The Serbian national team has aspirations of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics, as they have named lots of NBA talent to a 25-man preliminary roster for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Belgrade, Serbia.
The list is headlined by several NBA players including MVP frontrunner Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets, Atlanta Hawks’ Bogdan Bogdanovic, Miami Heat’s Nemanja Bjelica, Dallas Mavericks’ Boban Marjanovic, Oklahoma City Thunder’s Aleksej Pokusevski and Golden State Warriors’ Alen Smailagic.
The list also includes Serbian national team regulars Milos Teodosic, Vasilije Micic and Miroslav Raduljica.
Marko Guduric and Nemanja Nedovic, who were also named to the 25-man list, had brief stints in the NBA.
The full 25-man list:
Danilo Andjusic | Aleksa Avramovic | Nemanja Bjelica | Bogdan Bogdanovic | Dejan Davidovac |
Ognjen Dobric | Marko Guduric | Dalibor Ilic | Ognjen Jaramaz | Nikola Jokic |
Stefan Jovic | Nikola Kalinic | Branko Lazic | Vladimir Lucic | Vanja Marinkovic |
Boban Marjanovic | Vasilije Micic | Dragan Milosavljevic | Nikola Milutinov | Nemanja Nedovic |
Filip Petrusev | Aleksej Pokusevski | Miroslav Raduljica | Alen Smailagić | Milos Teodosic |
Serbia will take on Dominican Republic on June 29 and the Philippines on June 30 in Group A of their Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
Group B consists of Puerto Rico, Italy and Senegal.
The top two teams from each group will advance to the Semi-Finals and the team that ultimately wins the event will clinch a spot in the Tokyo Games.