MIES (Switzerland) - Serbia's playcaller has seen it all. Yet, at 74 years of age, Svetislav Pesic is ready for a whole new level of competition when the Olympic flame ignites in Paris this summer.

Serbia are coming in as the Finalist of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023. But reaching the championship game in Manila, Philippines does not make them a contender by default. Not because Serbia will be any weaker, quite contrary - they should be even stronger than in Manila.

But the list of medal contenders goes on and on.

"From the 12 teams that would be there, probably ten of them feel like they could fight for medals. This is something that has never happened in the history of the Olympics," Pesic said after seeing the Official Draw held at the Patrick Baumann House of Basketball in Mies. Coach Vincent Collet from France agrees with him when he said: "It's one of the toughest tournaments in history."

 
Men's Olympic Basketball Tournament Paris 2024 will see Serbia in the same group with the United States, setting up a firecracker of a duel on the opening day of action.

"For us, it's not bad to play the first game against the United States, and secondly, if we qualify for the Quarter-Finals, which is always one of the most important games in any major tournament, World Cup, EuroBasket or the Olympics, we would not face them in the Quarter-Finals," Pesic offered.

He then explained why he used the "if clause" for the Quarter-Finals, even though the other two teams in Group C will be the newcomers from South Sudan, and the winner of the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Puerto Rico.

"The other teams in our group are also dangerous, very good, with a potential to get Puerto Rico, Italy or Lithuania, teams we had faced at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023. South Sudan were an excellent team at the World Cup in Manila, playing modern basketball, very aggressive, with transition offense, and it's just another confirmation that every game in this tournament will be tough."

 
Serbia's math remains as clear as at any other tournament they ever competed in. They don't care about the name of the opponents, their sole focus in on themselves.

"If you want to get to the medals, you must win all the games until the Semi-Finals," the man with a ton of silverware in his trophy cabinet smiled.

Serbia reached the Final in Manila despite playing without the NBA champion and reigning Finals MVP. Nikola Jokic's status for the upcoming summer is still not clear, but Pesic hopes he'll get to work with him once again, after pairing up for the FIBA EuroBasket in 2022.

The whole point of having Jokic is not just about adding his unreal talents, but surrounding him with familiarity.

 
"The most of the players, like two thirds of our team are from the same generation, born 1994 and 1995. We hope that the two more players from this generation will play, because they are Nikola Jokic and Vasilije Micic, but we still don't know. Their seasons are extremely long, let's see if they finish it without injuries and problems," Pesic said.

In Manila, those born in 1994 or 1995 were Nikola Milutinov, Aleksa Avramovic, Dejan Davidovac, Marko Guduric, Dusan Ristic and Ognjen Dobric. Sure, there are older guys, veteran leadership profiles such as Stefan Jovic or Bogdan Bogdanovic, and rising stars like Nikola Jovic or Filip Petrusev.

But the man at the helm knows why he's focused on adding Micic and Jokic.

"There are other players, too, but I'm talking about Jokic and Micic because they were a part of that same generation, and it's a big advantage if you have players who've played together for a long time, from the FIBA U16, U18 or U20 tournaments. This was certainly a reason why we played good basketball in Manila."

Don't believe him? Well, maybe you should turn to history books and learn. Pesic, after all, is the man who created one of the most impressive generations of all time in international basketball, taking guys like Toni Kukoc, Vlade Divac, Dino Radja, Aleksandar Djordjevic all the way from U16 to the highest of tops at the professional level of basketball.

He won the FIBA EuroBasket, he won the FIBA Basketball World Cup, he claimed most of the major club trophies in his illustrious career, and still, there's one thing missing. At 74, Pesic will be chasing his first Olympic medal.

It certainly would be a crowning moment, the exclamation mark on one of the greatest careers in sports.

FIBA