Vladimir Stanković, author of the book “Bajka iz Bormija” (A Fairy Tale from Bor), shared his thoughts on the golden generation:
“The gathering of the Bor generation in Belgrade was an unforgettable event. An emotionally charged meeting of friends, basketball masters with enviable careers as players, coaches, or executives, was held in honor of basketball talent and, even more so, friendship that nothing could cloud or spoil. I am particularly pleased that I have been and remained in close professional and personal relationships with most of these brilliant people. If my book ‘Bajka iz Bormija’ at least contributes a little to preserving the memory of this exceptional generation, selected by Rusmir Halilović and brought to the top by the tandem Svetislav Pešić-Milivoje Karalejić, I will be very happy. And anyone who watches the brilliant film ‘250 stepenica’ produced by PGM Network will understand why they were the best.”
Mik Pavlović, president of the KSJ expert council, recalled the story of how the ‘White Dream Team’ was formed:
“The ‘White Dream Team’ was the product of a system that KSJ expert council president Mik Pavlović recognized in 1980 among the numerous projects presented by applicants to a public competition for a professional coach for all junior national teams. When I came from Dubrovnik to work in Belgrade, my first question was: what can I thank for this great recognition? Your work system that you presented is diametrically different from the others, and the practice from KK Bosna confirms that,” recalled Rusmir Halilović, who worked as a selector for all youth categories in KSJ from 1981 to 1985.
Rusmir Halilović explained his philosophy and approach to player development:
At that moment I was given all the authority and I made all the decisions regarding players and associates, and of course I was responsible for everything. The positive answer gave me unprecedented strength. Since then, a new system has been introduced; the priority is to produce players who can meet the ambitions of the senior national team instead of team results, which in practice means pushing those who are more potent ahead of those who are currently more competitive. My lifelong work motto ‘can it be better’, which is still relevant today, applies to the following topics: systematic selection of players two years before the first public international appearance, visiting every town and lifting every stone to see if there is some extraterrestrial potential hidden under it, respecting the suggestions of all colleagues from large and small clubs until the end of selective trainings where the list was narrowed down. In the second phase, at control trainings, I educated and divided tasks on what, who, when, how and how much must be done to raise their values and survive in the national team. I always included a few players from younger age categories in the selection of one generation so that the selection would have continuity. For example, in the generation of players born in 1963 and 1964, we had D. Petrović, S. Vranković, D. Cvjetićanin, there were also V. Perasović, Z. Jovanović, in the generation 1965/66. Ž. Paspalj, J. Zdovc, then L. Pavićević, M. Pecarski, S. Đorđević… In short, I chose ambitious collaborators from all large and small environments and in this way I helped both them and myself. In collective tactics, I pushed for fast breaks, where the first pass goes to the first line of battle, not backwards; I ran away from stencils and adapted collective attacks to the individual knowledge of the players and pushed the players to positions where they could give their maximum in the future,” added the 69-year-old Rusmir Halilović, who will remember the gathering in Belgrade, exactly 30 years after the gold in Bor, for the rest of his life. A generation to remember…
