FYR of Macedonia’s Predrag Samardziski believes that his nation has what it takes to make it to their first Olympic Games since gaining independence in 1991.

“Why not, the Olympics is every athlete’s dream,” admits the Macedonian center.

“If and god help us we make it to that tournament it is going to be a great success for us.”

Straight after the interview, Samardziski said that it was the first time he had even spoken about the Olympics to the media and that he wanted to make the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia proud.

The Balkan state has already qualified for the quarter finals which will be held in Kaunas, something that the Skopje native was only dreaming about a few weeks ago.

But Predrag, who is averaging over four points and is second on his side’s rebounding list at Eurobasket is not letting the occasion get the better of him.

“At the beginning we were just hoping, dreaming about it, but now as the results go high of course, we are starting to hope better,” Samardziski said. “We start thinking about things, but we’re not letting that carry us away,”

FYR of Macedonia lost their first Eurobasket encounter against newcomers, Montenegro, but has won their last six games to book their ticket to the impressive new Zalgiris Arena in Kaunas.

Their cause has been helped by the form of New Orleans-born Bo McCalebb, who is amongst the leading scorers at Eurobasket, averaging 21.3 points. But Predrag is quick to point-out that this is a team effort.

“There is no words to describe a player [McCalebb] like that,” Samardziski commented.

“Everything is a team success, even though he is jumping more than the rest of us. Look, him and Pero Antic are the two leaders of this team, they are two experienced players, but there are simply no words to describe him [McCalebb].