By Yiannis Bouranis/ info@eurohoops.net
Fenerbahce’s guard, Bogdan Bogdanovic, gave an interesting interview on Belgrade’s radio station B92 and talked about his current team, Nemanja Bjelica, the Euroleague and many other things.
Here is what he said, according to Sasa Ozmo:
About this year’s Fenerbahce:
“Team is a lot different than last year– except for me, the only ones that remained are Vesely, Mahmutoglu and Hickman, who is injured. But I think we gained depth and experience – Datome is great, Pero as well, Vesely has made huge progress and Kalinic will be really important because we missed that kind of player last year, he brings a lot of energy. Also, Raduljica has spoken to me about Udoh, they played together in Milwaukee, he’s a true professional, he’ll bring much needed defensive presence and I like his attitude towards basketball. All in all, I like this team, I think we have character and we’ll show it.”
Regarding his Euroleague ambitions:
“We want to go to the F4 again, even more. We didn’t win any trophies last year, but it wasn’t an unsuccessful season since there were stretches during which we were among the most dominant teams in Europe. I think that Euroleague will be stronger than last season, we’ll see, but it seems to me that way, there is a lot of players that came from the NBA.”
Bogdanovic also took part in the The Usual Suspects Euroleague intro. What were his thoughts on that?
“What can I say, I might try myself as an actor after my career is done (laugh).”
About his personal growth:
“I think I should improve my game, maybe be more aggressive towards the basket. I’ll have more freedom, but that depends on the game to game basis. Basketball has changed a lot, scouting has progressed a lot and you’re easily studied and adapted to if it all depends on one player. That’s why there can’t have one player carrying all the burden. Also, I’m trying to get more sleep and improve even more with my professional life. I watch carefully what I eat, I try to go to bed as early as possible and stuff like that.”
Serbia was one of the favourites to win the gold medal in the 2015 Eurobasket, however they were eliminated by Lithuania in the semi-final and claimed fourth place. Bogdanovic talked about that game and the upcoming Preolympic Tournament:
“I still think the same – bad day against Lithuania, we played perfect until then. But we can’t go back, we have to look forward to Rio. If we go to the Olympics, then half of what happened at Eurobasket will be forgotten. And if we win a medal, which is far away but it’s not unrealistic, Eurobasket will be forgotten.
Does the Serbian player learn from his failures, though?
“It says ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’. I’ll have bitterness to the rest of my life probably (when remembering the Eurobasket), but I use it as a motivation to work even harder and play even better.”
Nemanja Bjelica decided to leave Fenerbahce, last summer, and joined the Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA and his former team-mate in the Turkish team said relatively:
“We still haven’t talked, there is a lot going on, but I see that he’s playing excellent. The most important thing for Beli is to get minutes – that’s the only thing he needs because he’s a terrific player.”