Ognjen Dobrić, Crvena zvezda captain and a long-time Serbian national team regular, was a guest on the “6.75” podcast.
He covered a wide range of topics, and SK Week brings you some of the most interesting parts of the conversation – from head coach Saša Obradović and his experience playing under Duško Ivanović to his admiration for Facundo Campazzo, Nikola Jokić and Serbia’s unforgettable Olympic semifinal against Team USA in Paris.
Why Didn’t It Work With Saša Obradović at Zvezda?
“I don’t think those breaks we had with Saša, when there was a lot of time to practice, were necessarily good for us. We would end up taking in so much information.
“Saša knows so much about basketball. Whatever basketball problem comes up, he’ll look at it from every possible angle., he’ll look at it from every possible angle. And I think Saša’s problem was that he wanted us to absorb all of it. That didn’t work for some players, and in certain situations they got lost a little bit.
“Not lost exactly… It was more that they didn’t know what to do at the right moment.
“Saša has ten different solutions for a single pick-and-roll. And you can’t teach every player all ten solutions. You have to give them one or two options.
“Saša liked to talk a lot because he genuinely knew so much about basketball. Some players can absorb that much information. Some can’t.
“As captain, I talked to Saša quite a lot, and I told him that players simply don’t see the game the way he does. They can’t see everything he sees.
“He lives basketball. He thinks about basketball 24 hours a day. He’s completely dedicated to it. He’s constantly watching, constantly searching for ways to make himself and the team better.
“But the problem is that not everyone can keep up with him.
“It’s a simple system, but with a lot of details. His vision of basketball is phenomenal. But then you have to communicate that vision to players who aren’t all the same.
“You have to get 15 people to believe in one system, and those 15 people don’t all think the same way.
“He changed things for every game, for every opponent – both defensively and offensively.
“I think Saša’s system could work with any team if you gave him, say, two or three years. And if you didn’t change the roster too much. If you gave everyone enough time to understand his vision, because his vision really is at a very high level.
“A lot of players were unhappy because Saša would take them out when they were playing well. They’d be feeling good, and Saša would send them to the bench. It happened to me too.
“The way I see it – and I’ve talked to Saša about this as well – whenever he prepares for a game, any game, he prepares as if it’s the most important one. ABA League, EuroLeague, whatever. That game is the most important game at that moment.
“I think he already has something in his head… Not exactly a script, but an idea of who is going to play, how much they’re going to play. He doesn’t tell anyone that, but he already knows how he wants to manage the game.
“He knows everything. He knows the matchups. He knows when he wants to put someone in and when he wants to give someone a rest. And I think he follows that plan rather than what’s happening on the court.
“It’s like he makes a movie in his head of how the game is going to unfold, and then he follows it.
“You might have just scored ten points in a row. It’s not that he’s deliberately trying to cool you off. It’s just that in his plan, this is the moment when you’re supposed to go to the bench for a little while, and then he’ll put you back in.”
Playing Under Duško Ivanović
“Duško is a very fair man. With Duško, you earn your minutes in practice.”
“With him, if you didn’t practice the day before a game, you can’t just come in and say, ‘I’m healthy, I’ll play tomorrow.’
“No.
“You didn’t practice yesterday, you’re not playing.
“If someone is good in practice, that guy gets 20 minutes. Everyone knows that. And that’s why everybody went all-out in practice.
“Luka Mitrović and I were just talking about that season and about when Campazzo arrived at Crvena zvezda.
“Every pick-and-roll… Luka was playing the five, and Duško liked his bigs to show hard on pick-and-rolls. Every time Luka showed, Campazzo would just sprint.
“Every single time. Full sprint.
“We didn’t know what to do. We couldn’t stop him. He was going 300 kilometers an hour.
“I’d never seen anything like it.
“He just doesn’t get tired.
“And Duško loves players like that. So all of us started feeding off that energy. That’s why we had such good chemistry.
“Nobody was trying to be clever. Everybody just kept their mouth shut and worked at 100 percent.
“Lazarević was getting 15 or 20 minutes because the guy practices like an animal.
“That’s a professional.
“Because of the injuries and everything he’d been through, he’d reached the point where he knew he had to work on his body, work on everything. And Duško appreciated that.
“And you still got results.
“That’s the thing – you can get results that way too. Talent isn’t the only thing that gets you results.
“With Duško, everything is earned.
“If you’re dragging yourself through practice, you’re not going to play.
“Doesn’t matter what your last name is or what your résumé looks like.
“He doesn’t care.”
What Made Campazzo Different
“Campazzo makes everyone around him step it up.
“Think about it: the biggest name on the team arrives, and he’s the guy who practices the hardest.
“Then you feel stupid if you’re not working.
“You know what I mean? This is a guy who’s already had a hell of a career.
“Then you get matched up with him one-on-one. Duško loved those one-on-one drills. Three dribbles from half court and then you just go at each other.
“And now you’ve got Campazzo.
“You can’t back down because you know he’s going to go 100 percent.
“He raised all of us to another level just by being there.
“And he knows so much about basketball, too. The way he sees the game… He knows exactly which set to call and when. He knows exactly what to run and who we should attack.
“An incredible leader on the court.
“And yet he still listens to Duško.
“He has that respect. He doesn’t go rogue. It’s never, ‘Duško, we’re doing it my way. I’m calling the plays.’
“No, no, no.
“Whatever Duško says.
“If there’s a situation where Duško hasn’t called anything or hasn’t said anything, then Campazzo will read it himself, because he has that gift.
“He’s just a hell of a player.
Serbia vs. Team USA: The Olympic Semifinal
“Just look at the names, man… The names alone are enough. Compare that team to the 1992 Dream Team, and that’s pretty much it.
“And for us to play them like that… It wasn’t even about putting up a fight. We led for what, 37 minutes?
“From my point of view, I’d say it was the greatest basketball game ever. It just would’ve been better if it had ended a little differently.
“I started the game guarding Booker. I know Booker from Phoenix – this is a guy who can give you 50, 60, 70 points. And I’m standing there thinking, I have no idea what’s coming.
“I know he’s not the main guy in this lineup, but still – it’s Booker. He’s a superstar.
“And he’s not getting the ball.
“They ran a couple of plays for him, a pin-down or something, I fought through the screen, we got into it a little bit physically, and I couldn’t believe it.
“Man, this is a guy I’d watched in NBA highlights. And now I’m right there.”
Dobrić then turns to the one player Serbia simply couldn’t find an answer for.
“The only guy who was really making the difference was that lunatic (Curry). And I mean lunatic in the best possible way.
“It was unbelievable.
“It wasn’t even the accuracy. It was how quickly he got the shot off. You literally had no time to react.
“We couldn’t do anything.
“I think you have like 0.4 seconds to react at all.”
Pešić’s 1-1-3 Zone
“And then there was Kari’s (Pesic’s) famous zone.
“We’d just finished the Australia game and we’d killed ourselves out there, man. We were down 24. Kari was tearing into us, everything was chaos, everybody was nervous.
“Then we came back and won.
“The next day we’re at practice getting ready for the USA, and Kari says: ‘Listen. We’re playing a 1-1-3 zone.’
“We had never played a 1-1-3 zone.
“I’d been with Kari since 2022 and the man had never played zone. Ever.
“But he’s trying to convince us: ‘This is going to work. This works. Trust me, they won’t know what to do against a 1-1-3 zone.’
“He says: ‘We only play that zone when LeBron and Embiid are out. Once they’re out, they don’t have a creator. Curry isn’t a creator. Curry needs someone to create those shots for him.’
“We didn’t even really practice it.
“We just walked through it in practice, set up a few basic principles – what we’re going to do, who goes where.
“And he says: ‘We stand like this, and all they’ll be able to do is throw these looping passes from one side to the other. They won’t have an answer.’
“Man, we put that zone on when those two came out of the game.
“They had no idea what to do.
“And we started building a lead with it.
“We didn’t even know the principles properly – and they knew even less!
“They had no idea what to do because they’d never seen that defense before.
“Neither had we.
“Nobody had seen that defense.
“So we’re watching it happen. One possession, they get nothing. Second possession…
“And we’re extending the lead because of it.
“Man, we got so hyped about that zone.
“I was like: ‘This is it, bro. I swear to God, this is it, bro. We’re going to win. Just stay in the zone.’
“But the second LeBron comes back in, it all falls apart.
“Because that guy sees three steps ahead.
“He looks like a tank, like a machine, but he’s a creator. He’s No. 1.
“He figured out the zone after that. He was the one causing problems.
“And then in transition, once our energy dropped, that’s where they got us.”
Dobrić still sounds almost amused by the fact that Pešić somehow knew it would work.
“But that zone, man… I’d never seen anything like it in my life.
“He just says: ‘Trust me.’
“And we’re like: ‘Come on, man, these guys aren’t idiots. How are they not going to know how to beat a zone?’
“And he’s like: ‘No. Trust me.’
“And he convinced us it was going to work.
“Those are the Kari moments when he really shows you why he is where he is.”
“I Thought: That’s It. They’re Done.”
“I’ve watched that game once.
“That’s it.
“Never again.
“That Gudurić three near the end of the third quarter… I thought: ‘That’s it.’
“I was standing in the corner by their bench. Gudura takes the shot and I immediately turn toward their bench.
“Man, they all looked crushed.
“And I’m thinking: ‘They’re done, man. We just have to find a way to close this game out.’
LeBron and Curry
“LeBron was the one who made a huge difference, along with Curry.
“LeBron set everything up for him.
“He sees everything. Every pass is right there, right on time. He puts the ball exactly where Curry needs it.
“Curry hasn’t even cleared the screen yet and the ball is already right there for him.
“Then he pump-fakes and we’re flying past him like monkeys.
“You can’t do anything.
“Unreal”.
On Nikola Jokić
“We talk quite a bit.
“He doesn’t tell you, ‘You’re doing this wrong, you’re doing this right.’
“Instead, he’ll say: ‘Bro, trust me. Stand over there. Stay there, do this and this, and I’ll hit you on the backdoor,’ for example.
“‘Just cut and I’ll find you on the backdoor.’
“It’s so simple to play with him because he basically maps everything out for you.
“And he knows because he’s already recognized something two possessions earlier – that my defender is being too aggressive when I come up for a handoff, for example.
“So he’ll say: ‘Bro, just take one step toward me, then go backdoor. I’ll get you the ball and you’ll have a two-on-one.’
“Things like that.
“He’s not the type of guy who’s going to say: ‘Don’t do that, you don’t know how to do it.’
“But the way he understands the game is unbelievable.
“It’s another dimension.
“We’re not playing the same sport.
“Jokić and I are not playing the same sport. One hundred percent.
“Maybe Dončić is the only one playing the same sport as him.
“He’s impossible. Impossible”.