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LILLE, France — Bogdan Bogdanović is a smart man.
He knows how intensely competitive NBA greats tend to be, how all it takes to bring out their best is the slightest sign of disrespect from an opponent. The 31-year-old Serbian star knows this, of course, because he has spent the last seven seasons putting together a very respectable career of his own in the Association while playing for the Sacramento Kings and the Atlanta Hawks.
So when Bogdanović was asked on Friday if he believed Team USA was beatable in these Olympics — a relevant question considering the Nikola Jokić-led Serbians face the LeBron James-led Americans on Sunday in the start of Group C pool play — the sharpshooter took a pass on the question in the savviest, and most strategic, of fashions.
“I know what you mean, but I’m not gonna say nothing because I don’t want to motivate them more,” Bogdanović told The Athletic with a smile while standing outside the Espace Maurice Herzog gym after his team’s practice. “We believe, definitely, but I don’t want to give them extra motivation.”
As Bogdanović certainly noticed, Team USA is coming off a set of close exhibition wins against South Sudan (101-100) and Germany (92-88) that caused significant concern for their coach, Steve Kerr. After all those weeks of comparisons to the ’92 Dream Team, and a 105-79 win over Serbia in exhibition play in Abu Dhabi that came with Bogdanović (and Miami Heat big man Nikola Jović) sidelined and preceded Team USA’s aforementioned nail-biters, the mediocrity that followed has been enough to make you wonder if this team isn’t more vulnerable than most believed.
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But Bogdanović, who was part of the Serbian team that won silver at last year’s FIBA World Cup without Jokić (falling to Germany) and the squad that lost to the Americans in the 2016 Olympic gold-medal game in Rio (with Jokić), knows better than to poke this red-white-and-blue bear. As he walked away, it was hard to miss his obvious choice to not inspire a counterproductive headline heading into their showdown.
“There is time for headline (later),” he joked as he headed for the team bus.
Translation: Winning would be the best way to make a strong opening statement here.
Yet as Bogdanović knows, the outside world doesn’t give the Serbians much of a chance to pull off the upset here (they’re double-digit underdogs in Vegas). They went 3-2 in exhibition play while facing all sorts of NBA role players and stars alike.
The wins came over France (Victor Wembanyama, Rudy Gobert, Nicolas Batum, lottery pick Bilal Coulibaly, Evan Fournier), Japan (Rui Hachimura) and Greece (Giannis Antetokounmpo), while they fell to the Australians (Patty Mills, Josh Giddey, Josh Green, Joe Ingles, Dante Exum) and Americans (that list is too long). In the game against Team USA, Jokić went just 6-of-19 from the field and didn’t play in the fourth quarter (he finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds and just two assists). Steph Curry (24 points) and Bam Adebayo (17 points) led the Americans.
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With 12 teams competing in all, the top two teams from each of the three groups and the two best third-place teams will advance to the quarterfinals. The Americans and Serbians share Group C with South Sudan and Puerto Rico.
Team USA remains the clear favorite here, but the continued absence (and questionable status for Sunday) of Kevin Durant because of his calf injury coupled with the close calls in exhibition play has sparked some scrutiny. Yet as Bogdanović was willing to discuss, this early perception that the Americans are vulnerable might be stronger in media circles than it is among their rivals.
“No, I think they’re still one of the best teams ever that played in the Olympics tournament,” he said. “Everybody knows that, but nobody is going to just surrender and not compete. Everybody will try to go out the best as they can against them, for sure. I think (exhibition) games are preparation games, but they have a lot of veterans over there.
“They know how to turn the button on when it’s time to play. You could see when they were down 15, 16 against South Sudan, or a little bit down against Germany, that they didn’t want to lose. You can tell they just turned it up a little bit, played a little bit more team basketball, and then they win.”
Break that trend, though, and the Serbians can answer the question at hand without saying a word.
(Photo of Team USA’s Stephen Curry and Serbia’s Bogdan Bogdanović after the teams’ pre-Olympic exhibition game: Joe Murphy / NBAE via Getty Images)
