By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
MANILA, Philippines – Τhere’s old school, and then there’s the real-as-it-gets-definition of the old school.
Coach Svetislav Pesic is exactly that, having led Serbia, then still called Yugoslavia to the 2002 FIBA World Cup title.
When asked to make a comparison, between now and then, he smiled and even was fast to say that the USA will be in the final, before giving also a shoutout to Germany: “I am here in Manila in a different situation, everything is new for me. As you know, there are no two similar games and no two similar tournaments. Other teams, other situations. We play again with the USA, we will see. I am very happy with this win tonight, but I am keeping calm because I know my team. And of course, we will see if the USA wins the game. Sometimes who will win any game is hard to predict. Germany showed also in the last European championship they are one of the best teams in the world. Let’s say tonight, nobody knows who will win the semifinal”.
For the record, Serbia played against Argentina in the 2002 final.
Asked about the absence of Nikola Jokic, Pesic once more used an old-school approach: “I don’t know if it’s the right moment to talk about Jokic. I can say only one thing. Jokic is always part of the team because he is the best player in the world and a great person and now it’s not time to talk too much about Jokic, but about the players who are here”.
This was pretty much the reaction of guard Marko Guduric who dedicated the win to his injured teammate Borisa Simanic and when asked about Jokic he added: “It’s about who is here. We love Jokic, but we are proud to be here and wear this jersey, fight for this team, for our people, our families. I can’t imagine now what’s going on at Belgrade”.
Guduric also admitted that the 2002 World Cup final had great significance for him: “Of course, and that’s the reason I started playing basketball. It means everything, this is the biggest game of our lives. For us it means everything. to represent this country and this jersey”.
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Coach Pesic didn’t forget to mention everyone on his team, give credit to the defense, and also a great compliment to Shai Giglious-Alexander: “I am very proud of my players, team, coaches, medical staff. We repeated one more time a great game, this time against Canada, for me the best defensive team. But we are also not that bad on defense. We can play transition offense also. The most important thing was to take away points from transition, this is the key against Canada. Secondly, very good one-to-one defense especially against Shai, one of the best players that I watched in my career. He is young, he needs young and experience. For us, there was an additional motivation to take him out of the game, but we made this job with great success”.