FIBA World Cup 2019: Previewing Group D

Serbia

Serbia is the top seed in Group D and for a few very solid reasons. The team has a lot of legit talent, including Denver Nuggets’ All-Star center Nikola Jokic. There is a rich basketball history with Serbia and the former Yugoslavia as a whole.

Serbia was a part of Yugoslavia, a basketball powerhouse in the late 20th century, until 1992 when they became  Serbia and Montenegro. Come 2006, Serbia struggled after breaking apart with Montenegro. They missed the 2008 Olympic Games and placed 14th at EuroBasket 2007.

They found success at EuroBasket 2009 where they took the silver medal, falling to Spain in the final. Serbian player Milos Teodosic was named to the all-tournament team. Recently, the team took the silver medal at the 2016 Olympics and is currently fourth in the official FIBA rankings.

Along with the United States, Spain, and France, Serbia will be using the group stages as a way to stay sharp and gel together as a team.

In qualification, they placed second to Germany in their first-round group. In the next round, they barely scraped by, finishing in third right above Georgia to qualify for the FIBA World Cup. In May, Jokic announced that he would play on the Serbian national team this summer.

It is not just about Jokic, although he is the best player on the team. Captain Miroslav Raduljica has represented Serbia since he was winning a gold medal on the U18 team in 2005.

Point guard Stefan Jovic set the EuroLeague record for assists in a game with 19 in a game against Bayern Munich in 2015. Nemanja Bjelica and Bogdan Bogdanovic of the Sacramento Kings add an extra level of talent to this roster.

And they’s also everyone’s favorite friendly giant and John Wick 3 bad guy Boban Marjonavic. The coach, Aleksander “Sasa” Djordjevic, has headed the Serbian team since 2013.

Serbia will kick off their FIBA World Cup run against Angola on Saturday, then plays the Philippines on Monday and Italy on Wednesday.