Basketball
Paspali: “We had the best player in the NBA and the best player in the EuroLeague, but that doesn’t guarantee success”
Zarko Paspali commented on the reasons behind Serbia’s failure at EuroBasket 2022 in an interview, saying that the presence of Jokic and Micic could not ensure success in a team that no longer has the talent of the past.
Serbia’s failure at EuroBasket 2022, where they were eliminated by Italy in the round of 16, made noise. Before the start of the event, Zarko Paspali had warned of a possible failure. A few days later, in an interview with informer.rs, he reiterated the structural problems of Serbian basketball.
The Serbian basketball legend – and former player of Olympiakos, Panathinaikos, Panionios and Aris – first stressed after being asked about the reasons for the failure: “The lack of talented players in Serbian basketball was not obvious yesterday. We have a problem. Not only this generation has a problem, we have had problems for many years. Something has changed.
Pardoned Dusan Ivkovic said 15 years ago that newcomers don’t work like that. Of course, Duda was a coach during the unified Yugoslavia era, when basketball was different and we were treating the world to consistent success. It happened to the generation before me, and my own generation continued it.”
Paspali then made an interesting point about the claims made because of the glorious past: “We have set the bar high, to levels that are difficult to surpass today because the country is also smaller. We mentally accepted that we deserved the gold medal or the silver medal at the Olympics with the logic that “we are a basketball nation”. In Serbia we had good years, great years, but, my God, we also had bad years. Now we are in a time when nothing is going well. It’s been a long time since we’ve achieved anything significant at a young age.”
The legend of Serbian basketball was pessimistic about whether anything could change: “I’m not sure in which direction things have developed. I know that the road to success is difficult and that we are impatient, so I’m afraid we won’t succeed. I’m not optimistic. I’m also worried that we have older players in the squad, I don’t know which player we’re going to build our future on.”
On the fact that Serbia failed despite NBA MVP (Jokic) and EuroLeague MVP (Micic): “Yes, we had the best player in the NBA and the best player in the EuroLeague. It’s incredible. But having two players like that and a few other good basketball players doesn’t guarantee success. Some question these children’s love for the national team, but there is no such question.”
Paspali also referenced Teodosic’s “cutting out” from the mission: “I didn’t like the timing and how it was done, but it was the coach’s decision. I wouldn’t blame just one person for the failure. it is a product of many different things. And we’re not the only ones who got lost.
Basketball has changed. We have teams like Poland in the top four, which used to be unthinkable. It turns out that teams with players who have spent time together have a better chance of succeeding than teams who bet on one or two stars. In my time, the preparation of the national team took 3-4 months, now that has changed due to the demands of the clubs.”
In conclusion, Paspali reported on the Serbs’ march: “I certainly didn’t expect what happened. We had a good team and a good coach, but we failed. At the end of the day, Predrag Danilovic (former federation president) and Svetislav Pesic (former coach) admitted it was a failure but said they will keep working to be successful in the future. We are in a situation where if we don’t qualify for the 2023 World Cup, we won’t be playing at international level again until 2025.”
Source: sport 24
I am a sports writer and journalist who has written for various online publications including Sportish. I’m originally from the UK but currently live in Toronto, Canada. I’m also an author on Sportish and have written several articles on a variety of sports-related topics.
Head coach of “Kharkov Falcons” Valery Plekhanov He summarized the team’s 2025 results and talked about the preparations for the continuation of the season:
“Summing up the results of the calendar year, I want to congratulate all our fans on the upcoming New Year and Merry Christmas, wish our favorite team peace and good victories! “Kharkov Falcons” are the first players of this Super League season, so second place at the moment is a good result.
There are a few points we would like to emphasize separately. First of all, seven players from last season’s active squad won the Premier League together, but five of them never played in the Super League. Therefore, the experience they gained in the first half of this season is almost priceless. Secondly, Kharkiv Falcons are one of the two champion teams that did not play a single match at home. It’s very difficult when you’re not playing for your fans, you’re training in one gym, and you’re playing in a different gym every time, even on home tours. In these conditions, 4 defeats in 13 matches is a good result.
One of the most negative moments of this year was not being able to participate in the last four of the Ukrainian Cup. Unfortunately, we were a little unlucky in the draw. After an emotionally difficult and physically exhausting match with Krivbass, we did not have enough strength for the next match against Kiev-Basket in the quarter-finals. Unfortunately, our performances in the cup are over, but now we will be able to focus all our efforts on the championship.
Our main problem now is injuries. We have five injured players, three of whom have serious injuries that require a long recovery period. We’re about to get off to a very tough start to the new calendar season because the Falcons will be playing basketball six weekends in a row, which means six road trips with no rest time. If we could count on all twelve players in the squad at the beginning of the season, there will no longer be such a rotation. Therefore, all the responsibility and burden will fall on the players in the rankings. I hope they get over their injuries in the new year, recover from their injuries as soon as possible, return to work and help their beloved club properly represent Kharkiv in the Super League.
Despite the holidays, we have training scheduled almost seven days a week. “I really hope that by January 10 we will be a combat-ready team that can solve serious problems.”
Source: Sport UA
Ralph Bean is a writer for Sportish. Ralph has written about sports news for the last two years, and is currently an author on the site. He enjoys writing about sports, and hopes to cover more stories in the future.
On December 23, as part of the 1/8 final of the Romanian Cup, the Ukrainian derby was played between Bucharest and Dinamo. Vyacheslav Bobrova and “Fast” Alexandra Lipovoy.
Dinamo won the match 89:79, and the fate of the ticket to the next round was decided in overtime, as Rapid won the first match – 83:73.
The home players acted more accurately in extra time and won with a total score of 101:85 and advanced to the quarter-finals.
Vyacheslav Bobrov made a double-double in 33 minutes on the field, scoring 10 points (4/7 two-pointers, 0/1 three-pointers, 2/2 free throws), collecting 10 rebounds, 1 block, 5 turnovers and 2 fouls.
Alexander Lipovoy played 38 minutes, scored 16 points (1/2 two-pointers, 4/7 three-pointers, 2/2 free throws), collected 3 rebounds, made 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 4 fouls.
Romanian Cup. 1/8 final. 2nd match, 23 December
Dinamo Bucharest – Rapid Bucharest – 101:85 Overtime (17:22, 28:12, 24:19, 20:26, 12:6)
Match record:
Source: Sport UA
Ralph Bean is a writer for Sportish. Ralph has written about sports news for the last two years, and is currently an author on the site. He enjoys writing about sports, and hopes to cover more stories in the future.
Basketball
Mikhailyuk repeated his personal best from the NBA regular season in the match against Memphis
Ukrainian basketball player who plays for Utah Jazz Svyatoslav Mikhayyuk He repeated his personal best in starts in the NBA regular season.
This happened 128:137 in the game between the Utah Jazz and the Memphis Grizzlies on the night of December 23-24.
In this match, Mikhailyuk stayed on the field for 22 minutes and during this time he recorded 9 points (4/4 free throws, 1/4 two-point, 1/5 three-pointers), 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, 1 turnover and 1 foul.
This match was Mikhailyuk’s 27th match as a starter this season. So, at the end of December, Svyatoslav repeated his career record in terms of starts, missing only one game against Dallas.
Previously, Mikhailiuk managed to play as a starter in many matches only in the 2019/20 season as part of the Detroit Pistons.
The Jazz are in 12th place in the NBA Western Conference rankings with 10 wins in 29 games. Utah will play its next game against Detroit on Saturday, December 27 at 04:30 Kyiv time.
Source: Sport UA
Ralph Bean is a writer for Sportish. Ralph has written about sports news for the last two years, and is currently an author on the site. He enjoys writing about sports, and hopes to cover more stories in the future.
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