With “The Energy of Sport" program, our company supports professional and children's sports and promotes a healthy lifestyle. Fruitful collaboration with the Basketball Federation of Serbia (KSS), among other activities, includes the the Mini Basketball League with the aim to bring this sport closer to the youngest. Motivated by the fruitful cooperation between our Company and KSS, and the upcoming world championship in basketball, we talked with Aleksandar Sasa Djordjevic, basketball champion, now a basketball coach, and currently the coach of the Serbian national basketball team. After an extremely successful career, you have decided to try your luck in coaching which is known to cause a lot of stress, uncertainty, new worries ... why such a decision? - Basketball is my passion and my love and, as one of my friends said, my comfort zone. Every time when I'm on the ground, in any manner and in any role, my heart pumps harder, adrenaline kicks in and they make me push harder and give more and better. Aleksandar Saša Đorđević for „Moj NIS” In your time, playing for the national team was sacred. Will you be able to make the national team the cult it once used to be? - It does not depend only on me. Playing for the national team is just as sacred today as it was in the past and always will be. It just depends on how individuals perceive this role, some of them through fault of their own. One of my tasks as well as other people in the Serbian basketball is to make as positive an influence as possible to perpetuate that. What do you expect from the World Cup? - I expect a very good competition, and I expect my team to be ready to take on any opponent and to send through their game a clear goal and message - that we want to win. You took your first steps in basketball in children's playgrounds in New Belgrade's blocks and you have remained in basketball your whole life. Given that you actively support children's sports schools and competitions, do you think that sport in Serbia today has the power to deter young people from bad things and steer them in the right direction? - Yes, absolutely, provided that the sport, sport personalities and the messages are authentic. Not all the people who are in the sports, coincidentally or not, should set an example to the children. But some of us can do that, in all modesty. You played in two Italian clubs who bore the names of their general sponsors. Can you draw a parallel between how the synergy of economy and sport functions in the world and in our country? - Synergy of economy and sport in the world works phenomenally because the companies with social and societal responsibility, like yours, have long recognized the true values of sports and the power of the message that can be spent through sports. I chose my clubs based on that and, the clubs chose us, the players, based on that, because human values are of great importance in sports.
