Marcelinho Huertas' departure from the Brazilian national basketball team marks the end of a more than two-decade-long era, paving the way for a new generation of playmakers.
According to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) website, as quoted in Jakarta on Wednesday, Huertas, who is now 41 years old, was once the main driving force of the team with two FIBA AmeriCup titles (2005 and 2009), as well as performing consistently at the FIBA World Cup and the Olympics.
"When you're 41, you have to prepare yourself to stop, and Huertas' retirement was the perfect ending, because we qualified for the Olympics through the qualifying tournament, and then his last match was against the United States, so it was the ideal end to his career with the national team," said Brazil head coach Aleksandar Petrovic, commenting on Huertas' retirement last year.
Without Huertas, the playmaking burden will now be shared between Alexey Borges, Yago Santos, and Georginho De Paula at the 2025 FIBA AmeriCup in Managua.
The coach said the early results were quite promising with Brazil recording two wins over Uruguay and the Bahamas.
He said he was satisfied with the trio's performance, while hinting at the return of Raulzinho Neto to the squad this year.
"I was happy to coach Marcelinho, but now I'm also happy to have Yago and Alexey," he said.
