A team that no one believed in won a silver medal at the World Basketball Championship. Without a doubt - without at least four world-class players - this is the greatest success of the Serbian basketball team, and possibly even of representative sports in general. What was different this time compared to the last six years in which we did not win medals? Perhaps the fact that no one believed in this team, least of all in Svetislav Pešić as a coach.
The national team went to the World Cup without Nikola Jokić, the best player in the world, without Kalinić and Lucić, great defenders, and Vasilij Micić, the best playmaker in Europe in the last few years. Pešić did what he could only do under these circumstances: order, work and iron discipline. With that, he instilled in our team the belief that only through team play they have something to look for in this championship. Everyone knew exactly what their duties were and, except for a few cases during the tournament, everything worked as it was supposed to.
It is not at all strange that the national teams of Germany and Serbia met in the final of the World Cup. For the first time, Germany became the champion of Europe in 1993, when Pešić was the coach. To this day, he is considered the most deserving coach for the development of basketball in Germany.
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The Serbian national team was sent to the World Cup as a memorial service. Only Pešić had something to promise at the press conference before leaving: "Our goal is direct placement at the Olympic Games."
The task he set for the championship seemed unachievable - only the two best teams from Europe directly qualify for the Olympic Games. In terms of quality, before the start of the World Cup, the national teams of Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Germany and Lithuania were ahead of us. By all accounts, only going to the semi-finals could bring a direct qualification to the Olympic Games. No one believed it was possible.
This team has a big basketball name in its composition - Bogdan Bogdanović, but also a player who is considered one of the best centers in European conditions - Nikola Milutinov. The rest of the team consists of ten more players who are not even the most important players in their clubs. Due to severe injuries during the last few years, Stefan Jović was still the only well-known basketball name in Serbia before the start of the championship.
World Cup Germany Serbia Basketball...his players and associates
Right before the start of the championship, Pešić thanked Nemanja Nedović and did not take him to the tournament. This was a similar situation as before the previous European Championship when the selector decided that Miloš Teodosić did not fit into his plans. It's very simple - if you are not a player who is capable of playing at both ends of the field, in defense and attack, Pešić is not counting on you. Nemanja Nedović knew that well. He is an excellent striker, but a very average defender. Teodosić also knew that, who was never a good defensive player, but for years he was a key player of the national team in the last fifteen years with his attacking play and organizational skills.
Insisting that the defense brings success, and the attack only builds on it, is a coaching philosophy that Pešić has followed throughout his career. You can't go far in a tournament if all the players don't know what their role is in the team. Top stars, such as Jokić and Bogdanović, you sometimes have to tolerate knowing that they can decide the game for you with their moves, but the other players must be in a warrior mood so that the team can fight for a high ranking.
During the entire tournament, the Serbian national team demonstrated an excellent defensive game. By all accounts, Italy has become a psychological problem for our team, but defeat in the group stage was also experienced by much better teams that we sent to major competitions in the past. You just have to remember Puerto Rico - they beat us when we had one of the best teams in the former Yugoslavia.
The defense functioned flawlessly during the tournament, except against Italy and the second half of the final game. Aleksa Avramović demonstrated his commitment to the game in defense. I can't remember a player being so dominant in defense against the best defenders in the championship. I almost stopped the Lithuanian defenders and drove Canada's best player Gillius Alexander Shay crazy. If the judging criteria had been slightly different, Avramović would have stopped the playmaker of the German national team, Denis Schrüder, in the final. With his infectious play in defense, he motivated the rest of his teammates to give their best. Avramović thus became the soul of this team.
Defense as a trademark of our national team allowed us to score many easy points from counterattacks during the championship. We averaged over 95 points per game. As in defense, we played disciplined in attack as well. Each of the players contributed as much as they could at the moment.
Bogdan Bogdanović played as captain. If there were problems offensively, he found a way to score points. In moments when our team was doing well in attack, he did not insist on scoring points. He encouraged his younger teammates and gave advice. In the end, an injury prevented him from showing all his talent in the final game, but as long as he answers the call to the national team and as long as his health serves him, he will be an irreplaceable player. How much we missed him at the European Championship is the best indicator - we simply do not have a player with his shooting and leadership abilities. When Bogdanovic plays well, it's easier for everyone. Twenty guaranteed points per match is an advantage for every team. Any national team must base its defense on the strict guarding of Bogdan, which allows other players easier positions to score points.
Nikola Milutinov was up to the task throughout the tournament in the center position until an injury in the final prevented him from helping our team win the gold medal. He played brilliantly against the centers of Lithuania and Canada. Along with Bogdanović and Avramović, he showed the most in this competition. Nothing can be blamed on him. If he had been healthy, maybe the final game would not have ended like that.
At this championship, Serbia got another player it can count on in the future. Nikola Jović, a member of the Miami Heat and the youngest member of the national team, perfectly fit into the game philosophy of Svetislav Pešić. Talent, build and aggressiveness did not lead him to unnecessary actions so characteristic of young players. He showed that even at that age you can think about the team more than your own promotion.
The problem of injuries followed this team from the very beginning. The most serious injury suffered by a member of the national team happened to Borisa Simanić. One seemingly innocuous elbow strike led to a series of complications and eventually to the removal of a kidney. An almost impossible injury has put this young player in a situation where his further involvement in top sports is questionable. The least that Serbia can do is to provide Borisha with the highest possible sports pension and thus help him overcome the difficult times ahead.
In the final game, we played without Dobrić due to a quick injury. Without him and with the injured best players - Bogdanović and Milutinov - we could not fully compete with the German national team. That was the biggest problem of our team. We don't have a player who could take the role of Bogdan Bogdanović or Nikola Milutinov in this championship. If everyone was healthy, we could have dealt with the German team, but even so, we were close.
The better team that showed the best team basketball with us won and we should not regret anything. We showed that we are able to play against any team in the world.
OLYMPIC GAMES TEAM
This team, smartly managed, has a future. The Olympic Games are next year in Paris. After many years, we do not play the qualifiers and we can calmly focus on preparations. If all the players that Pešić is counting on show up for the preparations, after many years the selector will be in for a sweet treat. If next year Jokić agrees to play for the national team, our team will have two players in one place who are able to score over thirty baskets per match. His cooperation on the field with Bogdanović will be a problem for any team in the world. It is enough to look at the cooperation that Jokic had with Dzemal Murray in the Denver Nuggets, which led this club to the NBA title.
It's too early to talk about it, but our team's play with Jokic requires the rest of the team to adapt to his individual abilities and the way he plays. If we are not ready for such a thing, maybe we don't really need his basketball knowledge. Bogdan Bogdanović is the natural leader of this national team. Jokić is not that by character. Giving up the services of the best player in the world is crazy, but it's even more wrong to ask Nikola to be what he's not.
The players who were members of our team during this championship should form the backbone of the team for Paris. After such a game, Aleksa Avramović took a permanent place in the team, as did Nikola Jović. Bogdan Bogdanović and Nikola Milutinov are indisputable members of our team. Ognjen Dobrić and Stefan Jović showed with their games at the World Championship that they still deserve to be called up to the national team. With Nikola Jokić, Vasilij Micić, Nikola Kalenić and the recovered Lucić, the Serbian national team would represent one of the favorites at the Olympic Games for the first time in a long time. Until then, no pressure should be put on the players. This medal made it possible for all players to now feel the need to be part of the team next year. With good preparations and without media pressure, it is possible to create a powerful team after many years.
photo: ap photo
In less than three weeks, the country with a little more than six million inhabitants became the second in the world in basketball, for the fifth time in a row the champion of Europe in 3x3 basketball; the volleyball players are very disappointed with the second place in Europe after the world and European titles that were in their possession until now; volleyball players are in the quarter-finals of the European Championship (at the time of writing this text). Ivana Vuleta is the world champion in the long jump. Even the national football team doesn't embarrass us too much. One great sports summer.
There are years when we don't do as well in sports as we expect, but that's why Novak Djokovic is always there - he's won tennis tournaments for seventeen years in a row. Today's generation of young people in their early twenties has known about Novak since they knew about themselves. It is difficult to say anything new about Novak Djokovic without it being written and told countless times.
A sports phenomenon who, at the age of 37, manages to reach the finals of all four of the biggest tournaments in the world during one calendar season - the so-called Grand Slam tournaments (Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open) and along the way won three.
Now it can already be said that Novak Djokovic plays tennis only because he still can. He already owns almost all the records in tennis. The most significant record is 24 Grand Slam titles - the rest is hard to count. He is officially the best tennis player in the history of this prestigious sport, and if his health serves him (age seems to have no effect on him), he will continue to find new challenges.
The media, which are no longer able to describe the career of this sports phenomenon with superlatives (not only ours), have recently attributed to him the title of "the greatest athlete of all time".
What will life in Serbia look like when Novak Djokovic retires one day? It sounds funny, but habit is a miracle. Being on the world map for so many years in such a noble sport is an irreparable loss. Perhaps the best message about the importance of Novak Djokovic for Serbia was written by Vladeta Janković in "Vremen" No. 1593:
"On today's Serbia, Novak Djokovic mostly has a therapeutic effect. For some of its citizens, it certainly represents an incentive, but for the vast majority, and even more, it acts as a consolation, as a kind of compensation. In the lap of a nation that, historically speaking, is in every way on a downward trajectory, the emergence and survival of an authentic winner is healing and cause for celebration. At the same time, Djokovic is without any doubt a global phenomenon and billions of people know about him, even those who until recently were not sure if Serbia and Siberia were the same. In an environment where lies, exaggerates, covers up, conceals and steals day after day, in all places and in all possible ways, where hochstapler and mediocrity flourish, where plagiarized doctorates are defended in court, where sycophants make careers, where enriched scumbags laugh in the face of the honest world, and the unbalanced leader tirelessly inflates the balloon of his false greatness, in such an environment the honest, sparkling clean and powerful performance of one of the true offspring of this nation is invigorating for some, and for others, we suspect, it could be worrying."
For the second time in a row, Europe had two teams in the World Cup final. In the quarter-final matches, Europe was represented by six national teams. The honor of the rest of the world was defended by the USA and Canada. The inevitable happened. All the best players outside of North America end up in the NBA - in the last five years, the title of the best NBA player has been won by European players.
The big difference in quality is now reduced to shades. Americans do not recognize the World Cup as an important competition, the NBA champion is the world champion for them. The difference that the American teams insist on is the FIBA rules by which all major basketball competitions are played. American basketball players are not used to those rules. To be honest, the rules don't suit them unless they become world and Olympic champions.
Still, the USA sends its best players to the Olympics. There is still an arrogance towards basketball outside of the Americas, but the future inevitably belongs to the rest of the world. We will see if the next Olympic Games will be a turning point in the game that the Americans introduced to the world more than 140 years ago.
