Svetislav Pesic, the head coach of the Serbian national team, gave an extensive interview to Politika where he spoke about his future.
After Serbia’s debacle at EuroBasket and their completely unexpected elimination in the round of 16 against Finland, there has been a lot of talk about Svetislav Pesic’s future on the Serbian bench.
In this interview, Svetislav Pesic himself resolved all dilemmas and revealed that this marks the end of his tenure as head coach of Serbia.
“It was a privilege to be the head coach of the Serbian national team and to train and lead the best Serbian basketball players. Taking responsibility and making decisions when you are leading the Serbian national team is a great challenge. I always tried to let professionalism and expertise dominate the path to success. In the future, I want to continue offering my professionalism, knowledge, and dedication to president Covic and to our entire basketball community. However, the time has come to find a new coach who will be able to continue what we started in the previous period,” said Pesic, and continued:
“On the other hand, I promised Covic that I would do absolutely everything to fulfill to the end the role he gave me in choosing the new head coach, and I will carry out that task – as I always have – professionally, expertly, and responsibly. I will give the new head coach my absolute support, help, and all of my experience from the previous period.
Serbian basketball has several important and decisive topics for the future that must be discussed in order to establish a system and rules suited to the present time. The federation and its governing bodies must continue finding ways to cooperate with the clubs, a cooperation that needs to develop continuously, every day, through official and unofficial contacts between the most responsible people. Now, even more so after all these years, I am aware that this kind of cooperation, despite all my attempts, cannot be solved by one man – the coach.”
He emphasized that all his decisions were made consciously, but admitted that things could have been better.
“When you step onto the stage, you depend on the one who invited you there. When you step down from the stage, you make the decision yourself. Therefore, every decision I made was conscious, professional, and based on expertise. Could things have been better? Of course, they always can be better.”
After that, he analyzed EuroBasket and Serbia’s failure in more detail.
“My first impression is that the atmosphere between the players, the coaching staff, and the medical staff was very good, positive, filled with empathy and understanding for some players who arrived at training camp with the consequences of a long season, above all lingering injuries. During preparations, we played games against opponents of different quality and, thanks to continuity and chemistry built over the previous years, not only did we win and take two tournaments – in Cyprus and Germany – but we also played very high-quality basketball. At the start of the EuroBasket, we continued in the same rhythm as in the preparation games.
In the game against Portugal, which we treated as preparation for the next and at that time the most important game – against host Latvia – there was too much calculation and improvisation. Still, that game was won. We got the victory, but we lost our captain Bogdan for the rest of the tournament due to injury. From that match until the end, the players had enough quality to compensate for his absence, but due to continuous injuries and illnesses, they were unable to do so. We beat Latvia. Against Turkey, we played at a good level, it was a very high-quality game. Unfortunately, we lost Avramovic and Vukcevic to injuries. Despite Guduric’s great desire and the efforts of the medical staff, it wasn’t enough, and he couldn’t play at his level for the rest of the championship.”
After that, he analyzed the round of 16 loss to Finland.
“When you lose a game to an opponent named Finland, for the wider public and our fans, that is almost unbelievable. But it’s a single-elimination game where you don’t get a second chance, against an opponent who, as we can see, made it to the fight for a medal. I have always tried to put professionalism and expertise above everything else, and when failure happens, of course you ask yourself if there were other paths to success.”
Throughout his career, he often liked to say that life is not a fairy tale.
“That sentence – life is not a fairy tale – came from me after decades of coaching experience. It means that not everything is milk and honey. In Serbia, where we love sports, especially basketball, we need to start thinking about how to change ourselves. Above all, those who shape public opinion.”
At this moment, Pesic has been under heavy criticism from the Serbian public.
“Without proper professional analysis, various so-called experts present the idea that only gold is success, while probably every other achievement – a silver or bronze medal – would be considered a failure. There is no analytical, objective, and professional assessment of the quality of our opponents. Unfortunately, successful experts and former elite players are not given the chance to shape public opinion. Mostly it’s the unsuccessful ones, who lack the capacity to create a positive approach, who deal only with failure and compete with each other over who will criticize more, belittle the successful, and invent their statements. These unsuccessful analysts, so-called consultants, and ‘Twitter journalists’ cannot even explain success in an analytical way, let alone failure.”
He also pointed out that he gave his final speech to the players as the national team’s head coach.
“When you come to be the national team coach, it’s not only your decision, but above all – in this case – the decision of those responsible in the Serbian Basketball Federation. I don’t decide who will love Serbian basketball and the national team, but I decide where I will be and what I will do. My communication with the players was always completely open, with absolute mutual respect. When you lose – it happens. How do you move forward? Human relationships must not be disturbed.
Those relationships must be nurtured and worked on every single day. That’s how a team is built and developed, regardless of wins or losses. Before we parted ways, I told them: when you win, you receive congratulations, above all from your loved ones. But when we lose and don’t achieve our dreams, I still accept you as my friends and will never hold anything against you, because I know you wanted the best.
I also told them that it’s difficult to bear the responsibility and public pressure that builds before such important tournaments, but that pressure also has positive sides. It pushes you to train harder, to increase your commitment and responsibility to yourself and the team. Finally, I told them that the next time they are called, they must know – once they finish their club obligations, their absolute priority must be their health and dedication to the Serbian national team. They stood up and applauded my words.”
After that, he concluded the interview by speaking about the future of Serbian basketball.
“What I said after Paris, I still believe now: a team has been created with enormous potential for the next Olympic cycle through Los Angeles 2028. I am convinced that our players, even after Riga, are still hungry for success and proving themselves in upcoming competitions. I see it in their faces.
Priorities change, and of course their club obligations will affect that process. The players have shown their commitment to the national team. They showed that in their careers they actually have two teams: one where they earn their money, and the other, where their heart is, where they play with special passion – and that is the Serbian national team. In this Olympic cycle, we must be aware that it is necessary to change and adapt to the times we live in,” Svetislav Pesic concluded.
EuroBasket 2025 – Rosters of all national teams
EuroBasket 2025, starting on August 27, will be the central topic of discussion in the coming period, alongside basketball transfers in Europe and worldwide.
National team gatherings across the Old Continent have already begun, and coaches have announced extended player lists, with only 12 players from each team set to secure their plane tickets for EuroBasket 2025.
EuroBasket 2025 will be hosted by four countries – Cyprus, Poland, Finland, and Latvia.
The final phase of the competition, meaning all national team matches after the group stage, will be played in Latvia, specifically in Riga, with the final scheduled for September 14.
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