GER - Pesic back in charge of NT

BERLIN (FIBA Basketball World Cup) - Svetislav Pesic engineered one of the most significant gold-medal runs in international basketball history when he coached Yugoslavia at the 2002 FIBA World Championship.

In Indianapolis, Indiana, Pesic's squad made sure that for the first time, a Team USA that consisted of NBA players would not reach the top of the podium at a major international event.

Yugoslavia beat that George Karl-coached American team, 81-78, in the Quarter-Finals and then overcame New Zealand (89-78) and Argentina (84-77 after overtime) to capture the world title.

Pesic will now, perhaps in the back of his mind, be thinking about coaching at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain because for the second time in his illustrious career, Germany have put him in charge of their national team.

Taking over from Dirk Bauermann, who led Germany from 2004 through EuroBasket 2011, Pesic returns to the helm of a country that he guided to EuroBasket gold in 1993.

Germany's Basketball Federation (DBB) is elated to have Pesic back.

"I am very happy that we can work together with such a successful and renowned coach," DBB president Ingo Weiss said.

"He has tremendous experience and is exactly that kind of coach that we were looking for."

Pesic has achieved so many things in his career and his ties to Germany are very strong.

As the coach of Alba Berlin, he won four Bundesliga titles and a Korac Cup, and his son Marco played for the national team.

Marco Pesic, in fact, was on the Germany team at the 2002 FIBA World Championship and captured a bronze medal under former coach Henrik Dettmann, though he did not face the Yugoslavia team led by his father at that event.

Marco Pesic also competed at EuroBasket 2005 in Belgrade when Germany won the silver medal.

Germany are now moving into a new era, with basketball icon Dirk Nowitzki 33 years of age and is future with the national team uncertain.

There are good young players in the system like 23-year-olds Robin Benzing, Tim Ohlbrecht and Lucca Staiger and 22-year-olds Philipp Schwethelm, Tibor Pleiß and Elias Harris.

There are many more young players looking to make the step up to the senior team and it will be very interesting to see how the fundamentally sound Pesic, one of the best tacticians in the game, nurtures them as they try to reach EuroBasket 2013 in Slovenia and then qualify for the 2014 World Cup.

He is, in the opinion of many, the best coach in the business.

Last year, he took over a struggling Valencia team and steered them into a Euroleague quarter-final showdown with Real Madrid.

Madrid won that tie in five games.

In 2003, Pesic had led Barcelona to a Copa del Rey, Euroleague and ACB treble.

In a statement issued by Germany's Basketball Federation, Pesic said: "I am very much looking forward to the future challenges with the German national team. There is a lot to achieve with this team."

FIBA