Fight against the best

After the new disappointing performance of the football team, which, frankly, did not have high hopes before the European Championship in Germany, the Serbian sports public is turning to another favorite team sport and the basketball team, which will be sent off to France with a lot of love, but and with huge expectations. The reasons for such a thing are great: from the rich tradition of this wonderful sport that made Serbia the "land of basketball", through numerous successes from major competitions, to the fact that we travel to the Olympic Games as world vice-champions, but also reinforced by the best basketball player in the world.

Whenever one of the major national basketball competitions is held during the summer, the main question is: "Will Nikola Jokić defend the colors of Serbia?", which should not be surprising, since this is a player who has been named the best player three times in the last four years. the best player of the best league in the world, or simply put, for the best in the world. Apart from the American one, there is no national basketball team for which (not) playing such a player would not make a big difference. However, as the famous coach Duško Vujošević likes to say, "the team is not made up of a group of the best individuals, but of those who function best on the field", and last summer the team selected by coach Svetislav Pešić proved that by reaching the final of the World Cup, even though they were deprived of help Jokić, Micić, Lučić and Kalinić. On the other hand, from the previous two competitions, much better teams returned too early - after being eliminated by Argentina in the quarter-finals of the World Cup 2019, and Italy in the round of 2022 of the European Championship XNUMX.

There are also players for whom there is no question whether they will be there, and one of them is Bogdan Bogdanović. Instead of wasting energy on criticizing those who for various reasons did not respond, perhaps more respect should be given to those who are always present and motivated. Bogdan was introduced to the national team by Dušan Ivković, now somewhat long ago in 2013, while under Salet Đorđević, he profiled himself as the main player of the national team. We remember his long-range threes, the most important baskets, but also his public acceptance of responsibility when, although very rarely, he played below his capabilities. Bogdanović in the team is a guarantee that the Serbian national team has great ambitions, a united dressing room and a huge motive. It will be the same this year.

However, one should not be too critical of players who, from time to time, decide to dedicate the summer to their family, their body and rest. Opportunities in the world of sports are dictated by money, and money comes mostly from TV rights, which entail the need for as many games as possible. Even in well-to-do football, the need was felt to expand the Champions League and invent a competition called the League of Nations. In European basketball, it has become common for teams to play more than 80 games during one season, while that number for the best NBA teams, which go far in the playoffs, can rise to three digits. There is almost no time for basketball players to train and recover during the season, so there is only summer left, which is mostly reserved for one of the big representative competitions.

Unlike football, in which the continental and world championships alternate every two years, basketball must also include the Olympic Games in its calendar. The Olympic tournament is also considered the most prestigious competition in this wonderful sport, the equivalent of the World Cup in football. We could look for different explanations for why this is so, but in the end it boils down to one thing - the Americans, as the dominant basketball nation, attach the most importance to the Olympic Games, and accordingly, since 1992, they usually send the strongest teams to them. And you can embrace the halo of the best only when and if you beat the best.

BORA STANKOVIC AND THE DRIM TEAM

Basketball has been played at the Olympics since 1936, and 16 of the 20 gold medals have gone to the Americans, despite coming with teams made up of university players. For a long time, FIBA, the umbrella world basketball organization, quite rigidly classified NBA basketball players as "professionals", who were not allowed to participate in Olympic tournaments, while players from European basketball were considered "amateurs", although during the eighties there were many cases of European basketball players so-called women earned more than American professionals.

Be that as it may, the difference in quality between America and the rest of the world was so great that even American students brought home gold medals without a problem. Many of them, such as Jerry West, Oscar Robertson or Michael Jordan later became NBA stars and the best basketball players in the world. In the first 11 tournaments, the Americans managed to win only the Soviets, and that in the controversial ending of the final in Munich in 1972, with a score of 51-50, while the second gold that did not go "over the pond" was won by Yugoslavia in Moscow in 1980, on Games that the USA boycotted.

In terms of profits and popularity, basketball has lagged far behind football, a global game that has been followed across many meridians for quite some time. For the development of the game, it was necessary to bring European and American basketball closer, and then spread it to other continents. The first to see this, and the first to try to do something concrete about it, was Borislav Stanković.

The former basketball player, coach and veterinary inspector, as early as 1974, as an official of FIBA, tried to convince the first man of this organization, William Jones, that it was necessary to lift the ban on NBA "professionals" from playing in Olympic tournaments. The first steps in this direction were made only after 11 years, when Bora Stanković advanced in the FIBA ​​hierarchy and agreed with the famous NBA commissioner David Stern about holding the McDonald's tournament, in which three teams from Europe and one from the NBA participated. The first tournament was played in 1987 in Milwaukee, while the remaining eight editions were held in major European cities. This tournament represented a small revolution in the world of basketball, and fans could finally witness the collisions of American and European teams.

A new step towards rapprochement took place at the Games in Seoul in 1988, where the Americans won "only" bronze. The rest of the world clearly showed that it is approaching American basketball in terms of quality, which was nevertheless a blow to the ego of the nation that declares the champions of its NBA league as "world champions". With the suggestions and efforts of the increasingly important marketing machinery, the ban on the participation of NBA players in the Olympics was lifted, so the Americans wanted very much to present themselves to the world in the most beautiful and best light - the Dream Team was born.

The title of the best ever assembled basketball team was awarded on the cover of the famous sports magazine Sports Illustrated, with Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing and Karl Malone smiling. Later, Bird, Robinson, Malin, Stockton, Pippen, Drexler and Lettner were added, while all of them were led from the bench by Chuck Daly, the coach of the famous Bad Boys from Detroit. The popularity of the members of the Dream Team was equal to the popularity of the biggest rock stars, so instead of the Olympic village, they spent their time hiding on isolated golf courses and card rooms in a hotel reserved only for members of the American basketball delegation. On the field, as expected, they demonstrated their quality and walked to the gold after eight victories, the least convincing of which was achieved with a 32-point difference.

Photo: Nemanja Jovanović/ Tanjug

ENCOURAGE THE REST OF THE WORLD

Apart from the controversy with the covering of the Reebok logo with the American flag and the basketball bullying of Toni Kukoc by Jordan and Pippen, the prophecy of the Brazilian basketball player Marcelo de Souza, which turned out to be partially true, is also remembered from the Games in Barcelona: "I will never be able to I play like Scottie Pippen and my son will never be able to play like Scottie Pippen. But maybe my grandson will play like Scottie Pippen.”

The rest of the world did not wait for two generations, but in the next one it caught up with America in terms of quality. In the new millennium, the NBA MVP award was won by the Canadian Nash, the German Nowitzki, the Cameroonian Embiid, the Greek Adetokumbo (twice) and the Serbian Jokic (three times). The United States, with the exception of 2004, has continued to win gold medals at the Olympics, but by much smaller margins. The Spaniards and the French were seriously threatening, while the bad performances and defeats of their national team at the World Championships are almost no longer considered sensations. Last year, Germany and Canada gave a basketball lesson to the rejuvenated American national team, which returned without a medal, so a reaction had to follow - this summer, the strongest squad is being sent.

Apart from the dominant US national team, after a long time the other national teams also send their best teams, or more precisely, their best players. Host France, which is a basketball power in the making, as evidenced by the fact that they recently had the first two picks in the draft, sends last year's first pick and sensation of the NBA, 2,24 m tall Victor Vembanjama, as well as the league's best defender Rudy Gober. World champion Germany is sending the team that presented itself as the best the previous year, with Schrüder and the Wagner brothers, while a lot is expected from another country on the rise in basketball, Canada. The squad full of quality NBA players, led by Giljus Alexander, was finally strengthened this year by Jokic's teammate from Denver, Jamal Murray.

If we add to these teams the traditionally dangerous Spain, Greece and Australia, along with the fact that the winners of 13 of the last 16 MVP awards (Lebron, Curry, Durant, Adetokumbo, Embiid, Jokic) are participating, it is clear that we are in for probably the strongest Olympic tournament in basketball. The question remains whether anyone can get close to the Americans, but also the one that interests basketball fans in Serbia much more - how much can the chosen ones of Svetislav Pešić?

Photo: FFBB / KSS

BALANCE AND HARMONY IN THE COMPOSITION

The Serbian national team will begin its participation in the OI in group C, together with the USA, Puerto Rico and South Sudan. The two first-placed teams from each group, as well as two of the three third-placed teams, will advance to the quarterfinals, so it is to be expected that Svetislav Pešić's team will find themselves in this phase of the competition. The provisions of the competition state that teams that were in the same group in the initial phase cannot meet in the quarterfinals, so the next possible meeting between the Serbian and USA national teams is only in the semifinals or finals.

However, instead of calculations and potential crossovers, it is usually wiser to take care of things that can be directly influenced, such as the game and the atmosphere within the national team. Svetislav Pešić is an experienced expert who has repeatedly demonstrated the ability that was mentioned somewhere at the beginning of the text, and is worth its weight in gold in tournament systems - that the team seems to him not as a collection of the best individuals, but as a collection of individuals that work best together.

The first signs are encouraging. After the victory against the Netherlands in two closed preparatory games with the results of 90:74 and 95:61, the first real test came against the French team, which is included in the first round of favorites for medals, and Serbia beat them rather routinely with 79:67. Before going to the Olympic Games, Pešić will have three more opportunities to see his team in action, against Australia, USA and Japan, after which he will have a clear picture of which 12 players he will lead to France.

The backbone of the team can already be sensed. Once again, Serbia will be weakened by not playing Lučić and Kalinić, which represents a huge handicap, but Vasa Micić will return to the jersey with the national coat of arms, after his first NBA season. He will share the playmaking duties with Aleks Avramović, the absolute hit of last year's World Cup, while Bogdan Bogdanović and Marko Gudurić will bring great quality to the back positions. In the position of low wing, Vanja Marinković and Ognjen Dobrić will do their best to repeat the games from the previous national team competitions, while the big handicap in the position of wing center is the injury of the ankle joint of the left leg of Nikola Jović, basketball player of Miami Heat, who will most likely miss the competition.

In the positions of high players, Pešić will without a doubt count on Nikola Jokić, Nikola Milutinov and Filip Petrušev, who will probably also cover position four in the absence of Jović. It is interesting that the coach of Serbia started the game against France with Jokić at number four and Milutinov at number five, which could be one of the potential ideas to compensate for the absence of last year's starter from the wing center position. Alexey Pokushevski, a talented young man with exceptional height and basketball skills, is also waiting for his chance.

Prerequisites for success in team sports are balance in the composition and a clearly defined hierarchy. The leaders of this team will undoubtedly be Jokić and Bogdanović, and the rest of the team will not question that. The best basketball player on the planet almost invented a new position in basketball with his qualities - point center, or playmaker in the body of the center - but he wouldn't be the best in the world if he didn't also possess the characteristics of traditional centers, such as playing in the low post, which achieves the depth in the game that he desires every coach in the world. One of the things that makes Denver's offense unstoppable is the so-called. the two-man game played by Jokić and Murray, whose role could be taken over by Bogdanović because, like the Canadian, he is capable of defending the offense with a three-point shot, from half-distance, but also with penetration to the hoop, which makes him a very dangerous shooter at three levels .

Of course, the rest of the team is necessary for great success, and Serbia really has players in the squad who can contribute in different ways: Micić with his playmaking skills, Avramović with his aggressiveness at both ends of the court, Marinković with his reliable three-point shot, Gudurić with his creation from the role of secondary playmaker. , and Milutinov playing at the low post.
It is ungrateful for forecasts and too early for euphoria, primarily considering the quality of the other teams, but it is the right time to enjoy the participation of our boys in the most prestigious tournament that national basketball can provide. It may not be as popular in France as football, rugby or cycling, but in a country with such a sports culture and basketball atmosphere, it should be worthy of the epithet of the best tournament in recent history.

It may turn out that no one can do anything to the Americans, but it is good that they will send all the best they have. Because you can touch sports immortality only when and if you win - the best ones.