Serbia turns focus to Olympics after falling short of gold medal again in FIBA World Cup

History repeated itself for Serbia.

In 2014, the Eagles fell prey to the USA to settle for silver during that year's FIBA World Cup edition in Spain despite stellar outings from Milos Teodosic, Nikola Kalinic, and Bogdan Bogdanovic.

Almost 10 years later, they met the same fate as the gold medal remained elusive for Serbia, falling to unbeaten Germany in the 2023 edition in Manila.

Still, the European bets are still proud of their run.

"I'll be happy to get the gold as well to finish the tournament with a win. But, unfortunately, sometimes luck is not on your side, you miss some shots, you miss some of the opportunities but that's the game of basketball, that's how it works," said Bogdanovic shortly after their 83-77 loss in front of a packed Mall of Asia Arena.

Now, Serbia will head back home without gold, but with pride and hunger to get better for their next big tournament: the 2024 Paris Olympics.

"Our heads are already up and our next goal is to go on to the Olympics games and to make better success than this," added Aleksa Avramovic, who led them with 21 points.

Serbia, along with Germany, Canada, and USA, is among the teams that earned qualification to next year's Summer Games.

—JMB, GMA Integrated News