SRB - Savanovic aims to make Olympic dream a reality

LONDON (EuroBasket 2011/Olympics) - Serbia will head to Lithuania for EuroBasket at the end of the month as one of the big favourites, a tag that forward Dusko Savanovic does not take lightly.

After finishing second in Poland in 2009 and reaching the semi-finals at last year's FIBA World Championship, the Serbs have clearly re-established themselves as a team to be reckoned with in international basketball.

However, Savanovic doesn't take any of this for granted and instead believes that, now more than ever, his team must prove they are worthy of the high-praise.

"If we're one of the best teams in the world, I think we have to prove that every year," said the 28-year-old.

"It doesn't matter if you have the good names on paper. You need to prove it every time in competition and this year it's at EuroBasket."

Perhaps there is no better way for Dusan Ivkovic's charges to prove their place among the elite teams in world basketball than by booking their first trip to the Olympic Games as the Republic of Serbia.

In Lithuania, that will be their main aim.

"It's a dream for every one of us to be at the Olympic Games not just because of the historical fact that we've never been there as Serbia, but because you may never be there again," Savanovic explained.

"Going to the Olympic Games is a privilege that only a small percentage of the people in the world get.

"A lot of professional athletes have never been to the Olympics. So it's now or never because you never know when you're going to have the opportunity again."

While they are still a young team, Serbia do have one huge advantage - that of possessing a core group that has been together for a while now.

"This is our fourth or fifth year being together so we know each other - the players, the coaches, the staff. So there's nothing new really," Savanovic pointed out.

"Maybe every year we change one player, one fresh young fellow but everything pretty much stays the same. There is no special formula. We just know how to play the game."

Watching Serbia play, the thing that stands out the most is how in sync all the players are with one another. Savanovic attributes this to their closeness in age.

"We're more or less of the same generation. There's two, three or four years difference between the players," he said.

"We're young. Just two or three of us have the family - the wife, the kids. Everybody else has the guys and is enjoying the young life."

Whatever the Serbs might be lacking in experience, their head coach more than makes up for single-handedly.

Ivkovic was at the helm of Yugoslavia's national team and led them to an incredible stretch between 1988 and 1995, during which they claimed one FIBA World Championship gold medal, three European Championship golds and an Olympic silver.

He was also in charge of the 2009 team that finished an impressive second to Spain.

Savanovic is in no doubt that playing for Ivkovic is the best thing a player could ask for.

"He went twice to the Olympic Games and I don't know how many times to the European and World Championships," he said.

"The experience and knowledge he has and the people around him...I don't know that there is a price you can put on that. So we couldn't ask for a better situation than the one we have now.

"It's easy to play for him because he makes the game easy and he makes you feel comfortable. That's the point of playing the game.

"He doesn't ask nothing extraordinary from you, nothing new, he doesn't ask you to invent new stuff, just do what you do best. So that's the best part of the job: there's no pressure to do something you don't know. Just do what God gave you the talent to do. So playing for him is the best you can have in a career."

At EuroBasket, Serbia will have a tall order in their bid to qualify for the Olympics.

Drawn in Group B of the Preliminary Round alongside France, Germany, Latvia, Italy and Israel, they are likely to face defending champions Spain as well as Turkey and the host nation in a battle for a Quarter-Final place.

But for Savanovic, it's all about taking it one day at a time.

"You cannot look too far ahead and focus on the semi-finals or finals," he cautioned.

"You have to look at it day by day, not just in basketball but in every sport. You're not serious or professional if you look at next week.

"The toughest game is always the next one. You can't look at a final if there isn't one yet.

"For us that's the recipe of how we've played for the last 10 years.

"Physically we're well, mentally we're really ok so now we just need to think about our game day by day."

FIBA