Patrick Baumann to Ettore Messina: 'He's a coach, he should think about coaching'

In an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, Patrick Baumann, head of FIBA, responded to the critics to the new FIBA schedule made by Ettore Messina, coach of Italian NT. Baumann said that everyone should respect his role and not be starting with useless critics:

"Messina is a coach and he should think about coaching," Baumann said. "Maybe he's disappointed by the fact he won't be able to coach the national team in the future but the terms he used after the game were inappropriate. Everyone should respect his role. I think that Petrucci, president of Italian Federation, already expressed his view about the schedule and considering that Messina is paid by Petrucci, he should listen to him. "

Actually, there are some holes in Baumann's statements about Messina and Italian Federation. First of all, Petrucci has always stated that Messina is coaching the NT without taking any money, so he's not paid by Federation. In addition to that, Petrucci is not exactly ok with the new schedule. He already expressed some doubts in August, stating that it's unacceptable that some players will be used in qualification rounds, while other will play in the Olympics.