End of the Yugoslavian Legacy?

[Genjuro]

This is not the end of anything.

If anything, you can point to 2003 to identify the end of the Serbian dominance, but that dominance might come back down the road, although I don't see it happening anytime soon.

[V@Roxe##13]

In a two or thre years Greece will be nowhere.

Really?
When we speak for guards.
In three years Diamantidis will be 30,Zisis 26 and Spanoulis 27.
Also Verginis will have matured as a player and he will be ready.Who else?
Giannakidis is also a good player and he will be 22 then.
We have also Vasiliadis,Pelekanos and Pappas,Matalon from our u18 squad.
I don't count on Milosevic.
Forwards?
Fotsis will be still 29,while Vasilopoulos,Perperoglou,Pridezis will be 27 and Manolopoulos,Sakota,Giannopoulos,Sigounas will be ready to play for us.
Centers?
Lazos will be still there,while Sofo,Bourousis,Koufos will be really dominant...
There also players like Mavrokefalidis,Vogioukas and Bogris,Sarikopoulos two raw big men.

If Calathes come,the things of course will be even better...

Do you really think that Greece in three years will be nowhere?

In the end...My friend,don't forget that Greeks are late bloomers...When Diamantidis and Papaloukas were 19-20,almost nobody waited from them to be among the best P.G in Europe.

[T.W.Is.M.]

Well first it was the u20 EC, not the u21 WC. And that was just one of 4 championships, with one being the u19 over the Americans.

U seem 2 have forgotten what is the real purpose of all junior teams.That is not 2 win medals(although this is a success too), but 2 create good players 4 the men's team.So maybe your u20, u19, u16 and u8 teams( ) can produce good players, but this hasn't happened yet.Until then, there is no point in bragging about the successes of junior teams.

[OSCAR_SCHMIDT]

The real problem for me is the luck of good coaches, specialized in working with young kids here in Greece. Serbia is full of such coaches and this makes the difference. Although I always considered Kerameas as a decent coach for these ages, he made terrible mistakes during the final. I totally agree that we miss the point if we just want these kids to bring medals, what is more important is that they learn basketball the wright way. But from what I see nothing happens. No offensive plan at all for the U 18 team, "Give Koufos the ball" seemed to be our only strategy. Too bad because this team had some good players, like Giannopoulos or Matalon. Developing good coaches should also be a primary target but noone seems to bother.

[Joško Poljak Fan]

what OSCAR_SCHMIDT said is true. Ex-Yu benefits from large ammount of quality coaches (even if anonimous) as well as it lost a lot by some top coaches spreading though europe. As (I think) BoducnostPG said in some other thread, biggest props for that goes to the legendary Aca Nikolić that made ex-Yu basketball, coaches and their mentality who they are today.
In fact ex-Yu league in the end of 70ies, through 80ies untill the begining of 90ies was that strong that consequences are still visible today. It was the strongest league in europe, with hords of people gathering after their club winning the national championship of the most popular sport in the country. Heritage from that in terms of patient fans, tradition, love for the game, good coaches working for "a sandwich and a juice per month" in some suburban Belgrade bball gym, level of bball played among random guys on some street court is what is driving the area forward.
It's not only the coaches, it's the tradition and culture as well.
From my traveling experiences the sheer level of streetball played in Ljubljana, Split, Zadar or Novi Sad is totaly different bball than what you might experience in some western countries (didn't tasted bball in Lithuania, Greece - where I assume things are simmilar), after practices most of the guys go for some streetball along and you get anything from a "motorical handicaped person" that annoyingly hits just about any shot he throws, to some 15 y.o. talent, 45 y.o. ex. player that schools you to the extent you want to go under the bed, cry and stay there, 1st to 3rd divison players, a 35 y.o. guy that was selected into ex-Yu U18 along with Bodiroga to some 203, 110kg cousin of some known player, or once a year Nesterovič and his "hommies" getting back on their favourite court from youth... I think in most ex-Yu towns the situation is simmilar and you can always find a place where high quality bball is played... so if you want to improve you've got all the chance you want... while in most countries I've visited there aren't even many bball courts, let alone anyone playing on it- and IF there is someone, he must be wearing lakers#8 jersey...

I can' forget one danish guy actually saying: "never played it before, but hey basketball is actually a nice sport" ... while me and our "constantly missing serbian mod J-will2" cut classes (khm... the correct expression was: we couldn't find the way to the classroom ) on student exchange, to shoot some hoops


this tradition can't die nevermind the results of senior NT can weaken it.

Bosnia suffered a lot from the war, bosnian serbians (Radmanović, Aškrabić, Ilić...) play for Serbia, hercegovina croats (Markota, Planinić, Prkačin, Barać...) for Croatia, while Slovenia always finds some youngsters their bball federation is not interested in to naturalise them (Begić, Preldžić, Rizvić, Čapin...), but they were a bball powerhouse in ex-Yu and will return there.
FYROMacedonia also lost a lot from bball point of view, the situation in Serbia was terrible with sanctions and international isolation, in Croatia "the city of sportsmen" Split is in deep troubles while capital Zagreb lost their interest in bball... the only place bball actually improved since 91 is Slovenia.
but overall bball is gettin up and no way this legacy will end because of some senior NTs results that can't last forever.
As well as there might be no ex-Yu country in the next Olympics (although I do think one country between Croatia/Slovenia should qualify there) it might as well happen all 6 ex-republics getting qualified for the european championship in some period, meaning 6 out of 16 participating countries with the heritage of ex-Yu.

[Hepcat]

U seem 2 have forgotten what is the real purpose of all junior teams.That is not 2 win medals(although this is a success too), but 2 create good players 4 the men's team.... there is no point in bragging about the successes of junior teams.

I disagree. Junior teams are often appreciated in their own right. After all, fans ante up substantial sums for tickets to watch junior basketball, soccer, hockey etc. at the national level. These games can also be widely televised. That means there's a following for these teams and their fans can be very disappointed when they lose.

[DelijaZauvjek]

Vladimir Radmanovic is Serbian? He was born in RS I don't get your point buddy.

Don't worry about Serbia... We won the U16, U18, U19 World, and U20 gold last summer.
Partizans starting lineup was composed of an average age of 22 year olds. Come on now and they made top 8 in World. Basketball is coming back. Our economy is rising. Don't you guys worry about us. Serbia will be at the top once again heh...

We just beat Ukraine b today by the score of 90-56.
So, with Ivkovic leading our team I don't see any problems. Also, you have to remember that this is us playing without NBA greats like Peja Stojakovic, Vladimir Radmanovic, Aleksandar Pavlovic, and Marko Jaric...who would all be a huge boost for us.
Best Serbian lineup would be:

Marko Jaric
Aleksandar Pavlovic
Peja Stojakovic
Nenad Krstic
Darko Milicic

Can you imagine that lineup? All NBA players...How many countries can say this?

That game against Ukraine was played without all those players and Darko Milicic+Tadija Dragicevic- who was MVP of adriatic league and was drafted in NBA this season but he decided to stay in Europe a tad bit longer like Pekovic.

So, anyone here that's "worried" about Serbia's future, please don't be because we are going to be at the top in no time. heh =D

[Buducnost PG]

Vladimir Radmanovic is Serbian? He was born in RS I don't get your point buddy.

Don't worry about Serbia... We won the U16, U18, U19 World, and U20 gold last summer.
Partizans starting lineup was composed of an average age of 22 year olds. Come on now and they made top 8 in World. Basketball is coming back. Our economy is rising. Don't you guys worry about us. Serbia will be at the top once again heh...

We just beat Ukraine b today by the score of 90-56.
So, with Ivkovic leading our team I don't see any problems. Also, you have to remember that this is us playing without NBA greats like Peja Stojakovic, Vladimir Radmanovic, Aleksandar Pavlovic, and Marko Jaric...who would all be a huge boost for us.
Best Serbian lineup would be:

Marko Jaric
Aleksandar Pavlovic
Peja Stojakovic
Nenad Krstic
Darko Milicic

Can you imagine that lineup? All NBA players...How many countries can say this?

That game against Ukraine was played without all those players and Darko Milicic+Tadija Dragicevic- who was MVP of adriatic league and was drafted in NBA this season but he decided to stay in Europe a tad bit longer like Pekovic.

So, anyone here that's "worried" about Serbia's future, please don't be because we are going to be at the top in no time. heh =D

Radmanovic and Pavlovic are retards. With their behavior they wouldn´t be a help for the team. And we have so many good PF´s, that Radmanovic will never play a game for Serbia.

We had 04 and 05 a pretty good team and still sucked and get beaten by teams like China and Newseeland.

And the whole wins one the youth tournaments are no warranty for success. In the past we had also good results on these tournaments, but a lot players never become good pro´s. Players like Mladen Sekularac and Veljko Tomovic played very good with the youth teams, but where are they now? The players has still to work hard, to become good pro´s.

And from the whole if´s we can buy nothing. From the NBA players you speak of, only Stojakovic is a realy good one. He would immediately be a big help. Jaric, Radmanovic and Pavlovic are nothing more then solid players. Jaric had a very nice time with the NT and is not a headcase like Radmanovic and Pavlovic. Jaric played also well in europe. But he is not the youngest anymore and is done for the NT. I say that, because i do not want to put him togehter with Pavlovic and Radmanovic who showed nothing so far. These 2 think, because they are from the NBA they are something better. And Milicic has to learn a lot things also. He is still far from it to be a superstar.

We have a pretty good frontcourt now. But the players from SF-PG are not on the highest european level so far. They have a lot of work im front of them. But they can definetly become good players in the future. But there is still a hole on the SF-Position. IMO this is our weakest position for now.

[DelijaZauvjek]

Yeah. I'll agree with you on one thing.

Pavlovic and Radmanovic have done nothing for the NT.

But to sit there and type like a mad man that they aren't good players.
Jesus!

They both start in NBA, which is the biggest league in the world of basketball.

They both played key roles in this years and last years NBA playoffs and finals.

They aren't very intelligent but both play good defense and their rebounding is great. I think Pavlovic is needed more for Serbia than Radmanovic.

We don't really have a good shooting guard.

My ideal lineup would have to be consisted of these players:

PG: Marko Jaric/ Milos Teodosic

SG: Sasa Pavlovic

SF: Peja Stojakovic

PF: Nenad Krstic

C: Since there is no Divac; Darko Milicic =/


Darko is an idiot though. I don't think we can accomplish anything with him.
He's very stupid. His low post game is weak against any decent center. His basketball IQ is close to 0, which is about the same as his brain IQ. I mean I really don't know what to say about him anymore except for...really dissapointed. You'd think practicing a bit with Divac would make him a better player...but NOooo! =/

[isolabella]

yugoslavia never dies

[pohani komarac]

ex yugo countries with overall about 25milon population have about 400-500 players playing all over the world on many difrent levels (nba, spain, italy, ncaa...to minor leagues like sweden, austria...) that is the largest nummber for somebody not named USA. and when you add those who play in our clubs you can see that talent is still there. we just need true superstars who would lead by sample of true sportmanship.

[re5pectas]

ex yugo countries with overall about 25milon population have about 400-500 players playing all over the world on many difrent levels (nba, spain, italy, ncaa...to minor leagues like sweden, austria...) that is the largest nummber for somebody not named USA. a

I wonder, where did you get those numbers? Imho, they must be quite more bigger, cause only in Lithuania there are LKl with 11 clubs and NKL with 19 clubs, thats already makes abou 350 players... (of course, many of them doesn't need attention ).

[Migelitas]

I wonder, where did you get those numbers? Imho, they must be quite more bigger, cause only in Lithuania there are LKl with 11 clubs and NKL with 19 clubs, thats already makes abou 350 players... (of course, many of them doesn't need attention ).

I think, he's talking about players, who playin' abroad and you calculated lithuanian domestic players.

[pohani komarac]

I think, he's talking about players, who playin' abroad and you calculated lithuanian domestic players.

yes, I'm talking about players who are playing otside ex-yu

[Delibasic]

I think, he's talking about players, who playin' abroad and you calculated lithuanian domestic players.

yes that's what he's talking about. slow balts.