SRB – Krstic rounding into shape

ISTANBUL (2010 FIBA World Championship) – Serbia beat hosts Turkey 83-70 last weekend to win the Adidas Istanbul Cup and captain Nenad Krstic certainly played his part for the EuroBasket 2009 runners-up by finishing with 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists to take the tournament’s MVP award.

The all-around performance by the Oklahoma City Thunder centre was all the more impressive as he only joined the Serbian squad in recent weeks, having taken an extended break to rest up his body after a long, gruelling but very successful NBA campaign.

FIBA.com caught up with Krstic to talk about joining his team-mates and what can be expected of Serbia at the FIBA World Championship which tips off at the end of the month in Turkey.

FIBA: You started practising later than your team-mates and now the FIBA World Championship is just over two weeks away. How do you evaluate the progress you have made so far?
Krstic: As you said, I started practising only two weeks ago. The first week was very difficult because I hadn’t played basketball and didn't practice for two and a half months. Now I am right in the middle of practice and I need to play games. I think I will be fine in the next week or two.

FIBA: Serbia went undefeated at the Adidas Istanbul Cup and you were named the tournament’s MVP. Do you think this event was a good test for your team ahead of the World Championship? How do you rate your personal performance?
Krstic: It was a good test for this young team, especially since every year we start playing friendly games later than any other team. I think it is good for us to start later because we pay more attention in practice. This tournament was really a success for us because we started playing against two teams (Iran and New Zealand) which are not on the highest level and then we played against Turkey which is a high level team. It was really a good game against them. In terms of my performance I didn't expect I would play like this especially as I started practicing only 10 days ago.

FIBA: You continue your career in the NBA and in the game against Turkey you were matched up against Semih Erden and Ömer Aşık who will both play in the NBA next season. What are your thoughts on them and on the Turkish team overall?
Krstic: Turkey have a really good team. They have very experienced guys like Hidayet Türkoğlu, Kerem Tunçeri and then you have young guys like Semih Erden,Ömer Aşık, Oğuz Savaş and Ersan İlyasova. It is really good team. They will play in their home country for the FIBA World Championship. They need to have great motivation and I think they will be fine as long as their team chemistry is good.

FIBA: At the FIBA World Championship, you will have experienced teams like Argentina and Australia in your group. What do you think about those match-ups?
Krstic: It’s the World Championship so there won't be any easy games for us. We just need to use the same recipe for success that we had last year (at the EuroBasket) in Poland. Nobody expected anything from us last year, but we made it to the final. Hopefully this year we just go game by game. As you said Argentina and Australia are good teams in our group. We just want to compete with anybody.

FIBA: Serbia are considered as serious candidates for the gold medal along with the USA, Argentina and Spain. How do you rate your chances of winning the title?
Krstic: Right now I don't really know. You have so many good teams like the USA, Spain, Argentina and Turkey will be the hosts. We will go step by step. We don't have any pressure because we already qualified for next year’s EuroBasket in Lithuania. Our goal is Olympic Games in 2012.

FIBA: Serbia used to always have superstar players, but now you are a young, talented and balanced team. As the team captain, do you agree with this view and what is the change down to?
Krstic: First of all there has been a lot of change in our country. You can't really compare Serbia of today to what it was like 10 years ago. There was Serbia and Montenegro and a lot of really good players from Montenegro. If you look back 20 years ago there was Yugoslavia which was six countries together. This right now is Serbia and I think this group of young guys has good chances in the World Championship following the second place in last year’s EuroBasket. We are a new country, we have a new national anthem and a new flag as well. We are really proud and we will just fight every game.

FIBA: At EuroBasket 2009 nobody expected Serbia to reach the final but Dusan Ivkovic led you to the silver medal and proved he is one of the best coaches. What is it like to play for him?
Krstic: It’s a great experience. He is probably one of the best coaches right now. In last 20 or 30 years he has been a living legend in Europe. Every day you learn something from him, on the court or off it. I am very lucky because as the team captain I have more time than other guys to talk to him. I can't really learn about basketball philosophy because you can't really improve your game in a month and a half, but I can learn about life. He knows what he is doing and how to win. He is one of the reasons we won silver medal last year.

FIBA