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As 2017 and Eurobasket is approaching FIBA published a letter by Milos Teodosic to his 10 years old self. Enjoy it!
Hi Milos! You are 10 years old now and nobody calls you Teo yet. You’re working out in Valjevo with your brother and dreaming to go somewhere. Maybe to move to Belgrade to play for any team, then to be a part of a bigger sports organisation.
You are an ordinary boy like all of your friends – not bad but unruly and naughty. You spend a lot of time with friends playing on the streets and you are happy with that timetable: minimum 8 hours on the streets, 8 hours at school and 2 hours to sleep. Now you can only dream about medals and awards watching the games of the Yugoslavian National team and its stars: Bodiroga, Djordjevic, Divac, Danilovic. You are sure that it’s impossible to achieve such success or even think about it. Those goals are too far away and huge to reach. But you, Milos, are in Valjevo now.
So let me introduce myself. I’m Milos Teodosic, or as my team-mates call me – Teo. I’m 29 years old now and I will tell you how marvelous and spectacular your life is going to be.
Your family is your main support throughout life, listen to their advice and trust them fully. It concerns not only basketball but everything. You will never become me without family. Tell many thanks to your first coach right now, because he teaches you how to love this game. He doesn’t push you to do a lot of drills or remember a great number of combinations. Remember all of his stories, he teaches you to love basketball. This love is infinite. Never drop school, you have to get good marks or your coach will not allow you to practice.
In nine years you will be absolutely sure that basketball is your life forever. In a year after that you will play in Greece – it’s going to be your first serious professional step – Olympiacos Piraeus. In 2010 FIBA will call you the best basketball player in Europe. It’s crazy, you’re only 23 but believe me it’s the truth.
You will leave Greece and move to Russia where you will have personal ups and downs. Huge ups and painful downs. You will fight a lot with competitors but the most important – with your character. It’s hard but you’ll be able to become stronger, it will take four years to understand each mistake and you will do it in Moscow. But the prizes for your hard work will be priceless – you will be the star of the Serbian National team and lead it to two historical silver medals – in the World Cup and Olympic games. You will finally win Euroleague with CSKA. And each person in Valjevo will call you the Legend.
If you don’t believe me, it’s OK. Go on, work hard. You will see.