Zoran Savic will be one of the hosts of the upcoming Final Four in Belgrade. The current Partizan's General Manager, former FC Barcelona, and Real Madrid player has been interviewed by Diario AS.

Savic played in two different periods at Barcelona. From 1991 to 1993 and one season at the beginning of this century (2000-01). In between, he moved to Real Madrid, where he replaced Arvydas Sabonis in 1995, losing the European semifinals against Barcelona in Paris. 

Throughout his successful career, Savic has been on the same roster with Pablo Laso and Sarunas Jasikevicius, two of the great European masterminds that will clash on Thursday. 

Savic talked about them, praising their capabilities. 

"Both are top, great," he said. "I have always thought that Saras made a mistake. He should have retired earlier. We have lost three or four seasons from him as a coach," the Serbian added. 

"When someone aims to be a head coach, he must begin as soon as possible. I love the way he led the team. He is talented and ambitious. He does not let the team to relax, that's why Palau is always packed," Savic followed in his statement about Jasikevicius. 

"Laso was one of the best assistants in Europe. He had personality and loved basketball, which is the most important thing about becoming a coach. He has been at Madrid for eleven years, winning titles and managing a deep roster. It's not easy at all," recognized Savic. 

During the interview, Savic admitted this Final Four is one of the most exciting and unexpected in recent years. 

"I can't tell you who is the favorite," he said. "I see more equal teams in each game. There are great players on each team, and I hope to see good games."

Asked about the competitiveness of the European clubs compared with the NBA franchises and how the young players leave their teams to play in the United States, Savic gave a deep vision of young players' mentality. 

"In the short term, there is nothing to do, but we can think in the future. We need to improve our facilities and build good places for youngsters to practice and study. 

Players now can easily move to Madrid to grow up before joining Partizan. There is no other way than to bet on them and explain it will be better to have success here in Europe and then go overseas being 24 or 25 years old, ready and mature enough," he stated. 

"They want to achieve things quickly. They have personal trainers as if they were tennis players. The best way to work in the summer is playing with the national teams, but no one sees this in Serbia. 

Those who succeed here will also do it in the NBA. I can't see a better place to improve than being coached by Zeljko Obradovic. Every practice is a clinic," he concluded. 

Zoran Savic will be in the Stark Arena to watch both EuroLeague semifinals. 

Olympiacos Piraeus and Anadolu Efes will open the Final Four at 6 pm CET. Afterward, another edition of El Clasico will take place at 9 pm CET.

Belgrade brings back good memories for Real Madrid. 2018 was the last time Real Madrid won the EuroLeague, and now they return for another title hunt.

However, they will try to do that without one of the biggest EuroLeague stars Luka Doncic, who's now breaking records in the NBA.

Doncic left Europe after completely conquering it. Being 19 years old, Doncic has won EuroBasket, EuroLeague title, EuroLeague regular season MVP, EuroLeague Final Four MVP, three Spanish ACB League titles, and two Spanish Cup titles.

Now, the Slovenian superstar is trying to bring glory to Dallas, where his led Mavericks just started the Western Conference series against the Golden State Warriors.

The beginning wasn't easy as Mavericks lost Game 1 87-112, while Doncic scored 20 points on 6/18 shooting from the field.

However, his performance in the series against the Suns left many people stunned. In a decisive Game 7, Doncic accumulated 35 points (6/8 2PT, 6/11 3PT, 5/5 FT), ten rebounds, four assists, two steals, and two turnovers.

In his fourth year in the NBA and his third playoffs, the 23-year-old Slovenian has already played four elimination games. He averages 38.0 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 8.8 assists. 

38 points per elimination game is by far the best result. In the second place is legendary Michael Jordan, who played 13 such games throughout his career and averaged 31.3 points per duel.

When Pablo Laso won the EuroLeague last time, he had Luka Doncic at his disposal.

Laso is in Belgrade with Real Madrid again to win his first EuroLeague title in four years.

But the difference is that Doncic is on a different campaign now, fighting for the NBA title with the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals.

NBA people doubted Doncic despite winning the EuroLeague season and Final Four MVP awards in 2018.

But once again, his former coach in Madrid Pablo Laso said he didn't have any doubts on Luka's success in the NBA.

He also explained what made Luka so good.

"Luka has been a great player since he came to Madrid at age of 13. But he was a great person from that day. That makes him so big," Laso started.

"When people talk about NBA and how he was going to play there, I didn't have any doubts. No doubts that he's going to play good. Probably the best thing that he has as a person and as a player is that he's able to adjust to any situation. That's something you have as a person. And Luka has it. I'm very happy for him. I wish him luck for sure."

Pablo Laso will be in his 7th EuroLeague Final Four as Real Madrid's head coach. No other coach has been it more times in the last decade.

The Spanish mastermind attended the media in the press conference ahead of Belgrade, some hours before the Blancos took off to the Serbian capital.

Laso confirmed that only Carlos Alocen will be sidelined at the event, but he will travel with the team too. 

"I see my team prepared for the Final Four. Everyone is ready except Alocen," Laso said.

Real Madrid struggled as never before during March, downgrading from 2nd seed to 4th in the EuroLeague regular season. An unexpected streak that turned on all the alarms in the Casa Blanca.

Far from sinking, Madrid bounced back as they used to, improving the offensive fluency. They will face FC Barcelona in the semifinals with a nine-game winning streak. More than a month without a loss.

"I understand that a month ago no one believed in us. I did. I don't think we were that bad, but it's also true that in the last month we have competed very well and that the series against Maccabi gave us confidence," Laso admitted.