Three-peat seeking Pampanga Giant Lanterns are leaving no stones unturned in hope of achieving a new milestone, tapping another Serbian coach that will guide them in the ongoing MPBL 2025 Season.
Speaking to Pinoystep.com, Djordje Jovicic, the newly-hired coaching consultant, expressed optimism about the Giant Lanterns’ chances this season amid the stiff challenge they’ve been encountering from several other crack teams which retooled their respective line ups in hope of stopping Pampanga from achieving a grand slam.
“I’m glad to join a back-to-back champion club and I’m glad that they’re still doing a good job now,” said Jovicic in an exclusive interview. “I hope that my knowledge and experience can help the guys reach the title again this year.”
Having a Serbian mentor isn’t new for Pampanga, which previously asked the services of Olympian and former Gilas Pilipinas coach Rajko Toroman to help out the squad the past two years.
Jovicic considered it as a more seamless transition when he took over the same position previously held by the veteran bench tactician.
“He’s a coach with a great experience,” said Jovicic, paying respect to his more experienced compatriot. “I’m glad that I’m here now to succeed him. The last two years, he was able to help the guys in running their offense, building their attitude and knowledge for the game.”
The transition from the team which was previously helped by Toroman was a smooth-sailing one for Jovicic.
“Before me, there was Coach Rajko and everyone of us have something to bring to this new team,” he added. “Our systems may be different and that’s the reason why players cannot take everything, but there were players who were able to pick it up fast.”
Jovicic used Justin Baltazar, PBA’s top overall pick this season, who now plays for Converge, as a good example of being a part of the Serbian basketball program.
‘You now see Baltazar. Before, he played in the MPBL and now, he’s one of the top players in another league. That means they’re growing. That’s the role of the coaches — to help the players improved,” added Jovicic.
Like Toroman, who coached in Indonesia, including its national squad, Jovicic used to coach in the same country and handled Pelita Jaya, which went to the finals of the IBL, but lost to Prawira Harum Bandung two years ago.
But what makes Jovicic more excited in coaching in the Philippines was the country’s feverish passion in the sport.
“It’s a basketball country. Everybody loves basketball,” he said. “Everybody knows basketball and everybody talks about basketball. It’s something great. What’s nice about it is, I’m also coming from a country which loves basketball. I want to feel it here.”
The beauty of Serbian basketball
There must be a better reason why the Giant Lanterns, who are being bankrolled by Governor Dennis “Delta” Pineda, now an assistant coach and part owner of Converge in the PBA, prefer bringing Serbian basketball and integrating it to the team’s culture.
Through the years, Serbia produced some of the world’s best players — from past greats like Vlade Divac and Predrag Stojakovic to current NBA stars Nikola Jokic and Bogdan Bogdanovic among others.
Jovicic is convinced that the United States may have the highly-athletic, gifted individual players, but European basketball, including Serbia, can now be considered as probably the best in terms of game tactics.
“I believe that Serbian and European basketball can now be considered as one of the world’s best,” said Jovicic. “The best players in the NBA, they’re coming from Europe and these are facts.”
Jovicic was referring to his countryman Jokic, a three-time Most Valuable Player in the NBA, who also won a championship two years ago.
Prior to Jokic winning three of the four MVPs in four years, Giannis Antetokounmpo of Greece was back-to-back MVP in 2019 and 2020.
“I believe that at this moment, the best basketball players in the world is in Europe — if we are referring to the tactics,” added Jovicic. “If you are comparing the skills and the physical abilities, that’s still the NBA. But if we are talking about the tactics, I believe it’s in Europe.”
