Top favorites for the EuroBasket title! Serbian coach: This is not Jokic and Bogdan's team.

On August 19th, Beijing time, when people talk about the Serbian squad, Jokic and Bogdan are often the first names that come to mind. Still, head coach Pesic made it clear in a recent interview that the Serbian national team is not just about Jokic and Bogdan.

“This team isn’t Jokic and Bogdan, plus ten others,” Pesic told Serbia’s RTS Television. “It’s a team made up of ten players, along with Jokic and Bogdan. Once you understand this, you’ll see why we’re a real team. There’s continuity here, every player has talent… I often tell a player, ‘You’ll never be Jokic, you understand? But Jokic will never be you, either. Jokic is Jokic. You just need to give your best and play to your own strengths.’”

“Of course, both of them are incredibly gifted players, and a team without leaders can’t be considered a top contender,” Pesic added. “But don’t get it twisted. The rest of the squad is very strong too—let’s talk more about them as well.”

According to the current championship odds, Serbia is the top favorite to win gold at the EuroBasket, but Pesic also mentioned that other teams are aiming for top results.

“Turkey is one of the favorites,” Pesic said. “Then you have Lithuania, Latvia, even Italy. Greece is also in the mix—they have Giannis, who elevates everyone on their roster. Germany, Spain, and France are competitive, but they’re missing some key players. Losing those leaders is tough, but if they can fill the gaps, anything is possible.”

Pesic also emphasized how fierce the competition is at EuroBasket, expressing his hope that the tournament could return to being held every two years like before.

“In terms of basketball quality, EuroBasket is the highest-level competition you can watch in the world, even compared to the NBA or EuroLeague,” Pesic commented. “Over the past decade, European basketball has grown tremendously and its popularity is soaring… It’s not just Europe—basketball is becoming a global sport like football. At the Olympics, three European teams reached the semifinals; at last year’s World Cup, two European teams made the finals… But in those events, not all European teams get to participate due to the format and qualifiers. Now, they have their chance. I miss the days when EuroBasket was held every two years. Apart from the NBA, European basketball is the most popular and most followed from a sponsorship and financial perspective.”

Before 2017, the men’s EuroBasket was held every two years, but since then, it’s been staged every four years. The 2022 EuroBasket was the first tournament after the change, originally scheduled for 2021 but postponed to September 1–18, 2022, due to the pandemic. The next EuroBasket will take place from August 27 to September 14, 2025, co-hosted by Cyprus, Finland, Poland, and Latvia.