MIES (Switzerland) – After missing out on a spot among the 12 teams at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Serbia are now back in the mix. Speaking of comebacks, this time around they have a three-time NBA MVP to help them out.
Nikola Jokic is back with the team, along with Vasilije Micic, allowing coach Svetislav Pesic to put together one of the most impressive lineups ever, even by the Land of Basketball’s incredibly high standards.
Vasilije Micic, Nikola Jokic back with Serbia
Serbia will play in Group C in Lille, taking on South Sudan, Puerto Rico and the United States. The top two teams from the group will move to the Quarter-Finals, along with two best third-placed teams from all groups.
The Roster
What if we told you they reached the Final of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023, and are even stronger in 2024?
The idea was there from the beginning, majority of the team coming from the 1994 and 1995 born generation, making them lifelong teammates, since their days in various youth events. Two more guys from those generations are now here, as Vasilije Micic (1994) and Nikola Jokic (1995) are making their comebacks.
This means coach Svetislav Pesic will have the luxury of playing with Jokic, Micic and Bogdan Bogdanovic all together, teaming up for the first time since the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019.
However, even though they were well known back then, they’ve turned into superstars nowadays. Jokic is a three-time NBA MVP, Vasilije Micic is a two-time EuroLeague champion and a two-time Final Four MVP, while Bogdanovic always becomes a superhero when he sees SRBIJA written on his chest.
The star power is there, and that’s not even half of the story. Pesic likes to pair up his Nikola giants, putting Milutinov next to Jokic, while guys like Aleksa Avramovic, Marko Guduric and Ognjen Dobric provide the southpaw spikes whenever needed.
With the Serbian way of thinking about basketball, they always have a couple of guys representing the next generation, ready to take over in the future. Nikola Jovic and Aleksej Pokusevski are the youngest now, hoping they could be on the same path as the two youngsters from the 2016 team.
Those two were Nikola Jokic and Bogdan Bogdanovic. They turned out more than fine, you would agree.
The Question
Should we talk about FIBA EuroBasket 2022? Serbia played outstanding basketball back then with a somewhat similar lineup, albeit without Bogdan Bogdanovic, only to fall apart completely in the Round of 16 against Italy.
Are those ghosts put to bed now? Or, is Serbia just better when the expectations are a bit lower, such as at the World Cup in the Philippines last year?
The Hope
When they are playing their brand of basketball, nobody is static, and the ball moves so fast, it’s just a joy to watch. It’s of course more obvious when Jokic is playing, and he seems to be in great shape.
Even better than at the FIBA EuroBasket 2022, when he averaged 21.7 points, 10.0 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.8 steals in just 25.0 minutes per game.
With a three-time NBA MVP on their roster, of course the hope is there they could win another Olympic medal.
All that, and we haven’t even started to talk about defense. The pressure Serbia puts on the opponent’s guards is unbearable. Dennis Schroder managed to survive it in 2023, but just ask the French who got disoriented at home last night.
The Fear
The pressure sometimes becomes too much for Serbia. They were one of the favorites to win the World Cup in 2019, and they finished fifth. They were clearly the home court favorites to win the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2020, and they lost to Italy in the Final.
They were probably the deepest team of the FIBA EuroBasket 2022, and they did not make the Quarter-Finals. The fear is that anytime there are expectations, they break your heart.
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