'On that court, on Old Mountain, I actually became a coach' - Svetislav Pesic's My Game, My Way

BELGRADE (Serbia) - Svetislav Pesic first released his autobiography 'My Game, My Way' in Serbian in 2022 before the re-released translated version in English. A collection of stories and insights into both the world of basketball and life in general, the legendary head coach shares his riveting journey.

The following excerpt focuses on Pesic's time as coach of the Yugoslavian junior national team - a generation that featured several future legends of the game from Vlade Divac, Toni Kukoc, Dino Radja and Aleksandar Djordjevic.

A young player is like a reed: he grows quickly but also breaks quickly!

In the silence of the Old Mountain, one of the most famous generations emerged in European basketball, perhaps even in the world, since we can't say the American Dream Team was created from one generation. The boys who would win three consecutive golds in three consecutive summers: the 1985 European U16 Championship in Ruse (Bulgaria), the 1986 European U18 Championship in Gmunden (Austria), and the 1987 World U19 Championship in Bormio (Italy).

Later, some of them would become big names in European and NBA basketball, and some would enter the Hall of Fame. Our collective successes were the result of thorough, well-conceived work. I was not alone in the selection process, but as the coach, I decided which boy would move forward, who would play in which position, and so on.

Thanks to my friends, especially the director of foreign trade at "Tigar," Baja Panic, and the general director of "Tigar," Dragan Nikolic, we got an excellent court that kids still use today, as well as some clubs that come there for training. On that court, on Old Mountain, I actually became a coach.

Although I was already working as a professional coach for KK Bosna and had some club trophies (Championship, Cup) behind me, I deeply felt that I lacked that foundation, working with young people on their development both as players and as individuals. A young player is like a reed: he grows quickly but also breaks quickly!

The World Championship in Bormio is - everyone agrees - in terms of the quality of teams, players, and games, equal to the then Senior World Championships. We played seven games, four of which were against very strong opponents: Australia, Germany, and twice against the USA. Everyone remembers only the duels with the Americans and judges us by that, but Australia was a fantastic team with future NBA players like Luc Longley, Shane Heal, and Mark Bradtke.

The Germans, whom we defeated in the Semi-Finals, came with their most talented generation ever, including Henrik Rodl and Henning Harnisch, who were among the reasons I later accepted the offer from the German Basketball Federation. Italy won bronze with exceptional players like Ferdinando Gentile, Riccardo Pittis, Stefano Rusconi, and Davide Pessina. The Soviet Union had a solid team with Sergey Babkov and Gundars Vetra.

We were strong against China and Nigeria, and then came Australia, exceptionally coached by Patrick Hunt, which was a real test for us. We knew them very well because they had been our guests in Sarajevo during preparations. Our initial goal was to beat Australia, which would be a boost for America and everything else that followed. We defeated them by 13 points.

The first game against America was, of course, marked by Toni Kukoc with his still-standing record: 11 three-pointers out of 12 attempts. Nebojsa Ilic scored 21 points. Kukoc was the top scorer but more than that. Simply, he had a good, developed shot. He got into a rhythm, hit the first two shots, and then the players recognized it and - following the old rule - spontaneously continued to look for the best player at that moment.

The most important characteristic of our team, besides individual quality and the continuity we built through training and competitions, was the extremely good adaptation to all kinds of opponent defenses and a very well-built balance between the center and the outer line.

We won the game with a high score (110:95), which is a special achievement when playing against the Americans. If we exclude that encounter, the highest number of points they conceded in the championship was 89, given by Puerto Rico. Due to the overall atmosphere in Bormio and the surroundings, the stands were mostly empty.

But after the victory against the Americans, one of the most famous basketball journalists in Europe, Enrico Campana, through Gazzetta dello Sport, called out to the audience: “White Harlem is in Italy and there’s no one to watch them!” This news quickly spread among the players because Rajce (Branislav Rajacic) got those newspapers through Bora Stankovic, who was the only one who spoke Italian and translated it for us. From that moment on, there was a high demand for tickets to our games.

Everyone cheered for us and, of course, for the host Italy.

Certainly, no one could have planned for Kukoc to score 37 points against the Americans in such a manner, but shooting was indeed our strong weapon. Later, I reviewed the statistics: we had a 60.7 percent shooting rate from the field, including 16-19 from three-point range, which is very difficult to achieve at that age. Against players like Gary Payton, Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Kevin Pritchard, Dwayne Schintzius, Brian Williams, and others.

Travels across America, both club and national team trips, helped us learn and see how their defense was played. Through these tours, both players and coaches matured. From that American selection, 10 players later went to the NBA, and some participated in All-Star games.

The long-awaited Final

After a convincing victory against Puerto Rico in the last group game (139:100), there was a slight relaxation among the players. The day before the semifinal match with Germany, something happened that could have cost us the title. While other teams did not leave their hotels, preparing for the final matches, our players used their free time for 'creative' fun on trampolines in the city park. Of course, the leader was Nebojsa Ilic (currently the team manager, sports director of the Serbian national team, and Red Star Belgrade), one of our best players.

In demonstrating various types of jumps on the trampoline, he injured his ankle. The other players took a long time to figure out how to explain the “incident” to me, and when they finally gathered the courage, I was truly angry and furious. I always disliked that irresponsibility, and they knew it, although I could somewhat understand it because they were young and enjoyed not only playing basketball but also everything outside of it. I left Ilic out of the team for the Semi-Final against Germany. To be honest, it was more of a punishment than a precaution due to the injury. In the Final against the Americans, he was one of the best along with Divac and Radja (scoring 14 points).

Germany was quite strong, a well-organized team, in any case, very tough. We had played many games against them in previous Championships. We knew them very well. In the Semi-Final of the European Championship in Gmunden, a year earlier, we won but struggled until the very end of the game.

This time in Bormio, in the Semi-Final, one of our best games and victories was 89:64.

We now had far greater respect and experience playing against them. The coach of the German national team was Bernd Roder, who later, when I took over the German national team, was my assistant, but more than that: a friend and a man who greatly helped me adapt to German basketball. In Bormio, he led a team that did not have the individual quality of the American and our team.

The Germans had two exceptional talents, among the best in Europe. Henning Harnisch was the top scorer of the 1986 European U18 Championship in Gmunden, and Henrik Rodl, who later became an NCAA champion with legendary coach Dean Smith at the University of North Carolina.

The Final was played on August 5, 1987. It was, of course, a different game from the previous one in the group. We expected that. Beating the same and very strong opponent twice in any tournament is not easy at all. They were very aggressive in defense, especially on our perimeter players. They pressed us all over the court with a "run and jump" defense, doubling, switching, and other details that distinguished college basketball from ours and from NBA basketball at that time. They had exceptional physical predispositions, were technically and tactically very well prepared, especially in this final game.

However, we had very high-quality perimeter players, players who knew how to "hold the ball," Djordjevic, Dobras, Pavicevic, and we also had Kukoc, through whom we could eliminate aggression. We were prepared for all that and, thanks to our individual offensive play, always maintained a balance between perimeter and interior play. The primary and basic idea was to play the fast break always after a defensive rebound. Early offense with the aim of getting the ball to the low post. We scored 25 out of a total of 86 points.

Everything else was control basketball with the idea of low post and hi-low play, focusing on the inside game in a positional offense. Out of the total 86 points, 59 were scored from the paint (Divac 21, Radja 20), with 13 points coming after an offensive rebound.

Controlling the game's pace and outcome is never possible without good defense. Our main task was to reduce the number of points from transition, one-on-one play, and to stop the penetration of perimeter players and their strongest weapon - the offensive rebound. This was our best team defense throughout the Championship, not just because the Americans scored 76 points in the game, but also because of the exceptionally well-executed special tasks.

The top scorer of the American team, Stephen Thompson, scored only two points, their best center, Schintzius, five, and the first playmaker, Payton, only four points. They were impatient, both players and coach, and wanted to win the game "here and now." However, we were tactically very good, and thanks to our greater experience, we dictated the game's rhythm.

The biggest problem I caused. It took very little for some of my decisions to jeopardize our victory.

After an excellent start and a solid lead, I started experimenting. Let's try a zone press after a basket, now a zone press after a free throw. But they were prepared for that, and they used it so that we were losing 43:40 at halftime. For the first time, this was a new situation for everyone, for me and the players. It's the final, and we had never been losing, not even at halftime. The arena was filled to the last seat, everyone came to see the "White Harlem," applauding our every move, every basket, we really had support. And suddenly, shock, silence in the arena.

I was angry, maybe at the players, but more at myself. I headed to the locker room alone.

In the locker room, I was met with silence, everyone had their heads down. Like any other team, this one expected the coach to find a solution. I knew what the solution was, I knew the path to victory. Maybe some coaches in that situation would be positive, encouraging their players, keeping things calm, "just keep it low and on the ground," as football coaches say.

No, I chose another way.

Of course, there was no throwing the basketball board (because we didn't even use one back then) but there was strong, loud criticism. The players knew me and knew I trusted them, and the message was clear to them. They believed in their abilities, and I slightly changed the way I led the game in the second half. We won, as is well known, 86:76. That victory is surely one of my dearest, not just because we became world champions. Somehow, a burden fell off my chest, because even then, as now, there are those who know everything best and criticize coaches for their decisions.

The triumph in Bormio brought us indescribable celebration. Yugoslavia finally became the U19 world champions.

Many years later, I modestly thought that we were a kind of precursor to the American NBA Dream Team from Barcelona in 1992.

On average, we defeated opponents by 27.6 points, scoring 111 points per game, with an overall shooting percentage of 60.7 percent for two and three points. The fewest points this generation scored in official competitions in Ruse 1985, Gmunden 1986, and Bormio 1987, was only 86 points in the final against the Americans, but the Americans had the inglorious record of scoring only 76 points in the final.

In the Final, the hall was packed. And we won... Applause like at the end of a theatre performance, it was fantastic, we were proud, we were happy, we celebrated like little children because we were children. Not only did we become world champions, but the way we became champions was something impressive for the entire audience in the hall.

The entire leadership of FIBA, headed by our Bora Stankovic, who, together with Robert Busnel, presented the medals, came to watch the Final. The television broadcasted live for Yugoslavia, and I remember Kica (Dragan Kicanovic) was the commentator. It was truly an event for the history of European and world basketball at that time.

Later, everyone said that a better generation had not appeared in European basketball. I will never forget those moments. All my players, colleagues, the head of our delegation since Ruse 1985, Igor Popovic, my Rajce, Professor Karalejic, doctor Ljubisa Dmitrovic, physiotherapist Jovo Mihaljcic, Professor Radomir Saper, who followed and supported us from the very beginning.

From a results perspective, the generation from Bormio holds a special place in the history of basketball. It was the first to officially beat America twice, as well as all other national teams in all official competitions organized by FIBA. Altogether, and I with them, grew significantly from Ruse to Bormio. Rationally speaking, it was something necessary for me to become a "real coach" after that.

I am especially glad that I contributed – at least so they say – to my players becoming not only good basketball players but also true individuals. And most importantly – they remained active in basketball to this day. Some made names as coaches, while others became prominent officials in clubs and basketball federations and associations.