Wednesday, February 22, 2023

"The Balkans Boom"

 












The Ringer - "The Balkans Boom"
By Jordan Ritter Conn

"But the NBA’s Balkan boom spreads well beyond a few guys named Nikola. There’s Dragic, Nurkic, Saric, Marjanovic, multiple Bogdanovices, and many more. Players from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro dot rosters all across the NBA. In all, 14 of the league’s 450 current players are from the former Yugoslavia. And the two most famous, of course, are Jokic and Luka Doncic—the Slovenian who seems all but certain to someday follow in Jokic’s footsteps as the next Balkaner to win NBA MVP.

These are small countries. If you combine the populations of the former Yugoslavian nations, they’re still smaller than the state of Florida. Yet it seems like you can’t watch an NBA game without seeing at least one player whose last name ends with “-ic.”

Which is the reason I’m here. To find out why."












The Athletic - "‘It was a crazy night’: How the Balkan Boys bonded in the NBA bubble"
By Jovan Buha

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