“I swear, I’m happy to be here.”
Bogdan Bogdanović, captain of the Serbian national team, delivered what has since become a famous line at the start of preparations for the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
Three summers later, the first face reporters saw at Belgrade’s Crowne Plaza hotel, as Serbia gathered ahead of the August FIBA World Cup qualifying window, was Bogdanović again.
The captain. The man whose attitude and commitment have come to embody the renewed sense of pride surrounding the national team – something that has always carried particular weight in Serbian basketball.
There he was, talking to head coach Dušan Alimpijević.
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Bogdanović will not play in the friendly games against France, nor will he be available for the World Cup qualifiers against Iceland and Italy. He struggled physically throughout last season, and the Houston Rockets, his new team, did not give him permission to play for Serbia this summer.
“Bogdan wanted to be here, but Houston wasn’t in favor of it. They believe he should focus on preparing for next season,” Alimpijević said.
Still, Bogdanović couldn’t – and didn’t want to – miss the gathering.
He came to see his teammates and, perhaps more importantly, to make sure everyone knew one thing:
He is still here.
The National Team Means Something (Again)
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“There is a great atmosphere being created around the national team, and that makes me particularly happy,” Alimpijević said at the beginning of his media availability.
“The national-team culture was never really lost. It was built by the generations before us and by the coaches who came before me. Maybe it went a little quiet at one point. That’s why I’m so happy that Belgrade Arena will be full for the game against France.”
And you could feel it everywhere during the little more than an hour the team spent together.
Around 50 reporters showed up – a reminder of just how much basketball matters in Serbia.
Phones. Cameras. Photographers. Curious eyes everywhere.
The players arrived one after another: former Crvena zvezda teammates Ognjen Dobrić and Luka Mitrović, Marko Gudurić, the ever-smiling Nikola Jović, and then Nikola Jokić, whose consistent presence with the national team in recent years carries almost as much symbolic importance as it does basketball significance – especially when talking about what playing for Serbia means.
Players, yes.
But friends first.
Smiles, hugs, pats on the back.
All together again.
“I’m incredibly happy to be back here,” Nikola Milutinov said. “I’ll have another chance to spend time with these guys. We’ve created a family atmosphere. We’re constantly in touch and spend time together even when we’re away from the national team.”
Questions at Point Guard, Power in the Paint
On the court, one thing is obvious: Serbia is loaded inside.
Alongside Jokić, there is Milutinov, as well as Nikola Jović.
The biggest question mark is at point guard.
Hapoel did not give Vasilije Micić permission to join the national team, while Nikola Topić is unavailable because of health issues. That leaves Serbia with Aleksa Avramović, Jovan Novak and Mihailo Petrović as its point guards.
Marko Gudurić will almost certainly spend some minutes running the offense as well, while plenty of possessions will naturally flow through Jokić.
And all of European basketball is waiting for Jokić’s meetings with Victor Wembanyama and France – August 20 in Belgrade and three days later in Orléans.
“The result against France absolutely matters to us,” Alimpijević said. “We want to win every game, especially against France. Along with Turkey, they have had the best response from their players in terms of availability. Still, these games don’t have competitive significance, and we want to use them to integrate the players who weren’t with us during the previous windows as effectively as possible.”
France Is the Show. Iceland and Italy Are What Matter
The games that truly count come next.
Serbia hosts Iceland in Belgrade on August 28 before traveling to Pesaro to face Italy three days later.
In the newly formed group, Turkey sits first at 6-0, followed by Italy at 5-1 and Serbia at 4-2. Lithuania and Iceland are both 3-3, while Bosnia and Herzegovina is 2-4.
The top three teams will qualify for the World Cup.
While watching Serbia against Iceland, Serbian fans will also have one eye on the game in Turkey, hoping the hosts can beat Lithuania – something Alimpijević himself briefly pointed out.
And then there is Italy.
A name that brings back some painful memories for Serbian basketball.
Italy knocked Serbia out of the qualification tournament for the Tokyo Olympics and then eliminated them from EuroBasket. They beat Serbia again in the Philippines in 2023, although that Serbian team ultimately recovered and went all the way to the World Cup silver medal.
“We have to prepare ourselves mentally because we all understand how important these games are,” Milutinov said. “If you just look at the rosters, we have a better team, but that doesn’t guarantee victories. I’ve been part of teams that lost to Italy before, but that’s in the past.”
And the present is about securing another trip to the World Cup as quickly as possible.
Then Serbia can start dreaming the biggest dreams again.
Golden ones.
