The group is getting bigger and we’re very happy about that! After Giannis Antetokounmpo, Cedi Osman and Kostas Sloukas, a huge name in European basketball with worldwide recognition, is added to the already powerful roster of Eurohoops.net bloggers!
That’s none other than the artiste of basketball, one of the most original talents that European basketball has produced in the last 20 years…
Milos Teodosic launches his official blog on Eurohoops!
As a European and VTB League champion with CSKA Moscow, a member of the best team in the Euroleague and the MVP of the VTB playoffs, the Serbian guard launches his blog and speaks just like he plays…
Lively, spontaneous, genuine, charismatic!
Vindication for CSKA, not for me
First to say hello to the readers of Eurohoops! I’m happy to be a member of this group on an international website that loves basketball and fights for the sport in the right way. This is the reason I immediately accepted the proposal that was made to me.
The season is over and it was the most successful one in my career in Moscow so far! There’s no better feeling for an athlete than finishing such a long season and knowing that his labors have been rewarded to the utmost. We’ve conquered all of our goals, we’re happy, we feel like we got what we deserved and each one of us goes his own way with a smile on his face and with the best memories.
I honestly don’t regard the Triple Crown as a personal vindication. Above all it’s a vindication of the CSKA franchise, the most consistent team at the top level with the most appearances in Final Fours in the modern history of the Euroleague.
Since 2008 and the title in Madrid, every season except for 2011 they have been in the Final Four, struggling to win the Euroleague once again. After so many disappointments, painful defeats, mistakes, setbacks, this success becomes much more valuable and is a reward and a completely fair vindication for the club first and then for everyone else.
It’s true that our recent failures had created a psychological burden for us, a strange aura and frame of mind, but we consider the Final Four in Berlin as the milestone and the beginning of a new cycle for us. It can set us free, it will help us maintain the same team to the maximum extent possible, the confidence in ourselves was always there and now it has soared. So, possibly, the best is yet to come, it’s ahead of us!
Fortunately, I don’t read anything about basketball!
I never had any complaints about my career. From a young age, even before I became a professional player and made my first steps abroad with my transfer to Olympiacos, I was fortunate enough to win several team titles and personal distinctions.
I left Greece with the heartache that I hadn’t managed to win the championship and the Euroleague with Olympiacos, despite having the opportunities to do so. In CSKA all these years, the Euroleague was missing. The successive lost opportunities and defeats especially, like the one in the 2012 final and the semifinals of 2014 and 2015, are very upsetting and don’t let you get them out of your mind easily.
I know I was always the one the media, and maybe even the people, blamed the most for the failures. Even though basketball is a team sport. We win together, we lose together. That never bothered or touched me! I was only angry with myself and the hardest part was that I had to face up to my… criticism of myself.
The comments coming from the media and the people were a lot less distressing. Not because I don’t value other people’s opinions. Far from it. I just think that when they judge you so harshly and they are always looking to put the blame on you, it means that they count on you a lot and they have demands of you, that deep down they respect your competitive value and your talent.
On the contrary, facing up to myself in such cases is always more difficult. Because I know who I am, what I am capable of on the court, and so I know better than anybody what I’ve done wrong and how much better I could have performed.
To be honest, another good thing in my case and generally in my career is that, with very few exceptions, I fortunately have no idea about what is being written. I don’t read anything, absolutely nothing that has to do with basketball. I might spend some time browsing on the Internet every day or read a magazine, a newspaper, but practically never about basketball!
I have so much to give, now the dream of the Olympics!
I have only a few days to rest in my home country, since the preparation for the pre-Olympic tournament begins soon. On the one side I feel very tired, on the other, the motivation of taking part in the tournament in Rio, plus the fact that the qualification games are going to take place in Serbia, excite me and I look forward to it!
I have never played in the Olympic Games with the national team, it’s a dream for me and I have to realize it! I’ve won medals in the EuroBasket, World Cup (best playmaker in the world cup two times in a row), I’ve celebrated every title at the club level, but nothing compares to representing your country in the Olympic Games, let alone excelling too!
The only thing I’m thinking about now, with regards to basketball, is this: How to get to Rio in August!
Beyond that, I feel that I still have much more to give back to and gain from basketball. I’m at the best age, I’ve gained a lot of experience, I’m mature and I believe the most productive years, those in which I will play the best basketball of my life, are ahead!
Teo4 Basketball Camp: Time to give back to basketball and society!
Milos Teodosic has created a beautiful sports project of rare quality in Serbia and all indications are that, this summer being the springboard, Srebrno Jezero lake (in an amazing tourist resort, 100 km from Belgrade) is going to become the location for one of the most important international camps in the world!
Many young… Teodosics are going to begin their journey in the coming decades, but the most important of all is that Milos himself wants Teo4 Basketball Camp to help people under development that are not going to become professional players, to build the foundations in order to grow into proper characters, beneficial for any society!
The facilities are impressive, the infrastructure is modern (you can access the website HERE and find all the information, the 5 periods when the camps are going to be conducted, the registration forms in 4 (!) different languages: English, Serbian, Greek and Chinese!) and the Teo4 Basketball Camp is one of the soundest endeavors ever realized in Europe, and also in the right direction for a basketball camp with top level expertise to also function as an… academy that will produce good personalities!
Milos doesn’t want to say much on this particular subject, despite the fact that, for him, it’s one of the most important initiatives to date in his life…
“It was something I had in mind for years. A vision, as I’ve been through that time when I was a young kid, dreaming of finding myself in such circumstances. You have to find the right opportunity, the right place and the right partners. Everything was set in motion in the right manner and came together seamlessly, and we launch the Teo4 effort with great passion, with enthusiasm and love for the sport, the children and their families.
At 29 years of age I’ve experienced so many joys, I’ve settled my financial situation and I’m well aware of how lucky I am compared to other kids of my generation, younger and older. I have the obligation to contribute and give back to basketball and to the people, as much as I can. We are expecting all of you and the only thing for certain is that every year we will become better and better.”
Be good, Milos Teodosic!