BELGRADE (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers) - Remember that good old speech by former U.S. President John F. Kennedy in which he said: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country?"

Well, Serbia star center Miroslav Raduljica certainly epitomizes the quote.

By making his way from China to Serbia and back, the 30-year-old will travel over 12,500 miles (20,000 kilometers) for his country during the fifth window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers - all in good health and perfect spirit, ready to help his national team once again.

"I'm in a pretty good shape," Raduljica said upon arrival in Belgrade. "At least I think so. It'll be good for me to play a game with 10-minute quarters, with more players in the rotation."

Raduljica is currently playing in China for the Jiangsu Dragons. The CBA team played their last game on Thursday and, thereafter, the worldwide passenger known as Miroslav Raduljica spent more time up in the air than down on earth.

"I'm used to it. The most important thing is how you prepare your body mentally. Sometimes, it can be kind of a shock for you body, but I'm already shocked that I'm here, so it's not a problem," Miroslav said.

The trend will continue as Serbia are flying to Tel Aviv to take on Israel on Friday, with an early tip-off at 13:00 CET.

The body-shocking began in Nanjing, where Raduljica's Dragons are based. The first part of the trip was to get to Shanghai, China, and board a plane for Moscow, Russia. The next connecting flight was to Frankfurt, Germany, before finally getting to Belgrade, Serbia, after 20 hours of being up in the sky.

"Tel Aviv is, like, three hours away from Belgrade? It's like I'm going to one of the closer away games in China," the 7ft (2.13m) big man said looking to Serbia's trip to face Israel on Friday.

It's good to see that he still has his "always look on the bright side of life" mentality.

But what exactly does he do to keep to make time go by on the longer flights?

"Usually I read some books, then watch a movie so I can fall asleep. And I always do, unless it's something extraordinarily interesting... but usually it's not," he pointed out. "I have to admit, I intentionally choose those movies that will make me fall asleep, so the trip goes by faster."

Even with all of the sleeping after the boarding call, there still is a lot of time to be wasted before Raduljica leaves the departure gate of an airport and takes his seat in the cabin. That's when books come in handy. 

"I'm reading 'Everyday Saints and Other Stories', by Archimandrite Tikhon. It's about a Russian monastery, about the people living in it, and he is dealing with this subject in a very temporal way. Very nicely written!" he said.

Raduljica will get a chance to finish his book once he returns to his club and he hopes the book collection will grow next year. If the rest of his Serbia teammates join him en route to China and the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019, maybe they should consider starting a book club.

But he downplays the planning, knowing there still is work to do, starting with the games against Israel and Greece in this window.

"I expect us to win both games! I always expect to win. Maybe it will not happen but I always prepare to win it all," he summed up. "I don't know Israel that well, but those are the same players we used to face in Europe. There will be no surprises, we will analyze them before the game starts."

A win in Tel Aviv will be crucial in Serbia's quest to reach the summit next summer. Sasha Djordejvic's charges are two games ahead of both Georgia and Israel in Group G and victories over Israel and Serbia in this window means they will punch their ticket to China.

"Guys from my club are constantly asking me about the national team, but generally I haven't felt like it (the World Cup) is getting closer like I expect it to feel when all the windows end and final preparations for the event start," he intimated. "It's going to be crazy!"

With Raduljica as the tour guide, Serbia aren't expecting anything less.

FIBA