Serbian coach Pesic resigns: The story of "250 Ladder" should let more people know

In a recent interview with the national media "Political Daily", Serbian 75-year-old coach Pesic, who has just finished his European Cup journey, revealed that he is not going to continue coaching after his contract is over this month. He bluntly stated that this team needs a new coach.

"As the coach of the Serbian national team, it is an honor to train and lead the best Serbian basketball players. Taking responsibility and making decisions is a big challenge when you lead them. However, it is time to find a new coach and hope he can continue the work we have started before."

, 75 years old this year, has devoted almost his whole life to basketball in the Balkans.

This is his second time as the coach of the national team. In the late 20th and early 21st century, he led the team to win consecutive championships in the 1998 and 2002 Men's Basketball World Championships, although the name was Yugoslavia at that time.

Now this Serbia was polished by him and his disciple Joeljevic.

From Belica, Tiodosic to Jokic, Misic and Aframovic, they won the silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and declared Balkan basketball back to the top of the world, and in 2024, they jointly contributed an Olympic semi-final that was enough to be recorded in history.

Serbia has to continue to move forward around Jokic, the world's number one man, but it is time for this old coach who has strict military leadership and outstanding achievements to get off the car.

About thirty years ago, the American Dream Team defeated Croatia, which had just been founded less than half a year ago in the Barcelona Olympic final. A middle-aged man was in a local bar, and he used alcohol to claim that everyone present was watching the game, "My children can definitely win this American team."

Others laughed, not knowing who this person was, but they just thought he was drunk and crazy.

But he still cried and argued excitedly:

"Look! There is only one Tony (Kukoc) in this Croatian team, and they (Cote d'American team) are not distinguished in the first half. If my children were all together, what would happen!"

This man is Pesic, and the "group of children" he mentioned is Kukocc, Divac, Radgar, Alibepogovic, and later the famous "bomb guard" in Europe and former head coach of the Chinese men's basketball team, Joel Jevic.

At the age of 16-19, they became the most anticipated "genius group" in Europe at that time. The U.S. team, who won the European Youth Championship in 1986, defeated "Gloves" Payton and "Auntie" Larry Johnson in 1987, won the U19 World Youth Championship.

Yugoslavia, which won the adult European Championship in 1985, was invincible in Europe at that time, but in internal training matches they lost to this group of talented young brothers more than once. In 2017, on the occasion of their 30th anniversary of their U19 World Championships, Serbia filmed a documentary called "250 Steps" to tell future generations that sigh-worthy glory years.

Pesic, who was 67 years old at the time, returned to the Serbian Basketball Association, found the trophy that had been sealed there for 30 years, put it in a box and mailed it to the "children" who were already all over the world, with a note attached to it "Tell our story."

So Divac, Kukochi, Giorjevic, Alibegovich, Ilic, and Radgar, and other names that later became world-renowned, began to recall the glorious years that belonged to them one by one. One day in 1984, Pesic was officially appointed as the head coach of Yugoslavia U17 youth team. Rayaic, who was working in the domestic basketball association at the time, informed him that "we have a group of very good children, born between 1967-69, and now you will take them." Pesic took over the job and found his former teacher, Kalarevich, a famous kinesiologist at Yugoslavia at the time, and invited him as his assistant coach. The two hit it off.

In the next three years, they became the "devil duo" in the minds of those Yugoslav geniuses.

Pesic chose to set the team's base in Stara Planina, a mountainous area on the junction of Bulgaria and Serbia, which was also a place with no people at that time.

Every year, they will train here for three months, and this place has become the spiritual home for everyone of that Yugoslav National Youth Team.

Radgar (FIBA basketball 50 winners, two European Cup champions, two Olympic runner-ups) recalled that I set out from Belgrade, but I couldn't buy train tickets at all. In the end, I had to squeeze in a warehouse, and there was a cow next to me! That's how I went to that place for the first time. Of course, what's even more terrifying is the training camp there. For three months, they could only serve as a small villa on the mountainside and the stadium at the foot of the mountain, and there were few people around.

Jorgevic joked: "One week we performed well in training. Did Pesic give us a day off? Everyone laughed. We can't go anywhere in this kind of ghost place, and we still have to rest on the spot. In the end, we still had to go to basketball."

At that time, Radgar, Joelgevic, Divac, and Kukochi were already talented stars selected for the national team, but what we met here was still treated equally.

During a training camp in Croatia, Radgar and Kukochi carried two enthusiastic female fans on their shoulders to take a photo. As a result, after Pesic found out, he was fined 20 times the next day, but this time they turned into two trainers on their shoulders..

In Kukochi's words, "He has no democracy with us, he is an absolute dictator. But at our age, it is better to have a strong coach so that we can't do anything wrong.

From the first second, he was a slave owner."

They are almost isolated from the world, and their only pastime is to watch the video. But in the end, several old Yugoslav movies were able to memorize the plots. The only thing that kept the weekly update was the NBA video sent from the National Basketball Association at that time.

"We watch the NBA, watch the All-Star Game, watch the Lakers and the Celtics Finals. We must know what the most cutting-edge basketball in the world is like, because sooner or later we will meet them."

Corresponding to this almost ascetic life is their training method at the forefront of the world at that time.

Kalalevich was an expert in sports physical fitness in Yugoslavia at that time. He and Pesic worked perfectly, one person was responsible for physical fitness and the other person was responsible for basketball. In Europe in the 1980s, the scientific nature of training was gradually valued.

Basketball players are not track and field athletes, so how to improve players' physical abilities according to the needs of the game has become a new topic.

And he is a pioneer and expert in this field. He not only trained with the team throughout the whole process, but also designed and made some unique training equipment himself, just to allow this group of basketball geniuses to polish the best body while improving their skills.

And the reason why this documentary is called "250 Steps" is a special "will training" conducted on the eve of their trip to Bormio, Italy in 1987.

On a mountain next to the training ground, there happened to be a long stairs. Pesic asked the players to complete the three-group level training.

The first group can be stopped twice, the second group can be stopped once, and the last group must rush up in one breath.

Although the steps were "only" 250 levels, they became steeper as they went up, and finally reached a slope of 45. Many people were exhausted after climbing in the first group, but in the end they still gritted their teeth and completed the training. Almost everyone remembered this devil training subject for the rest of their lives.

Later they recalled that "When Kukochi completed this subject, he was almost dead, lying motionless, without breathing."

, and Kalarevich recalled proudly, "their heartbeats reached 220-230, which was almost the limit of the human body, and this was the purpose of training."

After years of "hell-style" polishing, the Yugoslav youth team almost shocked the whole world with a sudden appearance.

killed the arrogant American team 110-95 in the group stage. Kukoc made 11 of 12 three-pointers scared the world. In the final, the angry Pesic almost smashed their locker room with a crazy counterattack from future NBA stars such as Gary Payton and Larry Johnson and falling behind 40-43 in the first half.

resulted in the terrifying Balkan lions in the second half. They quickly cheered up and eventually reversed 86-76 to win the championship.

Later, these young people were promoted to the national team. They won the silver medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, won the European Championships in 1989, and defeated the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1990 World Championships to the top, and Kukochi won the MVP of the competition.

In the world basketball world at that time, they were already the absolute overlords. Before the 1992 Olympics, everyone expected them to compete with the Dream Team.

But when they last won the European Championship for Yugoslavia in Rome in 1991, the live broadcaster reported it like this:

"The Yugoslavian team you see today is probably the greatest team in European history. But this will be their last game."

Then there was the raging war on the Slavic Peninsula, with hundreds of thousands of people killed and millions displaced, and the Serbs and Croats were irreconcilable.

Basketball seems so weak and vulnerable in the face of war.

So the rock-solid and brotherly "Golden Generation" of Yugoslavia fell apart. Kukoc, Radga and "European Jordan" Pedrovic belonged to Croatia, while Divac, Joeljevic and head coach Pesic returned to Serbia.

The national hatred and family hatred make them die of old age and never meet each other.

Jordevic once recalled that "in the past they could come to us and we could go to them, but now it is impossible."

The people on the Balkans are born with talent for ball sports. The Croats are the highest nation in the world, the Slovenians are the most disciplined, and the Bosnians have strong fusion ability; the Macedonians are diligent and persistent, while the Serbs are as aggressive as lions.

So there is such a proverb: "If you want to win a championship, nothing is safer than organizing a bunch of Yugoslavs and giving them a ball." In the days that followed, Kukochi and Radga led Croatia to lose to Dream Team in the Olympic final for two consecutive years to win the silver medal. As the head coach of Yugoslavia, Pesic led a national team composed of only Serbia and Montenegro to win the 1998 and 2002 World Championships in a row.

As the successor, Giorjevic led Serbia to win silver medals in three consecutive World Championships (2014 World Cup, 2016 Olympic Games, and 2017 European Championships).

Even now, Jokic and Doncic are the two most talented basketball players today, and they are also powerful names such as Zubac, Vucevic and Bogdan.

It is hard to imagine if there was a country called Yugoslavia in this world, would the United States still be the overlord of basketball in the world.

But as Pesic himself said, basketball is great, but in the face of too many things in this world, it is so small. The story of

"250 Steps" is hoped that more people can see it.