Interview of the month: Slavko Vraneš

After we presented our captain Petar Božić to you in our New Year's interview, today we talk to Slavko Vraneš. After you have proven yourself deffensively, you have recently started to make significant attacking efforts, too. Maybe you are on a special training routine or maybe you just have more confidence? "Confidence is something you achieve by quality trainings, which is a sort of answer to the question. Trainings are definitely the main reason but devotion of the coach, the team and the coaching stuff adds a lot to my confidence, too." What is the difference between Slavko Vraneš before coming to Partizan and now in Partizan under the eye of Duško Vujošević?What is his role in your maturing as a player?"Well, the difference is obviously enormous only if you compare my Partizan results and my previous results. Duško Vujošević had all his fingers in that sauce, starting with the way he accepted me as a person to the way he interacted me in the functioning of the team and giving me a chance to play." You have repeated a nice half hook shot in several recent games, is this your new move that you have mastered on trainings or just a way of feeling the play? "I do not devote more attention to practicing that move than any other thing on trainings. I would say that it is a feeling, if the paint is open I try to use it and shoot the way I know. I just managed to score points that way lately and I liked it ." What elements of the game offer progress to you in future, in your opinion?." "I could improve my backplaying technique, playing close to basket with more dunks in near future. It is easy for people to talk about that but when you are in a situation when you have to score and there are several players palying double play on you, you have to try to score as quick as possible in a nick of time or to get a foul made on you. Which is very hard. I can also improve my concentration from the free- throw line." Is there something that you like to do most when you are on court, except winning games in "black and white" jersey? Blocking shots, for example? Of course! That's not the easiest way to help to your team but it certainly is a very beautiful way to be spotted on court by your fans as they like it and that is the way to make them cheer us even more." Can you tell who is your best teamwork mate on court?"That part of the game is constantly changing. Every game brings something new and the most important thing is that the whole team has excellent teamwork and that is the way we win. I personally can't tell just one teammate." Do you have a role in developing Nemanja Bešović's talents? Do you practice "one on one" plays on trainings because he is most similarly built to you? “Of course we do "one on one" plays on trainings but not so often, because the team is usually preparing numerous games on training and there is no much time for that. He is very talented and he has a lot of time and space to develop his overall playing features. The good point for him is that he is very young and that he has the privilege to be coached by Dule Vujosevic from the green age which means that he has a lot of time to mature as a player very early. I came to Dule when I was 25 years-old and he is 16 now”. What's your favourite game in The Black and White? "It's hard to tell. But, the last game in Moscow against CSKA is one of my favourite Partizan triumphs as it was a wonderful feeling to beat the European Champions at home." Do you still have problems finding clothing and shoes of right size?"That's a normal problem for me which is usually dealt with by my friends from abroad. I also have a couple of tailors who make me clothes when I have special needs. I also get clothes in USA or on away trips, by myself. " How do you spend your free time, when you catch some? "Free time runs quickly, so I like to use it in a best possible way. I usually spend it on my fiends, family and relatives and I usually do my best to pay attention to people I neglected in any way in the previous period of time." What would be your message for the FANS? "I would like to tell them to do what they do for us and we will do what we do best. And what we do is more than playing basketball, it's playing basketball for Partizan! I like when they support us the way they did against Tauceramica and Panathinaikos and I wish if they can repeat that in every single match and cheer us the way they do. Loud when we are winning, louder when we are equal and the loudest and strongest when we are losing. I know they are always with us." We also want to say Happy Birthday to you as you celebrated several days ago. What were your wishes, if they are not secret, of course?"Thank you! You know what people say: You do not tell your wishes as they do not fulfill to you in that case. Let's say that my wishes are very modest. I wish I was healthy and to have "uninterrupted career", just the way it is now in Partizan."

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