By Jeff Taylor

The good people of Serbia have many reasons to be proud when it comes to basketball.

The country is a traditional hotbed of hoops.

It has legendary coaches and players, and numerous titles have been won by its national teams and club sides.

As magnificent as Spain were at the EuroBasket last summer, a team that beat them in the Preliminary Round - Serbia - may have had the most impressive tournament of all because they had the youngest of the 16 sides in Poland yet still captured a silver medal.

One player that was instrumental in the Blues' success was 25-year-old Kosta Perovic, who plays for Neven Spahija at Power Electronics Valencia.

Perovic was at the EuroLeague Women Four over the weekend supporting the city's other team, Ros Casares Valencia, and spoke to Basketball World News.

Kosta, people are still talking about that great run you and Serbia had at the EuroBasket in Poland.

Kosta Perovic: I'm proud. Before the EuroBasket, no one thought that we were going to do anything. But that was a team with potential, a young team, with a great wish to prove the energy, to prove the basketball work from Serbia, and of course with the coach (Dusan) Ivkovic, who put  all things together. Everything worked great. I was really proud to be a part of that to win a medal. For the people of Serbia, it was like a gold.

The mastermind of the success was Ivkovic, someone who is revered around the world.

Kosta Perovic: He's a great coach. He proved that in his career so many times, coaching great teams and the national team. At the moment, when we were between generations changing of the national team, some other coaches tried to put things together. He came with a different philosophy. It was great for him, to select a certain amount of players and to put all things together. For me, he's one of the best coaches ever.

This is an important time for your club side, Valencia, with this week's Eurocup Final Four in Vitoria. After returning from the NBA, you have certainly fit in well here.

Kosta Perovic: I feel really great with this club and this city. It's a great environment. Everything around me, great people - we're in good shape right now. We're in the Eurocup Final Four and have a chance to go into the Euroleague next year. I'm really satisfied with my game, and the game of my team.

As a Serbian, I'm sure you must have had a rooting interest when Partizan Belgrade played and beat Maccabi Tel Aviv last week in the Belgrade Arena to reach the Euroleague Final Four? That atmosphere looked incredible with everyone there watching like basketball greats Vlade Divac and Sasha Djordjevic.

Kosta Perovic: Partizan is really a big basketball name over there and great coach, Dusko Vujosevic. Fans are crazy about basketball. We are a sport nation. It doesn't matter if it's basketball, football, volleyball - people know if we go somewhere in the national team, or a club, the people expect us to bring something back like a medal. Partizan have a very low team budget, but the coach, the selection of those guys playing with great heart, this is an incredible thing. Twenty-two thousand (fans in Belgrade Arena)? If they wanted, they could play in a football stadium in front of 60,000 to 70,000 easily for one basketball game. I know so many guys who couldn't even get into the arena that wanted to go to the game. Everybody wanted to be there, even the President of Serbia was up there. They were showing him on TV.

The Partizan phenomena is quite remarkable, but surely no one could have predicted the season they ended up having.

Kosta Perovic: Like the national team during the summer, this is like during the regular season for the Serbia and Partizan fans. It was an incredible job. They thought the maximum for Partizan was going to be Top 16, if they make it that far. Then in a (Top 16) group with Barcelona and Panathinaikos? Come on, everyone think they know who's going to go through but Partizan do. Then Maccabi was the best possible opponent. It was a team without big guys. Partizan's game was always on the big guys. I'm not going to say this was easy, but it was a great job. Everything came together at the right moment.