SHENZHEN – Zeal, zest, spite, passion – whatever we chose to call it -Serbia’s basketball team demonstrated it perfectly on Tuesday.
In a do or die game against Turkey, where the loser stood no chance of going into the next round, the Serbs showed the class that took them to gold two years ago.
The end result, 48 points inSerbia’s favor, and the stats say it all – they lost, they got over it and they’re here to show China what they know.
Two days earlier, in the upset of the tournament,Canadabeat the defending champions, showing them they were mortal after all. Rattled and ashamed to the point of avoiding the press, Serbia’s boys were not at their best, on and off the court.
They were frustrated by their own inefficiency, by the Maple Leaves’ defense and by the refereeing they claimed had been unfair.
Did they stay in and pout? Yes. Did they throw a temper tantrum? Only the locker room knows. But what they did next was pick themselves up, dust their egos off, and go into the deciding match like University champions would.
The opponents in Luohu gym were Serbia and their pride.Turkeydid their best to join in, but it was a clear case of wrong place, wrong time and wrong opponent.
The Serbian word for it is ‘inat’, the closest possible translation is ‘defiance’. Vladimir Stimac, Serbia’s center, opening ceremony flag bearer and inat incorporated, summed it up perfectly in his post-match interview.
Asked which opponent he’d prefer in the latter stages of the tournament, he didn’t think twice. “Canada, in the semis or the final. We have to show them who we really are”.
(Source: Sonja Nikcevic, FISU Young Reporter/Serbia)
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