ATHENS (Friday Eurovision) – You couldn’t imagine how sweet victory over Germany tasted for Croatia on Saturday at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

We read so often about what reaching the Beijing Games would mean for players like Dirk Nowitzki that sometimes we forget others.

The late Drazen Petrovic would have been proud.

Everyone in Croatia should be because really, there was nothing about this performance in Athens, or the play of this team the past three years, not to like.

For a country of 4.4million people, the talent is mind-boggling.

Remember that Croatia had Petrovic, Toni Kukoc and Dino Radja.

This country churned out basketball greats and still does.

But something was missing in recent years, and it had to be attitude. The evidence of this was the implosion I and everyone witnessed in Belgrade three years ago when a talented but psychologically fragile and inexperience Croatia lost to Spain the quarter-finals and then suffered defeat in their next game against Slovenia to miss out on the FIBA World Championship.

While the disparity in fouls called against them in the overtime quarter-final defeat to Spain looked like an injustice, Croatia blew it because they carried that disappointment into their next game.

Some players announced they wouldn’t play for Croatia anymore and coach Neven Spahija left the team.

The biggest move to bring Croatia back to the top came when Jasmin Repesa agreed to coach the national team.

A big hit in Italy where he had led Fortitudo Bologna to the Lega A title before joining Lottomatica Roma, Repesa entered the frame and brought with him the frame of mind that Croatia needed to bring the good times back.

After qualifying for the EuroBasket, they didn’t win a medal but did cause arguably the biggest upset of the tournament by edging Spain in Seville.

By beating Cameroon, and then Puerto Rico after losing Damir Markota to injury, and then overcoming Canada and Germany, the good times indeed returned.

Croatia booked a return trip to the Olympics for the first time since 1996.

“When I accepted the national team job offer, turning down several offers from big European clubs, I knew that this important moment would eventually come,” he said.