Serbia NT 2009

[TalkBasket]

How far has Serbian basketball fallen since Yugoslavia's famous gold medal triumph at the 2002 FIBA World Championship in Indianapolis?



For starters, according to national team coach Dusan Ivkovic, basketball players are no longer the country's most popular sportsmen.



In an interview with Blic, Ivkovic spoke some hard truths about basketball in his homeland.



"I want the players to have a desire to wear the national team shirt once again," Ivkovic said.



"Our tennis players and the swimmer (Milorad) Cavic are the pride of Serbia at the moment. We were the country's pride before and we want to become that once again."



Tennis star Novak Djokovic, the world number three, won the Australian Open this year while Cavic became a national hero at the European Swimming Championships in March after he won the gold medal in the 50m butterfly.



Cavic, on the podium in Holland and draped with a Serbian flag, lifted it to reveal a red shirt which read "Kosovo is Serbia", a political statement that got him suspended for the remainder of the event but won him admiration back in his homeland.



"There were times when foreign clubs picked our players before all others, but those times are now over and we don't have that kind of player at the moment," Ivkovic said.



"We must 'make' them in the next four years. We already have a program to accomplish that."



The best part of Ivkovic's interview, and this should serve as a warning to all of the teams that Serbia will face this year in their EuroBasket 2009 qualifying games, is the optimism he has for the weeks and months ahead.



"To tell the truth, the idea wasn't mine, but I took the responsibility and took over," he said. "I am going to fight as a lion, really - as much as possible ...



"I will focus on my job, because I want to sacrifice for my country and for our basketball."



It will be an enormous challenge, though, something he knows very well.



"We have lost the spirit of the national team in recent years," he said.



"I have won three European championships, now I am in the qualification. That means that I am starting from scratch again.



"(But) We have the players, the talent, the people, the team spirit and that gives me the energy to work and to succeed."



Serbia will be in EuroBasket Division A Group A with Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland.

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