A story told so many times, like the favorite ones from childhood that we always return to before going to bed.
And the scenes from that picture book, so etched in memory that many people recall them in a second, even in the middle of the night - hungover, sleepless, delirious, whatever state they are in.
Scenes that are still being retold, three decades later.
One dunk over a two-meter, 21-centimeter mountain named Arvidas Sabonis, one explosive scorer who scored 41 points, and one chant for the captain who took the trophy.
In July 1995, the basketball team of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) won gold at the European Championship in Athens, which the team's captain, Žarko Paspalj, says represented "much more than the European Championship."
"That gold gave people hope back, not only in sports, but in life in general," Paspalj told BBC Serbian.
"It was food for their souls, after everything they had been through in the previous four years - that's why there was this spontaneous reaction on the streets, the welcome and the balcony."
The European Championship in Athens was the first in which the basketball team participated after four years of sanctions and a bloody war in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), a basketball superpower that from 1961 to 1991, in 31 competitions, failed to bring home a medal only five times.
"The great Yugoslav national team - not just my generation, but all the previous ones - was always the favorite and everyone expected a medal or to be on the highest podium."
"That's how we're taught," says Paspalj.
That Yugoslavia, however, no longer existed.
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The long road to Athens
Paspalj can't just say what first comes to mind when Athens 1995 is mentioned.
"It's a complex story that can't be explained so easily."
"It has to be in the context of the events and everything that was happening at the time in our country," he says.
And a lot of things happened, mostly terrible things.
The secession of Slovenia, the war in Croatia, and then in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where it reached its most horrific proportions, meant that the SFRY was no more.
Yugoslavia continued to exist in a reduced form, under the abbreviation FRY, the union of Serbia and Montenegro, which in the early 1990s - due to war events - was under United Nations sanctions.
They also related to the ban on participation in sports competitions.
This particularly affected the basketball team, then one of the most dominant in the world.
When the war began, the "blues" were on a gold medal winning streak from the 1989 and 1991 European Championships, as well as the 1990 World Cup in Argentina.
That generation was full of stars and talents: Dražen Petrović, Toni Kukoč, Dino Radja, Jure Zdovc, Aleksandar Đorđević, Predrag Danilović, Vlade Divac, Žarko Paspalj...
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However, when the 1992 Barcelona Olympics were set to face the American Dream Team, led by Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and other NBA superstars, the SFRY was no more.
"I played for a top generation that is probably the most damaged in the history of sports," says Paspalj.
"We should have won six or seven more medals, but we were prevented from doing so because of everything that happened."
The powerful Americans were faced in the final by Croatia, who were convincingly defeated.
Yugoslavia did not exist in the basketball world until 1995, when sanctions against the country were lifted.
On the way to Athens, she had to go through Sofia, where an additional round of qualifications was organized in early June, a few weeks before the championship.
Turkey, Bulgaria, Estonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and - Yugoslavia participated.
And all this with the help of The wrinkles of Stanković, the then Secretary General of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and one of the key people for the development of basketball in Yugoslavia.
"Bora must have violated some competition rules at the time, there was no model for someone to suddenly show up at the qualifiers," Dušan Duda Ivković, the then coach of Yugoslavia, said earlier.
"But he acted emotionally, he simply didn't want to let that great generation of basketball players die out without appearing anywhere, regardless of the fact that many people later criticized him for it - he did it for his country."
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In this, he had the help of George Vassilakopoulos, the then president of the Greek Basketball Federation and later leader of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), who allowed 12 teams to compete instead of 14, adds former basketball analyst and coach Milan Minić, part of the coaching staff in Athens, for BBC Serbian.
When he thinks of the 1995 European Championship, he says, the first thing that comes to mind is the first qualifying match against Bulgaria, won only after extra time.
"The Bulgarians prepared for us by playing friendly matches against OKK Belgrade."
"Not only were there no computers and YouTube, but there was no audience at the match, nor was there a television broadcast, so I wondered how I was supposed to watch it now," recalls Minić, whose task was to scout opponents, looking for their flaws and virtues.
"And that's how I ended up on the OKK Belgrade coaching staff, I watched with them," he adds with a smile.
Bulgaria was defeated 93:87, with 16 points from Saša Obradović.
The BiH national team did not appear in the next match, which was registered 20:0, so that Estonia and Turkey were defeated somewhat more easily.
The visa for Athens has been secured.
"We passed, even though it didn't seem like anything," says Paspalj.
"That's how it is when you pick up guys from the beach "No matter how talented you are, with a team that has been playing together for a long time, that team was not used to a lack of preparation."
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Athens
Yugoslavia came first in Group A in Athens, with six victories - over Greece, Lithuania, Italy, Sweden, Israel and Germany.
"We started off pretty shakily, with many weaknesses and flaws that didn't even exist in the preparation period of any competition we had played in until then," says Paspalj.
"But from game to game we improved our form, with an abnormal desire and motivation that played a crucial role in the whole story."
The elimination round followed.
In the quarterfinals, France was convincingly defeated (106:84), followed by a much tougher match against Greece (60:52) in the semifinals, in front of around 20.000 home fans.
And then the final against Lithuania, which had previously defeated Croatia.
"The Lithuanians had one of the best teams in history at the time - Štombergas, Šiškauskas, Karnišovas, Sabonis, and then Marčuljonis, who you couldn't 'catch with a lasso'," Minić lists.
And there are moves that have entered history and legend.
Midway through the second quarter, Danilović dunks over Sabonis - 20 centimeters taller and 40 kilograms heavier - one of the best centers in the world, who went to the NBA that year.
Danilović scored 23 points by the end of the match and was one of the most deserving of the triumph.
However, the main hero was Aleksandar Đorđević, who, with nine three-pointers out of 12 attempts and a total of 41 points, overwhelmed the Lithuanians' basket.
Young Dejan Bodiroga, then a debutant in the national team, added 12 points.
"In the most important match, we had a couple of individuals who played, I wouldn't say the match of a lifetime, but a match to remember for sure, like the great Đorđević," says Paspalj.
"The rest of us helped, wanting to push everything to the end, since we had already come this far."
The Lithuanians were not left in debt.
First of all, Marchionis, a former NBA player for Golden State, Seattle, Sacramento, and Denver, scored 32 points, along with Sabonis' 20.
Dissatisfied with the refereeing, especially Sabonis' fifth foul, as well as a foul in the attack by Štombergas, the Lithuanians did not want to return to the court towards the end of the match.
Today also saw the legendary scenes of Đorđević approaching captain Marčuljonis and convincing him to get the team back on the court.
"Sale made peace with them, I don't know how he tricked them," says Minić with a smile.
They came back and lost.
Even the giant Sabonis ended up in tears, as you could see in the broadcast.
The following became European Champions: Dejan Bodiroga, Predrag Danilović, Saša Obradović, Zoran Sretenović, Žarko Paspalj, Miroslav Berić, Aleksandar Đorđević, Željko Rebrača, Vlade Divac, Zoran Savić, Dejan Tomašević and Dejan Koturović.
The coach was Dušan Ivković, with assistant Željko Obradović, who would go on to become one of the greatest coaches in history and the current strategist of Partizan Belgrade.
Marčuljonis was named player of the tournament.
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The Croatian national team, who defeated Greece in the third-place match, during the medal ceremony they left the podium before the anthems were sung.
"Before the medal ceremony, we agreed to do it, and the Lithuanians said they would do the same."
"A third of Croatia was occupied at the time. We met Yugoslavia for the first time, they came there, they were called Yugoslavia, and they had four letters 'S' on their jerseys, that was a symbol of something else for us at the time," he apologized Decades later, Veljko Mršić, then a Croatian national team player, is now a coach.
"It was unusual - it was the first time the former teammates met in a competition," says Minić.
The national teams of Yugoslavia and Croatia socialized during the tournament, but not publicly, he adds.
"Paspalj, Kukoč and Divac were always the biggest s***-ers, they were always some kind of joke."
"But on the day of the medal ceremony, all the Croatian national team members kept their heads down, they already knew what was going to happen."
"We are not."
Balcony
"Once again, I invite all basketball fans to come to Surčin Airport tomorrow from 19 pm to wait for these golden boys," said commentator Slobodan Šarenac towards the end of the final broadcast.
And people came.
There were them at the airport, along the highway to the center of Belgrade, as well as in the city center itself, which was crowded that day.
Tens of thousands.
At one point, the basketball players spontaneously went out onto the balcony of the Old Palace, which thus became Balcony.
A tradition was established of welcoming athletes under that balcony, which still lives on today.
"Until that reception, we were not aware of what we had done."
"That evening we experienced something we had never experienced before."
"After everything that happened in Yugoslavia, the hopelessness and loss of hope, the people believed that maybe it was all coming to an end and that one day we would become a normal country," says Paspalj.
The balcony has become synonymous with sporting success, as has the basketball team.
Trophy-winning years followed - silver at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, gold at the 1998 and 2002 World Championships, and the most notable medals were won at the 1997 and 2001 European Championships, along with bronze in 1999.
"That Athens, because of everything that happened before it, was not the best that the national team could offer," says Paspalj.
"Atlanta and everything that happened afterwards are an indication of the power of that team, when it is ready to welcome the competition - the continuation in that sense was easily predictable."
The chants for Paspalj after the final and during the welcome ceremony were also memorable.
Just before the European Championship, he moved from Olympiacos Athens to the camp of his biggest rival Panathinaikos, which caused a lot of tension in Greece.
That's why Greek fans chanted at him both then and during the European Championship that he would never win another trophy.
After winning the gold, the now famous phrase followed: "Now you've won the trophy, Paspalje."
Do they still sing that to him?
"Of course, of course... And you can't say you don't like it," says Paspalj.
All of this is today deeply etched in the memories of basketball fans in this region.
And dunking - i that the look that followed - and 41 points.
And the sight of 12 basketball players in white jerseys on the podium, with flowers in their hands and medals around their necks.
And smiling and hugging Duda Ivković and Željko Obradović in striped shirts.
And especially the guy in the blue and white kit, known by the nickname Palja, with the cup in his hands.
Jer he took the trophy.
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