By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Dario Saric spoke to FIBA after Croatia’s win over Brazil about determination, luck and playing against the odds.
Saric, 22, is having an exciting summer since he joined the 76ers in July and is currently competing in his first Olympics in Rio.
As a member of the Croatian national team for 6 years now, the young power forward has had quite impressive moments. He was named MVP and won the gold in the 2010 U16 championship in Montenegro, then repeated the process in the 2012 U18 championship in Lithuania.
Who can forget Saric’s incredible block on Pau Gasol a few days back? Here’s what the player says about the team’s obvious determination: We want it. We’re young, we’re full of energy, we’re hungry. That’s the most important thing in basketball, when you’re hungry every day, every game – nobody can beat you.
Is it luck that brought Croatia thus far? Dario disagrees: Sometimes you can be lucky. These two games, I don’t want to say that we’re lucky because this team has been fighting. We deserved the wins against Spain and Brazil and now we move on to the next opponent.
The team is playing against the odds and Saric is aware: I don’t know how many more wins we need to prove ourselves. We don’t care. We don’t care who believes in us. We believe in each other in the locker room. What other people say out of the locker room? It’s not important.
When asked about Bojan Bogdanovic and his amazing performance against hosts Brazil, the player explained a little bit about the team’s stand: Bojan scored 32, 33 points today. He is the shooter that will take more balls for the offense but we, the rest of the players, fight and make his job for him. We create on offense for each other.