Croatia’s Dario Saric criticizes basketball’s World Cup qualifying systemt

NEW YORK — Dario Saric says basketball’s World Cup qualifying system “doesn’t make any sense” to him after Croatia was eliminated from contention Friday.

The Croatians had a strong run in the 2016 Olympics, winning their group and reaching the quarterfinals. But they will be sitting home this summer after Croatia’s 77-69 loss to Poland on Friday.

With many games during FIBA’s new qualification system taking place during the professional basketball season, top players from the NBA and EuroLeague were largely unavailable.

“With those kinds of windows where NBA players and EuroLeague players cannot play, it doesn’t make any sense for me,” Saric said after helping Minnesota beat New York 115-104 on Friday night.