Dino Radoncic will be one of the most important players for Montenegro at the upcoming FIBA World Cup. He spoke with Basketball Sphere about the duties ahead.
Montenegro is getting ready for the FIBA World Cup. Several friendly games have been played and head coach Bosko Radovic is slowly starting to get the outlines of how his team should look in the Philippines in two weeks.
One of those who stands out with quality in this team is Dino Radoncic. For Basketball Sphere, he highlighted the great atmosphere that exists within the national team and the approach they will have at the tournament. Also, Radoncic said who are the favorites for medals.
This summer, many national teams faced a large number of withdrawals. Nikola Jokic was certainly in the forefront of the public’s attention, but hardly any team can boast of the fact that they have all the players the head coach wanted.
One of the few is Montenegro.
“The atmosphere in the team is great as always. It is something that attracts us all the most and we all enjoy it. After all, this is one of the reasons why everyone responds to the call of the national team.
For me personally, it is a great honor and privilege to be part of the team. I will always and with all my heart fight for Montenegro.” – pointed out Dino Radoncic at the beginning of the conversation.
This is the second time that Montenegro “checked the ticket” for the FIBA World Cup. They previously did this in 2019 when they traveled to China under the patronage of Zvezdan Mitrovic. Then, this country set a record as the country with the smallest population that managed to do it.
That record was held by Montenegro for four years, since Cape Verde moved the borders in this regard. This African country with slightly less than 600,000 inhabitants is the new record holder.
In China, Montenegro was eliminated in the first stage. They recorded three defeats against Brazil, Greece and New Zealand. About the goals this time, Radoncic said:
“We don’t want to set any limits. Just because we qualified for the FIBA World Cup, we achieved great success. Of course, we want to surpass the last championship and fight to advance to the second round this time.
That would be the icing on the cake after this great cycle and great generation that Montenegro has. I would not like to talk about the ultimate goals. We have a complicated group in front of us and we need to go game by game in order to achieve the best possible result.“
At the end of the conversation, we asked the member of the Montenegrin national team to tell us who are the biggest favorites are at the upcoming FIBA World Cup.
“In my opinion, the favorites are the United States, France and Spain. I think that these are the national teams that have been in the top for years and I would place them as the biggest candidates for a medal.” – Dino Radoncic concluded.
Montenegro will play its first game at the FIBA World Cup 2023 against Mexico on August 25.