Adis Beciragic, head coach of Bosnia and Herzegovina, spoke to Basketball Sphere about the teams preparations for EuroBasket 2025, problems with form, the choice of the naturalized player, as well as lessons learned in the preparation games.
Adis Beciragic, a legendary player and a member of Bosnia’s best generation from 1993, took over the bench of Bosnia and Herzegovina in June of 2022, when the team looked like a sinking ship after Vedran Bosnic suddenly terminated his contract.
Bosnia and Herzegovina comes into this EuroBasket as one of the teams that could cause a surprise. However, recent games have also revealed some weaknesses.
Claim Now “Chance has to be earned”
“When we entered this preparation program, we expected and intended, planned for it to be a little different. First of all, expecting that from the very start we would have Castaneda, who is one of our most important players, Amar Alibegovic, Kenan Kamenjas. That slowed down our plans from the beginning.
Especially with Castaneda, who is absolutely out of shape. He only started training a little few days ago. In game against Montenegro, in agreement with him, he only played three minutes, just to get a little feel for the court. I think that’s holding us back a lot when it comes to the tactical side.
As for the technical side, I’m only 50 percent satisfied, 50 percent not. Above all, with the way we approach the game, as if it were a friendly. We are preparing for the European Championship after all.
It’s not enough to come and say: ‘When the EuroBasket comes, I’ll play.’ That has to be earned, and it’s being earned right now. We are trying, through talks and meetings, to explain to the players that not a single training session can be of a friendly character, let alone a game. Honestly, it was as if we were playing an NBA All-Star game.”
“Aggressivness and much greater responsibility”
The coach’s remarks criticizing the players’ form have been reported by media all around the world. Adis Beciragic does not hide his dissatisfaction but also leaves room for improvement before the start of EuroBasket.
“We’ll have enough time and games to raise our form. But, likewise, in both games and practices, we have to be absolutely at maximum. That means that what we’ve done so far, we have to raise by another 30–40 percent in terms of intensity.
Maybe not so much the intensity of the training itself, but the intensity of our mental training, meaning our approach. You know, that’s not enough by itself. We’ll have to add aggressiveness, much greater responsibility in every training session. If that doesn’t work, there will be big problems. But it’s not impossible. What’s important is that the players accept the competitive mentality.”
“First option”
This summer, the team will be without Luka Garza. The reason is that he has not managed to remove the so-called asterisk next to his name and is still counted as a naturalized player. Therefore, the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s coach had to make a tough decision and choose Xavier Castaneda over the Boston Celtics player.
“We had to choose between two foreigners. It was a matter of my choice whether we needed a big man or a small guard. I decided that Castaneda is the one we need. It’s not about his desire.
He (Luka Garza) would want to play without any doubt, but in our setup, we need a point guard. Especially one who can shoot from distance and help our offense. From the start, it was clear that he wouldn’t be there. Only in case something happened to Castaneda, but this is our first option.
People probably don’t listen to what I’m saying. I’ve said it from the beginning. Removing the asterisk is another story. If he had managed to remove the asterisk, he would be here.”
“Mental readiness”
Adis Beciragic believes he knows what it takes to beat the opponents and get out of the group.
“We know everything. For us, it’s very simple, we don’t need to philosophize much. We can beat anyone if we play 120 percent and run 120 percent. We can’t beat anyone if we drop below that. It’s not about our style of play or quality, it’s about aggressiveness and running. In that, we are among the best in Europe.
We keep talking to the players about this. However, we don’t have enough reaction. Is it because we’re not in competitive form, so they think that when the games start, they’ll play at maximum? Is it because they’re not ready enough? Obviously, we’re not physically ready, but I’m not worried about physical readiness.”
“I’m worried about mental readiness, which is absolutely not at a high level. That’s the biggest problem. Because physical conditioning can be gained very quickly through training. Mental readiness is sacrifice, concentration. That’s where we’re falling short, I’m not worried about other things. We’ll reach a good level in 15 days. I tell the players this: if we’re not ready, we’ll fall apart like pearls from a necklace. No doubt about it. It’s a sword hanging over our heads.
Here also comes the question of intelligence and their understanding of responsibility – whether they will see it, whether they will be ready to change it, and whether they will have enough physical strength, because strength is needed to change it. I hope they are intelligent enough people. Everything else is lying to the people who don’t know what basketball is. You can lie to them, here and there, but until you start hitting and running on the court, everything else is a pointless story.
Whether someone has a few good games or seasons means nothing. A man is only what he is at the moment when something is happening. The moment you play badly, you are the worst in the world. When you play well, you are the best in the world. That is, simply, the philosophy of life.”
“Time comes only for what you deserve”
Bosnia and Herzegovina is in a group with Spain, Greece, Italy, Georgia, and Cyprus, and all the teams have had their set of problems so far. As Adis Beciragic explains, they will deal with that in the coming period.
“We’re following the results, but we haven’t watched anything. Right now, we’re focused on ourselves. But we’ll soon have to start working on that part too, because the time is coming. In the last ten days, we’ll focus on that as well.”
Finally, we touched upon Bosnia’s greatest success – EuroBasket 1993, when they reached the quarterfinals, and whether it’s time to repeat that achievement.
“Of course, it’s time. You see, when we played for the national team, you had to be among the top 16, now you’re among 24. When you come to the European Championship, you’ve practically already made it out of one group. We reached the quarterfinals. We passed two groups and made it to the quarterfinals.
The time comes only for what you deserve. And we’ll see what we’ve deserved, including myself. We’ll see everything on the 28th when the games start. That’s the only thing I can say.” – Adis Beciragic concluded.
