Is Serbia the best european basketball nation?

[Aco93]

Ok just my last post because some people don't understand (or probably don't want ). Comparing URSS in 1988 and Yugoslavia in 1995 is ridiculous.

During decenies, Yugoslavia was composed by players from Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Bosnia and Macedonia.

And since 1995, Yugoslavia was composed by players from Serbia and Montenegro.

Facts are just here, now I don't care if people don't want to understand that. It's their own problem

[jwfish6]

Serbia is simply the best. Lithuania basketball schools have nothing on the Serbian schools. The difference is LTU might have 1 or 2 schools that produce all the players for Zalgris and all the players for the LTU junior teams, but in Serbia there are atleast 5 basketball schools at the least that all create tons of players. LTU's generatiosn fluctuate. 86 is ok, 87 sucks, 88 is ok, 89 is ok, and 90 is ok. But this summer Serbia has proved that every single generation is loaded and talented. This is the strongest LTU generation and probably the weakest Serbian generation, so if that doesnt shut you all up then what does. YOUR BEST GENERATION IS EQUAL IF NOT WORSE THAN SERBIA'S WEAKEST. What part of that do you not understand?

And to get so desperate for comebacks and jabs that you get the Senior players and past players involved...I mean were talking Juniors here, not Seniors.

Look...you put every active Serb who still plays verse every active Lith still playing and itd be a massacre.

Stojakovic is still better than any Lith. Arvydas or Sarunas...he is still the best. And Nenad Krstic is alot more active and better than Ilgauskas.

The bottom line is Serbia produces the most basketball talent in all of Europe. Their players go on to play in so many different countries just because theres not room for them anymore where their from because the next kids are ready. HOW CAN YOU START AN ARGUMENT AGAINST A NATION THAT IS 3 FOR 3 THIS SUMMER, AND SOON TO BE 4 FOR 4? The Serbs are always one step ahead of everyone, and that was one of the smartest philosophies I have seen eliminating Rubio and getting more agression built up against LTU for the final.

[xtf_no4]

Serbia is simply the best. Lithuania basketball schools have nothing on the Serbian schools. The difference is LTU might have 1 or 2 schools that produce all the players for Zalgris and all the players for the LTU junior teams, but in Serbia there are atleast 5 basketball schools at the least that all create tons of players. LTU's generatiosn fluctuate. 86 is ok, 87 sucks, 88 is ok, 89 is ok, and 90 is ok. But this summer Serbia has proved that every single generation is loaded and talented. This is the strongest LTU generation and probably the weakest Serbian generation, so if that doesnt shut you all up then what does. YOUR BEST GENERATION IS EQUAL IF NOT WORSE THAN SERBIA'S WEAKEST. What part of that do you not understand?

And to get so desperate for comebacks and jabs that you get the Senior players and past players involved...I mean were talking Juniors here, not Seniors.

Look...you put every active Serb who still plays verse every active Lith still playing and itd be a massacre.

Stojakovic is still better than any Lith. Arvydas or Sarunas...he is still the best. And Nenad Krstic is alot more active and better than Ilgauskas.

The bottom line is Serbia produces the most basketball talent in all of Europe. Their players go on to play in so many different countries just because theres not room for them anymore where their from because the next kids are ready. HOW CAN YOU START AN ARGUMENT AGAINST A NATION THAT IS 3 FOR 3 THIS SUMMER, AND SOON TO BE 4 FOR 4? The Serbs are always one step ahead of everyone, and that was one of the smartest philosophies I have seen eliminating Rubio and getting more agression built up against LTU for the final.

OMG OMG OMG

[Picek]

cut the crap

sweet jesus or should I say sweet Hristos..
I see serbian propaganda machinery is still at it's best like in the 90's

I just have one question..
I'f Serbia is loaded with soo many quality players that are better then any single player in Europe how come serbian senior NT team can't do anything for five years now?

if serbian bball schools are better then any bball school how come serbian champion Partizan had a 2-12 record in euroleague seasons 2004/2005 and 2005/2006..

please I'm begging you stop with this crap better then everyone..
it's not even annoying anymore..
it makes me wanna shoot myself since I obviously can't shoot You..
do You want that every single one of us admits that serbian bball schools are best in Europe. no, in the world..
and that serbian players are the best players in the world?

here, I'll do it first..
SERBIAN PLAYERS AND BBALL SCHOOLS ARE BEST IN THE WHOLE FREAKING WORLD!

now stop with this..

[Buducnost PG]

sweet jesus or should I say sweet Hristos..
I see serbian propaganda machinery is still at it's best like in the 90's

I just have one question..
I'f Serbia is loaded with soo many quality players that are better then any single player in Europe how come serbian senior NT team can't do anything for five years now?

if serbian bball schools are better then any bball school how come serbian champion Partizan had a 2-12 record in euroleague seasons 2004/2005 and 2005/2006..

please I'm begging you stop with this crap better then everyone..
it's not even annoying anymore..
it makes me wanna shoot myself since I obviously can't shoot You..
do You want that every single one of us admits that serbian bball schools are best in Europe. no, in the world..
and that serbian players are the best players in the world?

here, I'll do it first..
SERBIAN PLAYERS AND BBALL SCHOOLS ARE BEST IN THE WHOLE FREAKING WORLD!

now stop with this..

No, i think the croatian is the best. Seriously. It is not everything right what jwshl6 is saying but who has a better youthscholl for basketball then Serbia in europe? I am not saying we are 2 steps above all, but especially in the last few years the youth teams won a lot of medals.

And you can not survive in the EL with a bunch of young players. Not every generation is good, but all in all the youthteams are better then all in europe.

[kecal]

Serbia is simply the best. Lithuania basketball schools have nothing on the Serbian schools. The difference is LTU might have 1 or 2 schools that produce all the players for Zalgris and all the players for the LTU junior teams, but in Serbia there are atleast 5 basketball schools at the least that all create tons of players.

Well, Serbia is about 3 times bigger a country than Lithuania, so it is quite normal for you to have 5 basketball schools, and for us - 2 (well, there are much more of them, but who cares ), taking into account, that general interest in basketball in both countries is equal.

In general, who really cares? Every year somebody has to win somewhere, and the winner changes very often. That's the true beauty of sports!

[Picek]

No, i think the croatian is the best.

You do?
great..
I don't..

Seriously. It is not everything right what jwshl6 is saying but who has a better youthscholl for basketball then Serbia in europe? I am not saying we are 2 steps above all, but especially in the last few years the youth teams won a lot of medals.

And you can not survive in the EL with a bunch of young players. Not every generation is good, but all in all the youthteams are better then all in europe.

having great youth schools is great..
winning medal after medal with those youth teams is even more great..
but at then end that doesn't mean much if your senior NT can't do much...
youth players are prospects but they are still not complete players..
and you are both talking about youth schools.
what youth schools?
where is Partizan or C. Zvezda youth school?
most of these players are either FMP players or Hemofarm players the rest are just coming along and most of them aren't doing much..
and FMP and Hemofarm schools are not a product of a serbian bball system..
they are a product of few people who now how to do job right and how to earn on young talents..
and they're doing it great
and once again, winning medals on youth championship is one thing but winning medal on a senior level is a whole different thing..
I can tell you that based on a example of Slovenian youth teams playing great at the beginning of the century, the same goes for our teams (the one with Ukic, Tomas and Planinic) or the one with Vujcic before that or the ones before that..
our junior teams were winning either gold or silver medals for 5 competitions in a row..
those teams were winning medals but couldn't do much on the senior level..
Zemljic was called and MVP of junior men competition back in the 90's..
he disappeared after that and his senior career was a joke..

the same goes for these serbian generations in a last few years who were winning medals on youth champs and playing great..
but at senior NT's level they disappeared..
just take a look at this serbian senior team.. Gurovic, Jaric and Milicic are leaders of the team.. Gurovic is 32, Jaric is 29 and only Milicic is a younger player..
where are all the prospects gone?
where are Sekularac, Pekic, Roncevic, Tosic?
they won a gold medal in 1997.
where are Bakic, Kovac etc?
they won a gold medal in 1999.
where are Bogdanović, Tomović, Raković?
they won a gold medal in 2001?
where are Rakocevic, Milojević, Stanojevic?
how many medals have they won with a senior team after Bodiroga&co left the senior team?

If we would go back 10 years we would probably have the same talk as we do know..
talking about great Serbian bball school, great "players" in youth teams..
and how many of those players have fulfilled expectations of their senior careers?

this will probably be understood like a talk of a jealous men or like a talk of croatian enemy or whatever..
I don't give a f*ck..
'cause those are facts..
I know I would change all those young Croatian team medals for only one senior team medal in the last 12 years..
'cause at the end young team medals are based on pure talent or on physical abilities (in one word great prospects) which can be better because of the faster growth, more muscles etc. but for senior team medals you need a bit more than that (in one word great players playing as a team) and serbia lacks that for fifth year now..

[jwfish6]

I just have one question..
I'f Serbia is loaded with soo many quality players that are better then any single player in Europe how come serbian senior NT team can't do anything for five years now?

First of all I never said they were better than any single player in Europe, I said that Stojakovic is better than anyone from Lithuania (even though we could argue he is/was top 3 or 4 current Euro). I dont know why you added that in there.

But the obvious answer to your question is that their best player (Krstic) is injured, Stojakovic feels nothing left to prove, and also that the new Serbian coach has the pride and the balls to not let people join his squad late unlike most of the other countries in Europe.

Will you please answer this though, do you think if Serbia had every single one of their players they would of still been "doing nothing for five years now"? Do you honestly think with Stojakovic, Rebraca, Drobnjak, Tomasevic, Krstic, Jaric, Vujanic, Gurovic, and Pavlovic all healthy they would still record all these past losses?

[sashikas]

Will you please answer this though, do you think if Serbia had every single one of their players they would of still been "doing nothing for five years now"? Do you honestly think with Stojakovic, Rebraca, Drobnjak, Tomasevic, Krstic, Jaric, Vujanic, Gurovic, and Pavlovic all healthy they would still record all these past losses?

I don't know, why I am getting into this... But if you would look at the EC'05 Serbian roster, you would probably notice, that most of those players were on the team. But those were just names:

4 Dejan Bodiroga G 2.03
5 Darko Milicic C 2.12
6 Vule Avdalovic G 1.94
7 Vladimir Radmanovic F 2.06
8 Igor Rakocevic G 1.94
9 Vlado Scepanovic G 1.96
10 Marko Jaric G 1.98
11 Zeljko Rebraca C 2.11
12 Nenad Krstic C 2.14
13 Dejan Milojevic F 2.00
15 Milan Gurovic F 2.04

[Picek]

Will you please answer this though, do you think if Serbia had every single one of their players they would of still been "doing nothing for five years now"? Do you honestly think with Stojakovic, Rebraca, Drobnjak, Tomasevic, Krstic, Jaric, Vujanic, Gurovic, and Pavlovic all healthy they would still record all these past losses?

Stojakovic played on EC in 2003.
Serbia finished 6-th
team with Bodiroga, Krstić etc played together in 2005. on home soil
finished..
well you know better then me where they finished at the end..
OG 2004, team with Bodiroga, Radmanović, Rakočević, Drobnjak, Tomašević etc.
they finished 11-th I think..
any explanations?

[Buducnost PG]

Because the U18 thread is closed i will post it here

@Picek

Stojakovic played on EC in 2003.
Serbia finished 6-th
team with Bodiroga, Krstić etc played together in 2005. on home soil
finished..
well you know better then me where they finished at the end..
OG 2004, team with Bodiroga, Radmanović, Rakočević, Drobnjak, Tomašević etc.
they finished 11-th I think..
any explanations?

The 6th place at the EC was a good one. Especially after Stojakovic get injured against Turkey. In 2003 there were also a lot of new players. So this was still i good result, better then all of croatia since the last medal in 1995.

2004 and 2005 was shamefull for serbian basketball. Stojakovic was missing, but the team was still loaded with talent and very good european players. They didn´t play bad at the olympics 2004 but it looked like they didn´t no how to win close games anymore. We lost to argentina with 1 point, beat Italy by 2 i think, lead with 8-9 points against New Zeland until the end and lost again, lost by Spain with 6 or 8 points i think and then the shamefull loss against China with 62-64. But the team played by far better at the olympics then at the EC 2005.

The current problem is, that the team is not able to win the close games. How many close games we win since 2003? I think the last one was against Turkey and that was exactly 2003.

2004 closed games lost to Argentina (Ginobili was a buzzerbeater after Tomasevic was only able to hit 1 of 2FW), New Zeland, China (where yao had a fantastic game and Vujanic the last shot for the win, but failed to make it).

2005 lost a close game to France and then 2006 also lost 2 close games against Argentina and especially France when Popovic had 2FW with 11sec to go and could put us in the lead, but he missed both.

That is something what has to change as fast as it can. I think you alone kow how it is to lose all games by 1-3 points. Croatia has not won medals in the last 12 years but that not because the talent was not there it is because they couldn´t finsih the matches in the end in their favour.

[Trifilli]

This discussion is open again now - keep it cool though, otherwise we'll need to lock this thread for good.

[Picek]

So this was still i good result, better then all of croatia since the last medal in 1995.

here you go again..
I haven't made a single comparison between two senior teams..

2004 and 2005 was shamefull for serbian basketball. Stojakovic was missing, but the team was still loaded with talent and very good european players. They didn´t play bad at the olympics 2004 but it looked like they didn´t no how to win close games anymore. We lost to argentina with 1 point, beat Italy by 2 i think, lead with 8-9 points against New Zeland until the end and lost again, lost by Spain with 6 or 8 points i think and then the shamefull loss against China with 62-64. But the team played by far better at the olympics then at the EC 2005.

The current problem is, that the team is not able to win the close games. How many close games we win since 2003? I think the last one was against Turkey and that was exactly 2003.

2004 closed games lost to Argentina (Ginobili was a buzzerbeater after Tomasevic was only able to hit 1 of 2FW), New Zeland, China (where yao had a fantastic game and Vujanic the last shot for the win, but failed to make it).

excuses, excuses..
it's like you are some croatian coach or bball officiall..
they've lost those games because there weren't good enough..
but I ask you how they weren't good enough if they were winning those gold medals at youth championship?

2005 lost a close game to France and then 2006 also lost 2 close games against Argentina and especially France when Popovic had 2FW with 11sec to go and could put us in the lead, but he missed both.

I see you are still trying to forget the whole "Nigeria case"
that one is my personal favorite

[Buducnost PG]

[QUOTE][/QUhere you go again..
I haven't made a single comparison between two senior teams..
OTE]

Try it the outcome will be clear.

excuses, excuses..
it's like you are some croatian coach or bball officiall..
they've lost those games because there weren't good enough..
but I ask you how they weren't good enough if they were winning those gold medals at youth championship?

Thanks god i am not. And that are not exuces it wanted only to show that the team was able to play against everybody and come into the position to win the games. But today we have so many good teams that a time which you beat by 1-3 points at the end end up 1st or take a medal and you finish only 8th or 9th.

And from youth teams you can get 3-4 quality players from a generation at max but i never say that you then will win medals with them. I also wouldn´t say they were not good enough. They had definetly the talent and quality but not the winning spirit at the end.

I see you are still trying to forget the whole "Nigeria case"
that one is my personal favorite

I was speaking about close games and the one with Nigeria was not close, this was a clear and deserved win by Nigeria.

And Picek when will croatian basketall play at a WC or olympic games again? I think 2026 or something like this.

[Picek]

Try it the outcome will be clear.

Serbia 0 medals
Croatia 4 medals
I agree, it's crystal clear

Thanks god i am not. And that are not exuces it wanted only to show that the team was able to play against everybody and come into the position to win the games. But today we have so many good teams that a time which you beat by 1-3 points at the end end up 1st or take a medal and you finish only 8th or 9th.

And from youth teams you can get 3-4 quality players from a generation at max but i never say that you then will win medals with them. I also wouldn´t say they were not good enough. They had definetly the talent and quality but not the winning spirit at the end.

bla, bla, bla..
at the end the only thing that matters is winning games and they weren't able to do that when it mattered..
because they weren't good enough..

And Picek when will croatian basketall play at a WC or olympic games again? I think 2026 or something like this.

I have given up hope..