By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Bogdan Bogdanovic already looks forward to the game between his Serbian national team and Team USA in the 2024 Olympic Games. Especially considering that this edition of USA Basketball will include the best of the best from the pool of American players that the NBA has to offer right now.
“I’m already motivated you know for the Olympics,” Bogdanovic said during his season exit interview. “It’s a special event. A special thing. I don’t think we’ll ever see those type of players together representing USA and competing. So it will be really fun to go out there and compete against them.”
Serbia last faced USA in the 2019 World Cup, winning 94 – 89 in a classification game for positions 5 to 8. Bogdanovic had then scored 28 points.
Bogdanovic and Serbia fell to the USA in the 2014 World Cup Final and the 2016 Olympic Games gold medal game. This year, the two powerhouses are set to play against each other in the Group Stage and may also meet later in the tournament, if they go as far as predicted.
USA will be led by such players as LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Joel Embiid, Kawhi Leonard and Jayson Tatum, among others. Serbia is expected to have Nikola Jokic back after his absence in the 2023 World Cup.
This will be the second Olympic tournament for Bogdanovic who wants to see Serbia claim the gold medal after several second-place finishes in summer competitions.
“Two summers ago we had the goal to qualify for the World Cup. When we qualified for the World Cup, we had the goal to qualify for the Olympics. It’s always like that. Now that you’re in the Olympics, you fight for medals. It’s a main event. I’m just excited to be part of it and I look forward to getting together with the guys and having fun.”
Bogdanovic completed 2023-24 with a career-high 16.9 points in the regular season, along with 3.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists. He became the Atlanta Hawks player with the most 3-pointers in a single season, finishing with 240.