At Eurobasket, Peja's team can't deliver
STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- NBA All-Star Peja Stojakovic and his teammates from Serbia & Montenegro learned a lesson Wednesday night that the Americans learned all too well just over a year ago.
Namely, the rest of the world is getting the hang of this game of basketball -- so well that the kings of roundball from both ends of the globe can't just show up without their A-team any more and expect to finish with even a bronze medal, let alone a gold, hanging from their necks.
Last year, the American Dream Team suffered its first, second and third losses since NBA players began playing for the United States and embarrassingly didn't medal on American soil during the World Championship in Indianapolis. And here, 2002 world champion Serbia & Montenegro, also winner of the past three European championships, was eliminated from landing a medal in Eurobasket 2003, defeated 98-82 to Lithuania in quarterfinal play.
The problem for both the 2002 American squad and the 2003 team Serbia & Montenegro, formerly Yugoslavia, was one in the same. Many of their key players stayed away.
"You have guys on our team that have never had a chance to be on the team, guys that have different roles and others who have starting roles,'' said Stojakovic, a Sacramento Kings star who sat out the loss with an ankle injury he suffered two days earlier against Turkey. "That is the difference.''
For the United States last year, the difference may have been Jason Kidd, Tracy McGrady, Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson, who didn't play in 2002 for reasons that included injuries, not being interested or not being invited. All four played this year for the Americans in the Tournament of Americas, where they won gold and qualified for the Olympics.
For Serbia & Montenegro, absent was Kings center Vlade Divac, three 2003 first-round draft picks (No. 2 selection Darko Milicic, Aleksandar Pavlovic and Zarko Cabarkapa), two key Spanish pros (Dejan Bodiroga and Dejan Tomasevic), Seattle SuperSonics forward Vladimir Radmanovic (who opted for NBA summer league action) and 2002 New Jersey Nets draftee Nenad Krstic (out with an injured foot).
| KING WITHOUT A CROWN | |
| The Eurobasket 2003 crown isn't the only title Stojakovic missed out on this summer. For the second-straight year, he was part of a talented Kings squad that had Larry O'Brien trophy dreams turn into nightmares. Two years ago, the Los Angeles Lakers knocked out the Kings during a heated Western Conference final. And this season, a Kings team with serious championship potential fell shy after their all-star forward Chris Webber suffered a knee injury in their conference finals series with Dallas. This year, Stojakovic will have to see what the Kings can do with a much different team than he's accustomed to. Despite 59 wins, the Kings followed suit with other Western Conference powers by making a major offseason move -- landing Brad Miller with a seven-year, $68 million sign-and-trade deal that also involved Indiana and the Spurs. Gone is gritty center Scot Pollard to the Pacers and sharp-shooting Hedo Turkoglu to the Spurs. The Kings later dealt forward Keon Clark to Utah. Stojakovic called Miller "a great addition," but sounded like he's still trying to adjust to the Kings' summer moves. ''That's something that is out of my hands or any player's hands,'' Stojakovic said. "I'm kind of sad because we lost Hedo and Scot. With Scot, I've been with him for day one and five years. With Hedo, for three years. Keon really gelled with the team last year. "When you have a good direction with the team and good guys, you always feel kind of weird when some changes happen ... That's something that's out of my control and (decisions) for coaching and management to make. And they probably know what is better for the team." Stojakovic learned of the Miller trade during his basketball camp in Sacramento. After that, he was mentally ready just in case his name was next in on the transactions list. "I was just prepared that anything can happen,'' he said. "You never know. I was preparing myself that I might be next or something.'' -- Marc J. Spears |
"Bodiroga has played for like eight years straight and needed a break," said Stojakovic, who wasn't available after the loss, on Wednesday morning. "A couple other guys had obligations to the NBA. Milicic (who spent the summer ironing out contract troubles with his ex-Yugoslavian pro team) didn't know what he was going to do. Radmanovic decided to take a break to work on his game. Vlade may be done with the national team. He's (35) and he's played for so many years. You cannot ask anything more from him. It took a lot for him to play in the world championships last year&
''We're not looking for any excuses. We came out to play. We know we don't have a quality gold medal team like we did last year, but we came to play. Our main focus is going to be the Olympics, trying to have a healthy team and have everyone on board.''
Serbia & Montenegro has time to concentrate on the Olympics now, with nothing more than pat on the back and a possible fifth-place finish. The country qualified for the Olympics by winning the 2002 world title.
Despite the absences, Stojakovic, Los Angeles Clippers guard Marko Jaric, Sonics center Predrag Drobnjak and 2002 New York Knicks draftee Milos Vujanic were still on the roster. But that wasn't enough to get Serbia & Montenegro so much as a stinking bronze.
The fast-breaking, 3-point-shooting Lithuanians had one NBA player who has yet to play in the NBA (Kings rookie Darius Songaila, who had 14 points) as well as former Maryland guard Sarunas Jasikevicius (21 points, 11 assists). Ramunas Siskauskas, who plays pro ball in Lithuania, had a game-high 27 points.
When asked about Stojakovic and other key players not suiting up for his foes, Siskauskas said: "It was good for us. We were ready to play with Stojakovic on the court. But he didn't play and it was good for us."
And not good for Stojakovic and his teammates.
With a mixed of young, old and key players next year, Serbia & Montenegro will definitely be a force again during the 2004 Athens Olympics. But Stojakovic expects the heavily favored Americans to have the same kind of make-up and more.
"We don't have as many players as USA does,'' Stojakovic said. "Even the last (year), they didn't bring the top guys, but they brought all-star guys. They got the superstars and the stars."
And both hoop powers also have a lesson well learned now.
Marc J. Spears, who covers the NBA and Denver Nuggets for The Denver Post, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.
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