Aleksa Avramovic gets greeted by thousands of people in his hometown / News - Basketnews.com

Avramovic was greeted by a bigger crowd than the German national team that won the gold. He thanked everyone who came and professed that this was a moment he would remember for the rest of his life.

Credit: RINA Credit RINA

The Serbian national team was greeted by a huge crowd in Belgrade that celebrated their silver-medal finish at the 2023 FIBA World Cup. Aleksa Avramovic became a local hero in his hometown as well.

Serbia / Schedule

Serbia Canada95-86 Germany Serbia83-77

Avramovic, a native of Cacak, a town of 100,000 inhabitants, was instrumental in bringing Serbia a medal in the competition. During the semifinal against Canada, he was a big part of a scheme that managed to slow down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. In the final, he was the instigator of a huge run that almost brought home the gold.

A few days after the grand greeting in the country's capital, Avramovic went to Cacak, where he was met by thousands of locals, a crowd bigger than the one the German national team that won the World Cup had.

"I don't even know where to start, really. My heart is full, and these three days are the most beautiful thing that happened in my life," he told the crowd.

"Thank you, Cacak, thank you all for coming to welcome us. We really gave our one hundred percent in Manila and in the Philippines and all those weeks in the hope that we will unite you and that we will bring something big to Serbia, such as the Olympic Games and possibly a medal."

Cacak is also famous for being the place where arguably the best European basketball coach of all time - Zeljko Obradovic - was born. KK Cacak, the town's team, was also one of the first stops in Milos Teodosic's career.

"We came back with silver, and that's what you live for and what every child who starts training basketball dreams of, to one day make his people happy," Aleksa Avramovic said. "Thank God I succeeded in that, we all succeeded, and thank you very much, I will remember this for all my life. Thank you to everyone, thank you to the people who organized this, thank you to people of Cacak for the warm welcome, for the big heart. We showed why Cacak is the center of the world. I love you all."

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