We had a special visit to our high school boys’ basketball practice. Former NBA All-Star Vlade Divac stopped by to help the student athletes with aspects of their game. He talked about doing the little things right, like crisp passing, wide elbows on rebounds, boxing out, have a repetitive free throw ritual, etc. The students were truly inspired.
At the end of practice he had a little fun with us. In the video above, he is telling a story of a trip to China. He demonstrates the one-handed, back-to-the-basket, half court shot. All net in one attempt. Truly amazing. He also laid down at half court and made the basket from the floor in three attempts.
I can see why he is a basketball legend. Great size combined with attention to detail, athleticism, and lots of hard work. Thanks to Mik J. for the video above. The start shows his hand as he was taking his camera out of the bag. Vlade appears shortly after the start.
I am enjoying watching the Aussie Open in the early mornings. Tennis is one of the things that Nadia and I share a passion for. With her 10 years younger than me and a good athlete, we can play together and it gives me a workout. It is an activity that we can do together. With the birth of Ocean (child number three) our tennis playing has been cut drastically, but now with Ocean able to walk, we will be looking to play more, especially as the weather improves.
Can Novak Defend his Aussie Open Title?
Sunday January 25 Update: #1 seed Jelena Jankovic lost to Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli the #16 seed. The only interest I have left in the women’s draw is Jelena Dokic. She is a fascinating story. Her family is Serbian and they fled Croatia during the war of the break up of Yugoslavia in the 1990’s. They first went to Serbia and eventually ended up settling in Australia. She became a top tennis player (peaked at #4 in the world) and renounced Australia to play for Serbia. Her father/coach was strange and battling alcohol problems and her career fizzled out. She is back now, and playing for Australia, sans father. She is making a comeback and defeated two seeded players to get into the third round. The only other names I recognize are Serena Williams and Marat Safin’s sister.
The men’s side is much more interesting for me. Andy Roddick just defeated Spaniard Tommy Robredo and will play the winner of the Baghdatis – Djokovic match. James Blake plays against Muhammed Ali look-alike Tsonga. An intriguing match! Federer is in the fifth set against Tomas Berdych. I also like Monfils, the wild hitting Frenchman.
The Australian Open is the first Grand Slam of the long tennis season. Our favorite player is Lleyton Hewitt because when we lived in Perth (2000-2001) he was number one in the world. I also fashion my game after his – run after every ball, never give up, fist pump, weak serve and no killer winner shot, etc.
Serbia is a tennis power with 2 of the big three still alive in the singles draws. Novak “Nole” Djokovic won his matches in the first three rounds quite easily, only dropping one set. He now has an interesting match against Cypriot Marco Bagdhatis. My other country I am following, the USA, both Roddick and Blake (won first two sets) made it to the fourth round. I don’t have much hope for those guys to win it however, becasue they often lose in the big matches. I feel that however, that Blake could break through and win a grand slam.
On the women’s side, the number one seed, Jelena Jankovic is through to the third round. Ana Ivanovic was knocked out in the second round.
Tuesday night we attended the Red Star basketball game. You may have heard of Red Star’s soccer team. The professional clubs in Serbia as in Europe have teams in many sports. They also have the different levels, beginning with a youth team, moving through to the “A” professional team.
As I explained in a previous post, one of the leagues Red Star participates in is the Adriatic Basketball League, sponsored by the NBL bank. The Round 14 game was against FMP Belgrade. They are from the Belgrade suburb of Zelenik. Red Star is tied for second place in the league with a record of 11 wins and 2 losses. Partizan is in first place and fellow Serbian team, Hemofarm STADA is tied with them. FMP is in 8th place (out of 14) with a 5 and 8 record.
Most of the players on both teams were Serbian. The Serbs are a tall people and this was reflected in the rosters, as there were two 7 footers and many big men around that height. It was a high quality of play, although the players were not quite as athletic as the USA professionals. It was an evenly matched game as the Red Star’s lead fluctuated from 4 to 10 points most of the game.
The difference were the two American players on Red Star. Andre Owens from Indiana University and Lawrence Roberts from Mississippi State, and the Memphis Grizzlies gave Red Star and extra boost when they needed it. You can see Roberts behind Owen. My sister-in-law erased most of my photos and video I took so I don’t have a video post.
Sebey, Owen, and Papa Enjoy the Red Star Victory
The arena is called Pionir Hall and seats 7,000 people. It is located near the center of the city and it was quite easy to find with our GPS. It was in good condition and we bought the best tickets for $20 each. Best thing is kids are free!!! We were a few rows up at mid court. It was mostly filled and the fans were enthusiastic and polite. Overall it was a great experience and we hope to go again. Red Star proved too much in the end and won their 12th game.
Owen and Sebey enjoyed the game. They loved the cheerleaders performing during time outs and the scoreboard. Owen learned what the 24 second shot clock was and how to keep score. I hope both the boys will play basketball as I did when I was younger. I need to put up hoops somewhere outside and inside the house.
We attended the game with Alejandra and Brad and it was an entertaining evening.
Where he came from, of course, is Iron Mountain, Mich., in the state’s Upper Peninsula. Where the men are men, and the women are, too, as Izzo likes to say.
It’s hard to come out of the snowbound, sparsely populated UP with either a soft streak or a sense of entitlement. Izzo has neither.
What he does have is an abiding loyalty to the place. Every season, he invites a busload of locals — Yoopers, as they’re affectionately known — to a Michigan State home game, providing them with tickets and even entertaining them at his house. The trip is so popular that there’s a waiting list to get on the bus. (Either that, or there’s just that many people dying to visit civilization for a couple of days.)
Sportswriter Pat Forde wrote a nice article on the ESPN.com website about MSU basketball coach Tom Izzo (below). He is from the same part of Michigan as I am. He is shown below dressed as a hippie on the first night of the practices. It was open to the public and the evening was the anniversary of MSU’s 1979 national championship, hence the 70’s theme. If you recall, that team was lead by Magic Johnson. I can still remember the starting lineup, Terry Donnelly, Ron Charles, Greg Kelser, and Jay Vincent. Amazing how Magic could make his teammates so much better. That is a sign of a great basketball player. Izzo has been the coach at MSU for the past 13 seasons and also won a national championship. You can learn more about him from his recruiting website.
Iron Mountain native and current Michigan State University basketball coach Tom Izzo
The Adriatic Basketball League (NBL is a bank that is the league sponsor) is a regional league consisting of 14 teams from the countries of the ex-Yugoslavia. After the bitterness and violence of the seccesionist wars of the 1990’s, it is surprising this league exists. I guess it must be a testament to the power of sports to transcend these things.
All of the countries have their own regular professional leagues, and the NBL is a “Champions League” type of format. The 14 teams play each other home and away for a 28 game regular season. Serbia has 5 of the 14 teams. The two big sport clubs in Belgrade, Red Star and Partizan are represented along with FMP from the Belgrade suburb of Zelenik, Hemofarm, from the city of Vrsac near the Romanian border, and Vojvodina “Serbia Gas” from Serbia’s second city of Novi Sad. Croatia has four teams, Slovenia three teams, and one each from Bosnia and Montenegro.
The league started in the 2001-2002 season and the number of teams has varied through the seven seasons. For one season, Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv was a member of the league. The champion of the first season was a team from Slovenia, and the second year was the Croatian team Zadar. The last 5 seasons, Serbian teams were crowned champions. Zelenik won twice, Hemofarm once, and the past two seasons the champion was Partizan, who also won the Serbian Soccer League last year.
This year they have played six games each and once again, Partizan is atop the league at 6-0. Red Star is second with a 5-1 record. The league starts in October and ends in April. Red Star American players are Andre Owens, the 6-4 guard from Indiana University played to brief seasons in the NBA and Lawrence Roberts, ex-Mississippi State star and Memphis Grizzly player. The 6-9 power forward played the last two seasons in the Greek league and is new to Red Star. Partizan features ex-UMass star Stephane Lasme, who played briefly with the Miami Heat.
I haven’t been to a game yet, but plan to. The league website is quite good.
Sunday Oliver and I attended the “Eternal Derby” in Belgrade. The derby is the game between the two biggest teams in the Serbian Professional Soccer League, Red Star and Partizan. The game was held in the Red Star Stadium (Crvena zveda in Serbian) in front of over 20,000 spectators.
Both teams are known for their fanatical hooligans, and I was a bit tentative from attending the game. But the father of one of my students kindly purchased tickets in the VIP section of the stadium for us which was safe. The father happened to be former NBA basketball star Vlade Divac. He hand delivered them to me on the morning of the game. You can see him behind Oliver’s head in the background of the photo above. He is known for his kindness and humanitarian service and it is true. It was a very nice gesture and I want to give him a huge thank you! Please donate to Humanitarian Organization Divac. Vlade is a big star still here in Serbia. I guess the equivalent of this in the US would be Magic Johnson giving us tickets for a Laker-Celtic game. Very cool!
The stadium had an amazing atmosphere! The fans of Partizan especially sang, had banners, fireworks, etc and were on their feet the entire game. We went to the game with my colleague, Luiz, a science teacher in the secondary school. He is from Brazil and used to this kind of rabid fans, but even he was impressed.
The Partizan Fans Celebrate A Goal
Partizan won this 134th edition of the derby, 2-0. There were many goal opportunities for both teams and the action was non-stop. This is Partizan’s sixth straight win in six rounds of the league and they are in first place. Red Star is in eigth place out of twelve teams, with 2 wins, 2 ties, and 3 losses.
Red Star is the biggest and most popular team in Serbia. They were formed in 1945 shortly after Tito took over, hence the communist red star symbol. They won the forerunner of the European Champions League in 1991, the only former Yugoslavian team to do so. Since the breakup of Yugoslavia, they have fallen on hard times, as most of the top Serbian players go for the higher salaries of other European leagues. Oliver is a big fan of Red Star and so am I.
Partizan is more of a working class team and the second most popular team in Serbia. They were also … (time to go to school, I’ll finish this post later.)
Serbia is participating in the qualifying rounds for the 2009 European Basketball Championship. The tourney takes place a year from now in September of 2009 and it is hosted by Poland. Sixteen teams will participate in the championships, with half the teams already set. The host Poland plus the seven teams who qualified via the Olympic qualifying matches. 17 other teams are competing for the final 8 spots, one of which is Serbia. They are in Group A and they have have a record of 5-1 in their first six games. They play Wednesday against Finland here in Belgrade. That is their only loss, so they will be looking for revenge. The Serbs finish up their schedule against Bulgaria which will probably be the deciding match for supremacy of the group and direct passage to Poland and the European Championships next year.
Serbia’s top player in the qualifying is Nenad Krstic who is averaging 13 points and 5 boards a game. The 7 footer played for several seasons with the New Jersey Nets and now plays in the Russia. Hopefully I will be able to go to the game Wednesday.
Krstic goes for two against Bulgaria earlier this month.
Serbia’s brightest moment came in the 100 meter butterfly event. Milorad Cavic (pronounced Chavich) in Serb is shown above nearing the wall in the finals. He was beaten by Michael Phelps by .01 second. It looked like he reached first but was gliding as he neared the wall while Phelps was coming forward with his arm. In my opinion, it was just a lucky break for Phelps and the race could have gone to either swimmer. It was the closest scare, besides the relay event that Phelps had in reaching his goal of 8 gold medals. It is also funny that Cavic has a name very similar to Nadia’s maiden name! Milorad set the Olympic record in a previous heat that still stands in the event. He received a hero’s welcome here in Belgrade with thousands coming to a rally in his honor upon arrival from China.
It was a bit sad to see Novak Djokovich lose to Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. He did come back and win the bronze medal in the consolation match against Blake. He was the second best tennis player in the games and deserved a silver medal, but was seeded in Nadal’s bracket. We watched his exciting quarterfinal match against Frenchman Monfils in the shopping mall here in Belgrade. Everyone went crazy when he won. I could tell that Novak wanted to win the medal very badly.
The third and last medal was won by the men’s water polo team. Serbia defeated neighbor and best friend Montenegro to win the bronze medal. Last Olympics, those two countries were together and I wonder how they would have done competing together. Serbia’s three medals were its first medals as an solo independent nation. With only 6.5 million people, three medals is pretty good. That is a ratio of just over 2 million people per medal. Compare that to the USA’s 2.7 million people per medal and it is slightly better. I wonder how the former Yugoslavia would have done together in this olympics? I also enjoyed listening to the Serbian Olympic Theme, Srbija Navija! or Serbia Cheers! Thanks Sanja I. for sending it to me.
I really enjoyed watching them but am glad they are over as it dragged on a bit with so many obscure and unwatchable sports. I think the Olympics could get rid of many sports like synchronized swimming and diving, equestrian, shooting, table tennis, judo, etc.
We are crazy for the Olympics here in the Kralovec family. Yesterday’s 4 x 100m relay swimming race had us on the edge of our seats. We hope Phelps reaches his quest for 8 golds. We also enjoyed the dunkfest of the USA Redeem Team against China in basketball. They will have tougher competition upcoming.
Serbia’s quest for their first medal as an independent nation has had it’s ups and downs. Their best hope is in tennis, but it suffered a set back yesterday when nagging injuries kept Ana Ivanovic out of the draw. The three other Serbs, Novak Djokovic, Janko Tipsarevic, and Jelena Jankovic all won their first round matches and now are into the round of 32. Janko upset seeded David Ferrer of Spain. Novak has Raphael Nadal on his half of the draw, while Janko has Roger Federer on his side. Both should move on to the round of 16. Jelena is the number two seed, but has Venus Williams and Marat Safin’s sister on her half of the draw.
Ana drops out of the women's singles tennis draw.
In water polo, the Serbian men defeated Germany in the first round and are scheduled to face arch rival Croatia today. The Serbian men’s soccer team looked outclassed against the Ivory Coast on Sunday in a 1-3 defeat. Their final group match against Argentina is a must win situation. Argentina has already qualified to the quarterfinals and might play with substitutes. The Serb men have one point from a first round draw with Australia. They need a decisive win against Argentina tomorrow and an Ivory Coast close loss.
The Serbian Women’s Volleyball team has two wins against two lesser opponents and plays powerhouse Brazil tomorrow which will be a good test. The men’s volleyball team is trying to bounce back against Brazil today after a narrow defeat to Russia in round one.
Ana Ivanovic is shown above during last night’s Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games. I love the Olympics and the whole family is following it, especially the teams of our countries. We are especially focusing on Serbia this year, and Ana, Jelena, and Novak are some of the favorites to win medals for Serbia this year.
It is a historic year for Serbia in the Olympics. It is the first time since 1912 that they have competed as Serbia. Since that time, they have either been a part of Yugoslavia or with Montenegro. They have 92 athletes participating in 11 sports. They did not win any medals in those Stockholm games of 1912, so this could be the first medal for Serbia in history!
Other medal hopes for Serbia are in the team sports. The water polo team recently won the World League championship in Germany. The men’s volleyball team placed second in the World League warm up tourney in Brazil last month. Serbia also has men’s soccer and handball teams.
I’ll hopefully have time to post a follow up during the games on Serbia’s medal tally.
Bill's Blog 
