the ultimate heroics of a coach with no expiration date

BarcelonaHe is 74 years old and could easily be mistaken for a retiree who spends the summer in Benidorm, but Svetislav Pesic is one of the best coaches in the world. After an impressive victory against Lithuania, the Serbian coach has led his country’s national team to the semi-finals of the Basketball World Cup with a very effective defensive strategy. Despite the absences of Jokic and Micic, having ruled out Teososic and Nedovic and not being able to count on Simanic, who underwent emergency surgery and lost a kidney, the coach has become one of the main protagonists of the tournament.

Pesic admitted he didn’t watch the game in which Lithuania beat the United States. “We don’t have time to watch all the games,” he excused himself. However, he has found the perfect formula to disable the Lithuanians’ success from the three-point line. “It’s a big win, an important win. Especially because it was against a great team, like Lithuania. They earned respect, they played an excellent tournament and not just because the United States won,” he analyzed the former coach of Barça.

The difficulties that Pesic has been forced to overcome have been capital letters. “It was very difficult to prepare for the game to find the energy, concentration and defense that we showed. If you play the Euroleague or a domestic competition, you have three or four days to recover and have energy and concentration in defense. Playing every other day is very complicated. From day one, our motto has been: ‘All for one and one for all’. And in a situation where you don’t play the way you want to play, you need to be a team. If you analyze how it is a team, you have to look at how they defend. If you defend like we defended today, we’re a team. You can see a tight defense, an inside defense to slow down the way we stopped Valanciunas, which was our goal. If you stop the outside shot, which is the great quality of the Lithuanians, it is important to know how to control the rebound.”

Serbia’s opponent in the semi-finals will be the Canada of the Catalan Jordi Fernández, who got rid of Slovenia. “Our goal is to repeat once more what we did in the second quarter. It’s our goal. Nobody is perfect, but we want to be perfect,” Pesic said. The score during the second quarter of the match against Lithuania was 13-25.

Two coffees before each workout

The locker rooms of the elite teams are loaded with routines and fads. Each player clings to it to combat the pressure and enter the match with good concentration. Most are non-negotiable. Less known are the peculiarities of the technicians. Svetislav Pesic, for example, likes to drink two coffees before each training session. “Coffee helps me concentrate and I drink two before each training session. If we have two sessions, I take four. After meals, on the other hand, I don’t drink coffee, I prefer a polyol”.

Criticized during many phases of his career for the rigidity of his methods, Pesic has a very clear path to success. “Life doesn’t start with improvisation and creativity, but with rules. First you have to accept and learn the rules. Otherwise, it’s chaos. There are players who try to create situations without arguments because they don’t have quality. Free play doesn’t exist. Basketball has its rules. It’s a team game where the decisions of the players decide in the end. Not everyone can break the rules, you have to have quality.”

2023-09-06 14:21:18
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