:
– At the Eurobasket in Lithuania, where the Georgian national team participated for the first time in its history, because of the excitement I accidentally left my sports uniform in the hotel before the very first meeting. Igor Kokoshkov, the head coach of the team, considered the mentioned incident as a violation of discipline… I stayed behind the team the following year. I still have a hard time with what happened then and I want to ask the next generation to pay special attention to the national team. In order to get into the national team, along with dedication, triple attention and maximum mobilization are needed.
Richard Matiashvili
Richard Matiashvili was a teenager playing in the Georgian Super League. He formed an interesting front line with Giorgi Shermadini in the youth team, he has been in many meetings in the national team, but he has rarely participated in official meetings.
The reason is simple – competition. After all, Zaza Pachulia, a two-time world champion, and Giorgi Shermadini, a two-time winner of the Euroleague, had the position of the center.
