Balkan Basketball Players

[DarkSide576]

Vedran Vukusic is involved with the Croatia Basketball Association. The Balkans produce some of the finest basketball players in the world. Does anyone know if CCC and VV communicate regarding potential recruits for NU?
PS-Summer vacation in Croatia was like a fairytale. I highly recommend it. A+

 

[mickbula]

Vedran Vukusic is involved with the Croatia Basketball Association. The Balkans produce some of the finest basketball players in the world. Does anyone know if CCC and VV communicate regarding potential recruits for NU?
PS-Summer vacation in Croatia was like a fairytale. I highly recommend it. A+

ds576...did you stay in dubrovnik?? Do you remember where exactly you stayed?? I spent part of my summer of 86 there. Back when it was yugoslavia. Some of the best memories of my life there on the beach at cafes...drinking powerful slavic beers and meeting beautiful women from all over europe there- even pretty russian and other soviet states young ladies. Beaches are nice as greece imo. The athletic croatians played basketball outside near where I stayed at a hostel. I didn't even attempt to join the games. They were really tall fast and good players. vv was one of my all time favorite nu players. One bright spot on carmody's teams.

 

[DarkSide576]

The only place we did not go was Dubrovnik. We started in Rovinj. From Rovinj, day tripped to Pula and Motovan. Next Plitvice Lakes (unreal, beautiful). Next up Zadar and the islands (mostly unnamed-incredible snorkeling). Then onto Split and Hvar. I cannot wait to head back. Driving from Rovinj to Plitvice, stopped in a town called Opatijia. It is now my obsession to retire there.
To your point, the women are beautiful (married with kids, so only looking), food was great (fresh fish on a grill is never bad), great cafe scene, incredible history from the Romans on up. Beaches are gorgeous. The only two bad things in the whole country, from what we found, the bread is meh (for the most part) and the background music in restaurants and hotels was like eastern bloc Muzak. The only good soundtrack was in a jewelry store in Hvar. They laughed when we told them this.

 

[EagerFan]

I remember driving thru northern Croatia on my way to Slavonski Brod back in ‘96. Beautiful landscapes and people, but the communities were in pretty rough shape.

I’ve never been to the Dalmatian coast tho, I hear it’s amazing.

 

[DarkSide576]

If you have the chance to go to the coast, do it!! Frankly, the whole country is amazing. I am not the best travelled person, however, I am starting to catch up. Croatia is truly the one place that I want to go back to and not go to the back of the line. Portugal and Morocco this year.

 

[SmellyCat]

PS-Summer vacation in Croatia was like a fairytale. I highly recommend it. A+

If this is an In Bruges reference, kudos. If not, you still make Croatia sound great!

 

[GatoLouco]

Croatia kind of told Bosnia "screw you, the entire waterfront is ours"

 

[Hungry Jack]

Croatia kind of told Bosnia "screw you, the entire waterfront is ours"

Croatia is rooted in the Roman Empire, and thus its coastal footprint spans the Adriatic. Later, when Byzantium fell to the Ottoman Turks, it turned to the Catholic Hapsburg empire and alignment with Austria Hungary, which anchored it to Central Europe.

Croatia remains strongly Catholic, as opposed to Bosnia (Muslim and Catholic split) and Serbia (orthodox). The rugged mountains of the region also make the coast a natural way to link communities. The mountains of the Balkans have isolated these tribal peoples for centuries. The tribal hatreds never really dissipated under Communism. Just got bottled up for a few decades.

Robert Kaplan wrote an enthralling history of Balkan peoples and conflict with his Balkan Ghosts. I highly recommend it. Also Rebecca Dame West in the 1920s traveled the region extensively (alone) and gave us The Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. The title gives some indication of her view of the region.

 

[DarkSide576]

Like many places, in Europe, I found it amazing, that you could have lived in the same house, all of your life, and been in several different nations-Austria Hungary, Italy, Yugoslavia, Croatia (I likely have messed up the order).
The people of Croatia are war weary after the Balkan conflicts. They just want to live their lives and chill. Many Croats told me that at home, they are anti Serbian. However, in the diaspora, the Serbs are their brothers and sisters.

 

[Hungry Jack]

Not really Balkan, but the most beautiful unknown country in the world may be Slovenia. Pogacar, the great young cyclist, has raised its profile a bit, but I’m surprised you don’t hear more about it.

 

[DarkSide576]

You drive through Slovenia, from Venice, to reach Croatia, The road quality and the speed limit changed for the worse at that border. Did not see much of Slovenia. The Croats would tell Slovenian jokes as their ethnic jokes.

 

[GatoLouco]

On the topic of recruiting Balkan, other Euro, or players from elsewhere...

The European player development landscape can be traced to a huge change to the early years of the century: the rise of the soccer "Academies".

Soccer is king, it's big money. Clubs always had youth systems, usually with teams and competitions for all age groups. Truly getting serious, with more full blown national championships at the ages of 12-14. Teams were mostly kids who came to practice and went home. With a few players from out of town who had other living accommodations usually in budget hostels.

The landscape changed when clubs started building compounds they called academies. They have multiple fields, sometimes over 10. They serve as the professional teams training grounds. But they are also an investment in the development of the young players. They are often 100% professionally staffed: nutritionists, psychologists, coaches, etc. And the youth players, to varying degrees, live there. Some 100% of the time, some, according to perceived needs, are more hybrid. They are bused to school, they are fed, etc.

Ajax (Amsterdam) was an early case of success and the money they have earned selling players developed in their system is staggering. If you feel curious, read this article about one of the most successful academies in the world.

Inside Benfica’s talent factory: 'We want our kids to win a Ballon d'Or'

From pitchside psychologists to dance sessions, we go behind the scenes at Portugal's most productive academy to see how superstars are made

theathletic.com

So how does this relate to college basketball? This system has been adapted to the basketball world where there is more money involved: Spain. Today the Spanish league stands out from others in the money involved. Other leagues like Greece, Russia, Turkey or Italy have very good teams, but have been surpassed by Spain.

The main Spanish clubs have now full blow operations to scout talent all over the world but, of course, being geographically closer Europe. They have academies with kids from all over, as young as 12-14. Barcelona, Real Madrid of Joventut are known for that. Others, I am not knowledgeable enough to go there.

The kids are being snatched by these systems at a very young age.

Check out this kid - Real Madrid or Barcelona has some other kid, who is 16 or 17 and 7 feet tall also discovered in Africa:

Meet the 6ft9 13-year-old dubbed world's 'most dominant basketball player'

MAHAMADOU Landoure is still 13, but he’s already made a case for being “the most dominant basketball player” on Earth. The 6’9” center sent shockwaves across the sport…

www.the-sun.com

 

[Hkjb]

You drive through Slovenia, from Venice, to reach Croatia, The road quality and the speed limit changed for the worse at that border. Did not see much of Slovenia. The Croats would tell Slovenian jokes as their ethnic jokes.

Vice versa, as they would say in Venice. The Slovenians tell their share of jokes about the Croats as well....though Serbians get the brunt of both . Slovenia and Croatia are beautiful places - have not been to Serbia.

 

[Hkjb]

ds576...did you stay in dubrovnik?? Do you remember where exactly you stayed?? I spent part of my summer of 86 there. Back when it was yugoslavia. Some of the best memories of my life there on the beach at cafes...drinking powerful slavic beers and meeting beautiful women from all over europe there- even pretty russian and other soviet states young ladies. Beaches are nice as greece imo. The athletic croatians played basketball outside near where I stayed at a hostel. I didn't even attempt to join the games. They were really tall fast and good players. vv was one of my all time favorite nu players. One bright spot on carmody's teams.

I spent summer of 87 in Poland, with a lot of Yugoslavian students from Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Serbia. A different era - we were fortunate to get a glimpse of it before the curtain fell.