The Serbian National Basketball team – a Way-back Machine part 4
Hello again, fellow sports fans! This week, we are following the paths of the glory of the Serbian basketball team. We will start the last exciting part of the story in Turkey, at the World Cup, after which I had to change the remote control of my TV.
Serbian national basketball team at the 2010 World Cup in Turkey.
Before the World Cup in Turkey, the world's bests national teams were on a display in Athens as part of the Acropolis Cup preparatory tournament. The match against the tournament hosts Greece was marked by everything except sports and a good basketball shoe. Instead of balls, chairs flew, and several players earned their suspensions. Among the suspended players was the captain of the Serbian national team, Nenad Krstić, as well as the starting playmaker Miloš Teodić.
The championship in Turkey, the Serbian basketball team, will begin with a demonstration of strength against the selection of Angola, which was defeated easily with the result 94:44. Already in the next match, a lot of excitement and two overtimes were seen in the match with the German national team. The basketball players of the German national team celebrated in the thriller match with the result 82:81. After two matches of suspension, Krstić and Teodosić return to the team. At the perfect moment, someone would be said, since the Serbian national team was expecting a match with the main favorite in the group Argentina. Before the match with Argentina, the national team of Jordan was convincingly defeated 112: 69. In an uncertain match against favored Argentina, Serbia took the victory with which it advanced from the first position to the next phase.
In the eighth-finals, another great and uncertain match was seen against the neighbors, the Croatian national team. In the thriller ends, the Serbian shooting guard Aleksandar Rašić hit the first free throw, while he intentionally missed the second. Serbia advanced to the quarterfinals with a score of 72:71.
If the match in the eighth-finals brought great excitement, what can we say about the next match played by Serbia and favored Spain. In the next round, in the match of the quarter-finals, the national team of Spain and the second favorite of the tournament was waiting. The Spaniards were also the current European champions at that time. Extremely motivated, the Serbian national team played an incredible match, the best in the tournament so far. The match was decided in the last seconds, with the moment of lucidity of the Serbian playmaker Miloš Teodosić, who hit a three-pointer from 9 meters! In the semifinals, the Serbian national team was waiting for the Serbian basketball team. I remember how much I was waiting for the final clash with the USA national team, but the refs prevented it. Yes, referees! Although I don't like to blame others for failures, such refereeing robbery in the match with Turkey has not been seen for a long time! The referees brought the match to an end in an uncertain ending, defeating the Serbian basketball team with a score of 83:82.
Serbian basketball team at the European Basketball Championship in Lithuania in 2011
Eurobasket in Lithuania brought some changes on the basketball scene, so the tournament was expanded from 16 to 24 selections. In that way, there was an opportunity for the Montenegrin national basketball team to participate in the championship. We will not remember this championship for good, because not only have no medals been won, but no place has been won at the Olympic Games in London. Serbian basketball players were stopped in the quarterfinals by a defeat from Russia, who was led by their first star Andrei Kirilenko. In the match for sixth place, which ensured a direct placement at the Olympics, the Greek basketball players easily defeated Serbia. This championship, in addition to defeats and changes in propositions, will be remembered for the fact that the Serbian national team last played in a completely blue set of jerseys.
Serbian national basketball team at Eurobasket in Slovenia 2013
The Serbian national basketball team qualified for Eurobasket in Slovenia by competing in the qualification groups with Montenegro, Estonia, Iceland, Israel and Slovakia. At the championship itself, the former "Blues" performed in a rejuvenated lineup, with young aces such as Bogdan Bogdanpović and Nikola Kalinić. They started the championship in a red set of jerseys and immediately at the beginning they achieved an unexpected victory against the favored Lithuanians. Serbia finished the competition in groups and later in the newly formed groups in the first place. However, unfortunately for Serbia, already in the quarterfinals. The playful Span was too much for the Serbian national team, so they inflicted a very convincing defeat of 90:60. The formar selector back then, Mr. Duda Ivković, set the primary goal of the championship as winning at least 7 places in order to secure a place in the World Cup. In the playoffs for the rank from 5th to 8th, the host national team of Slovenia defeated Serbia, but in the next match, thanks to the great Bjelica and Krstić, Serbia secured 7th place and placement at the World Cup. The end of the Eurobasket in Slovenia also marked the end of one representative epoch. Mr. Duda Ivković resigned from the position of coach, and the legendary playmaker of the Blues, Mr. Sasa Djordjevic, was appointed as the new coach.
Serbian basketball team at the World Cup in Spain in 2014
The legend of the national basketball team, Sasa Djordjevic, has been appointed for the position of the selector of the Serbian national basketball team. Despite a couple of dismissals due to changes, the core of the team remained unchanged. In the groups, the national team of Serbia did not play at th neccessary level, so Blues suffered three defeats from the national teams of Spain, Brazil and France. However, despite three losses, Serbian basketball players manage to advance to the next phase. Although they did not „announce“ that in the group games, the real rhapsody started in the first elimination match against the Greek national team. Serbia continued its great game against Brazil, which, like Greece, was defeated very convincingly. (84:56 against Brazil, or 90: 72 against Greece). In the match against Brazil, the young Bogdan Bogdanović especially stood out, who was slowly becoming the backbone of the team next to the already established Bjelica and Teodosić. A little more excitement was seen in the semifinal match. Although already during the first half, Serbia gained a double-digit advantage (at times even 19 differences), the French, with the help of the inspired Batum, introduced the match into a more uncertain ending. The match ended with the victory of Serbia with the result 90:85. In the second part of the draw, the selection of the USA defeated the national team of Lithuania convincingly 96: 68. No interesting match was seen in the final. The U.S. national team continued to show its superiority and was led by super-stars Kyrie Irving, Harden and young Anthony Davis. The Serbian national basketball team suffered the most convincing defeat in its history, 129: 92. However, despite the defeat, after the years of drought, the Serbian national team is returning to the basketball map of the world with players whose time is yet to come! Former captain Nenad Krstić has retired, and Miloš Teodosić has been appointed as the new one.
Serbian basketball team at the European Championship in France in 2015
Driven by excellent results at the World Cup last year, Serbian basketball players continued with great games. Serbia passes the group at the Eurobasket in France dominantly with all five victories. The Eagles announced their candidacy for one of the favorites with a victory over Spain after a great turnaround. In the eighth-finals, Finland was defeated, which was a tougher rival than expected. In the quarterfinals, Serbia had the Czech national team as its opponents, led by Jan Vesely and Tomas Satoranski. The inspired game of the two did not help the Czechs, so the Eagles scheduled a semifinal duel with the old rivals - the Lithuanian national team. Trench warfare was seen. In a very solid match and a thriller ending, Lithuania won with a score of 67:64. Before that, after the missed free throw of the Lithuanians, the ball came to Bogdanović, who tried to bring an equalization and overtime with a solo break, which did not happen. In the match for the third place, as usual, the indisposed members of the Serbian national team lost to the French 81:68.
Serbian basketball team at the Olympic Games in Rio 2016.
Although without a medal, the fourth place at the Eurobasket France enabled the Serbian national team to participate in one of the 4 tournaments for placement at the Olympic Games. As the hosts of one of the tournaments, Sasa Djordjevic's team did not have a difficult job, so they advanced to the semifinals with group victories against Puerto Rico and Angola. The Czech Republic was defeated in the semifinals, and in the final, Puerto Rico was again an easy bite for the Eagles. Nikola Jokić also appeared at this tournament, who, along with Bogdan Bogdanović, was the best player of the tournament.
Interesting matches were seen in the groups. Venezuela was defeated, and defeats were suffered by the Australians and the US national team. The national team of Serbia against the USA played an incredible match and lost 94:91 in an uncertain ending. In the decisive match for the passage, the old debtors of the Chinese national team were defeated, very convincingly 94:60. In the quarter finals, we saw a new uncertain match with the neighbors, the Croatian national team. In an uncertain match, Bogdan Bogdanović stood out, leading Serbia to victory 86:83. The match for the finals was against the national team of Australia, which surprised Serbia with a very rough and sacrificial game and inflicted a rather heavy defeat on it. The Eagles played a fantastic defense and reduced the Australian national team to only 14 points at halftime, which has never happened before at this stage of the competition. The victory was out of the question, the Australian national team was defeated convincingly with the result 87:61. In the final, the Eagles were waiting for the first favorite of the tournament of the USA national team with a real "Dream Team". Although a very good and uncertain match was seen in the groups, there was no uncertainty in the final. The USA convincingly defeated Serbia in the match for gold (96:66). In addition to winning a medal, this championship will be remembered for some surprising retirement of Stefan Markovic.
European Championship 2017 - Silver medal. Again.
Never before has any coach had more problems than Sale Djordjevic then? Due to obligations to the club, NBA star Nikola Jokić is canceling his participation. For the same reason, Rade Zagorac canceled his participation, while the list of injured players was long. Miroslav Raduljica, Marko Simonović, Nemanja Bjelica canceled one after the other. Just before the tournament, Miloš Teodić renewed the injury of the list, and due to a back injury, Sala Đorđević could not lead Nemanja Nedović.
Aleksandar Djordjevic's team started the tournament excellently, convincingly defeating the national team of Latvia 92:82. The Latvian national team arrived at the championship with great ambitions, led by the team's first star Porzingis, the Bertans brothers, and experienced players like Tima. In that match, Bogdan Bogdanović and Boban Marjanović stood out. A match with Russia was played 24 hours later. In the nervous match, Russia celebrated 75:72, however, thanks to the convincing victory of the Latvians over the Russians, Serbia advanced to the next phase from the first place.
In the eighth-finals, the easiest opponent of the Hungarian national team was waiting. However, the victory was much harder, with the result 86:78. Along with the already standard Bogdanović, Ognjen Kuzmić also stood out in this match with an excellent game played on both sides of the field. Italy without the first: Gallinari is not a serious obstacle for the Serbian national team, so it was defeated with a score of 84:67. Russia was waiting in the semifinal match. Although Serbia led the whole match, the match was extremely hard and uncertain until the very end. The Eagles managed to take revenge on the Russians with a good collective game, which even the great game of the Shved (33 points) did not help. The accident before the final match was the injury of playmaker Jović.
In the final, the Eagles played for gold against the Slovenian national team. The Slovenians were denied the help of the future NBA super-star Luka Dončić. A very difficult match was seen, where the Slovenians managed better in an uncertain ending and sealed the 93:85 victory with Klemen Prepelic's points. After the tournament, the selector of the Serbian national team became the first person who managed to participate in the finals of the Olympic, World, and European Championships as a player and as a coach.
Serbian national basketball team at the 2019 World Cup and China.
Qualifications for the championship in China have brought novelties that fans of the game under the hoops will certainly not like. Years of impatience between the two crowns of basketball organizations have resulted in rather pointless tournament qualifiers - called FIBA windows. Namely, during the club seasons, qualifying tournaments are played, so the national teams are deprived of the help of the best players (players of the Euroleague, Eurocup, and NBA league). Pointless, you will admit.
In any case, Serbia qualified for the World Cup in China. Expectations were the highest because he was expected to make a real "Dream Team" from Serbia, a national team led by NBA aces. By drawing lots, Serbia was in the group with Angola, Italy, and the Philippines. The group competition convincingly ends with all the victories. Great games of Serbia were created in the next group, where Puerto Rico was defeated. In one match, the Spaniards waited. Although they opened the match well, the Eagles played weaker in the second half, and after they ruled out Nikola Jokić's personal mistake, they completely fell, so Bogdanović is not in a good mood. At the same time, this was a game that decided from which place it would be created in the elimination phase.
The worst match in the Eagles tournament was played in the elimination phase. The Argentines, led by veteran Luis Scola, ruled the Serbian national team and thus remained out of the race for medals. At least a partial consolation is Serbia's victory over the American national team. In the playoffs from 5th to 8th place, Serbia was led to victory by the fantastic Bogdanović, who was also the best scorer of the championship.
And so we came to the end of our journey through history. I compared the disappointing results at the last championship and I can't wait for every tournament and I hope for medals. Because, Serbia is a country of basketball, and during the war and destruction, the national team members were the ones who gave the nation at least a little reason to rejoice!
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