ATHENS (The Friday Eurovision) -  Let’s take a peek at the week of basketball in Greece, and Serbia. Firstly, Greece.

That country’s national team players didn’t need a reminder about the importance of 2007 in their basketball careers because this is, after all, the year they defend the EuroBasket 2005 gold medal.

A reminder is what they got last weekend, though, when the FIBA Europe Eurostars event was played before another big crowd at the OAKA. There was a game.

Greece’s national team beat a European all-star team, 101-95.

That was just a show.

There were no hard picks set, and elbows weren’t flying.

The arena was buzzing, though, like never before.

Members of the 1987 team who upset the Soviet Union to win the country’s first and arguably most important gold medal were in attendance.

Before tip-off, that legendary team was recognised with a standing ovation.

No matter how many times that has happened over the years, it’s always special - for fans, and for today’s players.

“The really great part was before the beginning of the game,” admitted Nikos Zisis, the Greece guard who played on the 2005 team in Belgrade.

“Those moments brought chills to all of us. It was a huge pleasure for all of us to honor all these players that made all of us play basketball.”

Current national team coach Panagiotis Yannakis was one of the leaders of that team 20 years ago.

If I had a bottle of olive oil for every time I’ve heard Greece’s 2005 gold medalists talk about Yannakis and that 1987 team, I’d have enough to stock Britain’s kitchens for eternity.

Don’t think for a minute, however, that the current Greek team needed any additional motivation going into Spain.

This team is hell-bent on winning gold again.

Theo Papaloukas, a EuroBasket gold medal winner like Zisis in 2005 who received his FIBA Europe Player of the Year award for 2006 on Saturday night, adores the ’87 team just as much as Zisis.

But he said: “We know ourselves how important it is for the national team to remain on top.

“It's not the presence of the people at a game like this who make us feel the responsibility with the EuroBasket approaching!”

The same loving atmosphere can’t be found in the once proud basketball nation of Serbia these days.

Really, what I’m wondering is this. Will the negativity around that country’s national side ever go away?

When I moved to Europe in 1996 and started to pay serious attention to the European game, there was one country that ruled the roost and that was Yugoslavia.

I saw Zoran Savic, Sasha Danilovic and Sasha Djordjevic win gold at the EuroBasket in Barcelona, beating Italy in the final.

Those guys meant business.

By 1998, the leader of the Yugoslavian team was Dejan Bodiroga.

I never thought his game was pretty, but boy was it effective.

That Yugoslavian team won the world title in Athens, beating Greece in the semi-finals and Russia in the championship game.

In 2001, Yugoslavia won the European title in Istanbul, and the following year they achieved their finest moment, capturing the world title on US soil in Indianapolis.

Along the way they beat an American team of NBA players in the last eight, and won a controversial final against Argentina.
Yugoslavia ruled! Go Blues!

What happened?

Nowadays, the passion is gone.

Or at least that is the assumption by much of the basketball public.

It certainly is if they read comments by Dragan Kapicic, the president of the Serbian basketball association.

He didn’t pull any punches when discussing the withdrawals of Kosta Perovic and Zoran Erceg from the national team this week.

Perovic announced he wanted to pull out to get ready for his rookie campaign in the NBA with the Golden State Warriors.

Erceg said he needed to have his tonsils removed.

While it’s a shame they can’t play, both players had valid reasons.

Kapicic wasn't’ too happy, though.

He said of the players’ withdrawals: "It is a shameful attitude to our nation. We are in a situation that, almost, players could easily say, 'Well... if I don't go with my girlfriend to the movie, I think I'll be available for the national team'.

"That's a huge impact on our state, on our sport, on a single thing that was holy for us all these years.”

It must be frustrating to watch other countries like Spain and Greece blow past you.

This is the reality, though, and the sooner Serbia get to grips with it, the better off it will be.

Players are free to do as they choose and really, they shouldn’t be bullied into playing for the team.

Even then, of all teams, Serbia shouldn’t complain.

There are tons of basketball players in that country.

Perovic is a player with a lot of promise, but he’s not a player who is going to win Serbia the gold medal.

Nor is Erceg.

Wouldn’t it be better to follow the example of Italy, who last year had to go to Japan for the FIBA World Championship without seven-footer Andrea Bargnani, a player who is infinitely more valuable to the cause (in my opinion) than Perovic or Erceg would be?

Bargnani was advised, correctly I believe, by his agent and the Toronto Raptors to move to America and get ready for his rookie season.

The first year in the NBA is tough, especially for a player who has been selected with the number one pick in the draft.

Italy’s federation expressed disappointment, wished Bargnani well and spoke of the hope he would return to play for them this year.

And he is.

Bargnani will be in Alicante in what looks to be a very, very interesting Italian side in the making.

I read a comment that had been posted on the FIBA.COM story on Perovic and Erceg.

The writer, who called himself Wonder, wrote: “Money makes the world go around. That is what happened to this (Serbia) team.”

Hey Wonder, the reality is this.

Money makes the world go around in Italy, and Spain, too, where basketball is big. But I don’t hear the movers and shakers in the sport belittle their players.

Money has not polluted the basketball atmosphere in either of those countries.

Jeff TAYLOR