SLO - Emotionally-charged Zdovc ready for another go

LJUBLJANA (FIBA Basketball World Cup) - The first and only time Jure Zdovc worked as a head coach of Slovenia was at EuroBasket 2009 in Poland, and some might liken his performance at the event to that of a magician.

Despite injuries to key players at the tournament like Matjaz Smodis and Goran Dragic, Zdovc's team grew in strength, game by game.

Slovenia showed grit, resolve and even flair.

In many ways, Slovenia were the best story of the competition, despite coming up just short of the podium.

Many of their fans travelled to Katowice for the knockout stages and gave the Slovenians a home-court advantage but after edging Croatia 67-65 to reach the Semi-Finals, the team suffered an overtime defeat to Serbia and then lost in the last seconds of the Bronze Medal Game to Greece.

Slovenia left Poland with plenty of pride and cause for hope that a medal at a major basketball event would be theirs soon, with the thinking that a team coached by Zdovc wouldn't be denied.

Not long after, however, Zdovc decided to leave the post and concentrate on his duties as the coach of Union Olimpija.

Several years and no medals later, Zdovc has agreed to come back to lead the team at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

If there was an empty feeling over Slovenia's failure to capture a medal on home soil at EuroBasket 2013, that is now gone.

The feel-good factor has returned.

No one is more excited than Zdovc.

"When we announced me as the head coach again, we had a press conference and I had an emotional moment," Zdovc said to FIBA.com.

"I wondered why, and it was because we had really played well in 2009 and were a little unlucky not to get a medal.

"I'm very happy that I'm back, very motivated.

"There is a new generation now of players."

Dragic is still around but now one of the best players in the world, leading the charge for the Phoenix Suns in the NBA.

His brother, Zoran, is shining for Unicaja Malaga and both Jaka Blazic and Edo Muric are youngsters who are already key contributors in a talented squad.

There are other players in the set-up that have impressed as well.

Zdovc understands that while he drew rave reviews for Slovenia's fourth-place finish in Poland, that he'll be judged on the here and now.

"I know that 2009 is history, and that I've never coached at a World Championship but I have played in one," he said.

"We'll see."

Zdovc not only played in a World Championship, in Argentina in 1990, but he had a starring role for the Yugoslavia side that won it.

The Maribor-born star celebrated a silver medal success at the 1988 Olympics, then gold at the 1989 European Championship before reaching the summit in Argentina.

As happy and fulfilled as he was at the time as a player, however, the most difficult moment of his life came soon after.

At the height of political tensions in the Balkans in 1991 and immediately after Slovenia declared their independence from Yugoslavia, Zdovc was at the European Championship in Rome when he received a fax that jarred him.

An official in the Slovenian government told him to stop competing for Yugoslavia or warned he'd be known as a traitor.

Zdovc decided not to play in the team's last two games, though Yugoslavia were still able to win convincingly over France and then Italy to win the title.

Even now, he winces when thinking back to the time.

"It was a very bad experience for me," he said.

"These were very tough moments and I don't like to remember these moments.

"But on the other side, I never regret what I did.

"I was very proud to step out and make the decision."

Zdovc says his teammates and coaches in the Yugoslavia set-up at the time were very understanding.

"(There was) Support from everyone," he said.

"There wasn't one person in the team to say anything bad at the time, nor Coach (Dusan) Ivkovic."

Zdovc prefers to remember the good times with that national team.

"The year 1990, I was very important - I was starting five, the point guard, and played well and had great players with me - (Vlade) Divac, (Drazen) Petrovic, (Zarko) Paspalj and others."

For Zdovc, though, it's strange to remember that time.

So much has happened to him in his career and life since.

"This seems like it happened not in this life, but some other life," he said.

"Now in Slovenia, I'm coach - it's like two different people.

"But it was great to see some players at the (2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup) draw in that era to bring back the memories.  But this is history and my job, I like it."

Zdovc says there is always pressure for a coach.

He is ready.

"Your life is in front of your," he said.

"Tomorrow is the next game. You must win. Who cares what happened before."

Will he be able to help raise Slovenia's level of play again, as he did in Poland?

It's still makes the hair on the back of his neck stand up when he thinks about how Slovenia overcome so much in 2009 to have a solid tournament.

How did he and the players rise to the occasion?

"I believe that my character, my personality helped the players to believe that we could go until the end," he said.

"This was not just my work, though.

"You have to know that Slovenia have come a long way since 1991, and that all coaches before made one step further to get this far."

Zdovc, everyone is hoping, will take Slovenia even farther, perhaps to the podium.

Slovenia will play at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Group D against Lithuania, Angola, Korea, Mexico and Australia.

FIBA