Hoop Summit: Milan Macvan
14 abril 2009
Day three of the World Select Team's preparations and the players gathered from all over the basketball world are still coming together as a team.
Here, Serbia's MILAN MACVAN reveals the behind the scenes secrets of shoe design and bowling that the World Team hope can help them beat the USA in Saturday's big showdown:
We have been in Portland for three days now and there is a great atmosphere on the team, making new friends with everybody, it's good. Obviously, it is different at home on our club teams or national teams, where you have known people for years, but this is still a good atmosphere.
I'm in a room with (Tomislav) Zubcic because we speak the same language - I am Serbian, he is from Croatia - but we spend most of the time sleeping and resting. We practise twice a day so it is tiring.
But Zubcic and me play in the same league in Europe, the Adriatic League, so we have been talking about players we know, teams we know, games we have played in. The rest of the team don't speak Serbo-Croat but we all speak English with few problems.
The guy from China (Zhang Dayu) and Kevin (Seraphin) from France don't speak English but that's okay. We can still communicate a little bit and basketball is the same language wherever you are from.
And it does not stop Kevin from being the funniest guy on the team! In fact, because he doesn't speak English is what makes him the funniest guy on the team! He is always dancing, making us laugh, making jokes.
We will need that atmosphere on our team to win against the USA on Saturday and the people at Nike have helped us in team building exercises.
For example, we had to design a (Nike iD) shoe for one of our team mates. Half of the team did it earlier in the week and my half are doing it tomorrow.
I am doing a shoe for Mateo (Gaynor) from Argentina and he is doing mine. He has not shown me a picture of the shoe he has designed for me but he says it is orange and black. We spoke to each other about what sort of shoe we would like and my team in Serbia, Hemofarm, wear orange so that is why he did it.
He has told me he wants his shoe to be sky blue and white for Argentina ... so I will probably make it red and black and put flashing lights on the bottom so that every time he jumps up and down, the shoe flashes!
After practice tonight, we went to play ten-pin bowling, it was my first time I had ever played. We have bowling in Serbia, I just have never done it and it was good. They even had shoes in my size - 14!
Our team manager Mike Hackman won the game and Zubcic was second and it was another new experience for me. This is my first time in America so everything is new to me but if Hoop Summit is the number one experience of the week, then bowling is number two.
Things like this are helping us become a team but that is not all we need if we are to win. We must play a little more slowly than the USA, we can't run with those guys because they are so athletic.
We must cut out the turnovers, play at our own pace and play smarter than them, Coach has said this to us at every practice, every day, and I think we are learning. I think we are getting better every day.
Photo Credit: USA BASKETBALL
Here, Serbia's MILAN MACVAN reveals the behind the scenes secrets of shoe design and bowling that the World Team hope can help them beat the USA in Saturday's big showdown:
We have been in Portland for three days now and there is a great atmosphere on the team, making new friends with everybody, it's good. Obviously, it is different at home on our club teams or national teams, where you have known people for years, but this is still a good atmosphere.
I'm in a room with (Tomislav) Zubcic because we speak the same language - I am Serbian, he is from Croatia - but we spend most of the time sleeping and resting. We practise twice a day so it is tiring.
But Zubcic and me play in the same league in Europe, the Adriatic League, so we have been talking about players we know, teams we know, games we have played in. The rest of the team don't speak Serbo-Croat but we all speak English with few problems.
The guy from China (Zhang Dayu) and Kevin (Seraphin) from France don't speak English but that's okay. We can still communicate a little bit and basketball is the same language wherever you are from.
And it does not stop Kevin from being the funniest guy on the team! In fact, because he doesn't speak English is what makes him the funniest guy on the team! He is always dancing, making us laugh, making jokes.
We will need that atmosphere on our team to win against the USA on Saturday and the people at Nike have helped us in team building exercises.
For example, we had to design a (Nike iD) shoe for one of our team mates. Half of the team did it earlier in the week and my half are doing it tomorrow.
I am doing a shoe for Mateo (Gaynor) from Argentina and he is doing mine. He has not shown me a picture of the shoe he has designed for me but he says it is orange and black. We spoke to each other about what sort of shoe we would like and my team in Serbia, Hemofarm, wear orange so that is why he did it.
He has told me he wants his shoe to be sky blue and white for Argentina ... so I will probably make it red and black and put flashing lights on the bottom so that every time he jumps up and down, the shoe flashes!
After practice tonight, we went to play ten-pin bowling, it was my first time I had ever played. We have bowling in Serbia, I just have never done it and it was good. They even had shoes in my size - 14!
Our team manager Mike Hackman won the game and Zubcic was second and it was another new experience for me. This is my first time in America so everything is new to me but if Hoop Summit is the number one experience of the week, then bowling is number two.
Things like this are helping us become a team but that is not all we need if we are to win. We must play a little more slowly than the USA, we can't run with those guys because they are so athletic.
We must cut out the turnovers, play at our own pace and play smarter than them, Coach has said this to us at every practice, every day, and I think we are learning. I think we are getting better every day.
Photo Credit: USA BASKETBALL
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