Research Project: Gavrilo Princip's Legacy (posted by Jane)

 

On the 28th of June 1914, Gavrilo Princip went down in history as the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. This essay is about how Gavrilo Principe's legacy has changed over the past 110 years. During Communist Yugoslavia, he was viewed as fighting the bourgeois capitalist elite. Currently, Serbian nationalists have claimed that Gavrilo Princip was a symbol for Serbian independence. However, if we look at the facts, we see that he was actually fighting for the unity of all southern Slavs, but he isn't remembered this way today.

From the 1940s to '80s, one of the prevailing views of Princip was that he was fighting for communism and against the Austro-Hungarian capitalists. Gavrilo Princip was born into a Bosnian Serb peasant family and was one of nine children, only three of which survived. During his trial, Princip said, "I am the son of a peasant; I know how people live in the villages, and that is why I wanted revenge." At the end of World War II, the Partizans, a communist guerrilla group who fought the Nazis, took over Yugoslavia. The communist ideology is based on the fact that a revolution of the proletariat against the bourgeois is inevitable, and that after said revolution the new proletarian dictatorship will have control of the means of production, and distribute wealth equally. Therefore, communists would use Princip to promote their ideology of fighting against bourgeoisie capitalists. Tito's regime erected a plaque in the 1960s in Sarajevo that stated, “From this place, 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip with his shooting expressed the people’s protest against tyranny and centuries long aspiration of our people for freedom”. The plaque states "the people" which is referring to the masses, or the proletariat. This shows a sense of unity against the bourgeoisie who in this case was the Austro-Hungarian elite. The plaque is a form of propaganda to unite communist Yugoslavia against capitalist countries. We further see the promotion of Princip as a socialist in an article in the New York Times in 1964, on the 50 year anniversary of the assasination. The article describes how at a commemoration event the speakers made sure to link Gavrilo Princip and his fellow assassins to the “working class” and as “Socialists”. In the '80s and '90s though communism collapsed and the countries in former Yugoslavia were ready for a fresh start. When interviewing our guide, Adis, class conflict did not come up. The idea of Gavrilo Princip starting a proletariat revolution is less common due to the transition to a capitalist society and government.

Recently, Serbian nationalists have been vocal in their beliefs that Gavrilo Princip was a freedom fighter and a martyr for freeing Serbs in Bosnia. However, this is not a new idea. The Serbian monarch, Peter II, who ruled Yugoslavia from the end of World War I  to the start of World War II, put up a plaque honoring Gavrilo Princip for declaring "freedom" from the Austro-Hungarians. The plaque also states that Princip died like the martyrs on Vidov Dan, a Serbian holiday celebrating the martyrs at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 – the assaasination actually took place on the anniversary. This battle is an important part of Serbia's national and ethnic identity. Linking Princip to the Battle of Kosovo is like saying Gavrilo Princip is now part of that national identity. We see resurgence of this view especially since Bosnia and Herzegovina is so divided due to the breakup of Yugoslavia and the creation of a smaller Serbian republic within the country. In 2014, on the Serb side of Sarajevo, there was an unveiling of a monument to Princip. During the ceremony there was a reenactment of the assasination. According to Wtopnews, when the performance was done, the crowd shouted "Shoot at Nato" and "Shoot at the EU". Princip's legacy has become one of resistance for the Serbs in Bosnia. They believe they are fighting a similar battle as Princip, but now they are fighting the West instead of Austro-Hungary. There was another statue unveiled to Gavrilo Princip, this time in Belgrade by the Serbian government. The Serbian President Tomislav Nikolik described Princip as a "freedom fighter and a hero". However, many Croats and Bosnians do not have this view believing that Princip only wanted Serbia to occupy Bosnia. While walking around Belgrade, we saw Gavrilo Princip's face on socks, t-shirts, and walls. This paraphernalia was not sponsored by the government; it was made by people of their own free will. We also visited the Belgrade park where Princip had shooting practice trained by the Black Hand.  In the park there was a life sized statue to Gavrilo Princip, put up by the Serbian government. So it is both the government and the general public in Serbia who view Princip as a hero. When I interviewed our guide in Belgrade, he agreed that Princip is regarded as a hero in Serbia, but he personally views him as somewhere in between hero and terrorist. Ultimately, the main view of Gavrilo Princip since the '90s is that he was a Serbian nationalist. However, many academics disagree with this view as we will learn in the next paragraph.

If you look at the facts from an objective view you will see he had many motives, but the main one being freedom for all southern Slavs. Our guide Anya, who grew up in Yugoslavia, claims that the government by the '80s was not emphasizing class conflict, instead emphasizing Princip being a freedom fighter for south Slavs. Our next tour guide, Adis, was a former teacher; he also believes that Gavrilo Princip was fighting for south slavs. Adis explained that most people don't do enough research on Princip and are misinformed on what he stood for. In the book Trigger by Tim Butcher states on page 267:

            What became clear from my research was that Princip was not predominantly committed to Serb             nationalism. His greater goal was freeing all south Slavs, not just ethnic Serbs like himself. Princip             supported what became known as Yugoslav ideal of driving the Austro-Hungarians back not just                 from Bosnia, but also from the areas to the north where other south slavs -the croats and the                     slovenes- were under the same occupation. His goal was liberation for all south Slavs.

So if these well informed people agree that Princip supported the idea of Yugoslavia, why is he a figurehead for Serbian nationalism? Well, people don't support the idea of Yugoslavia anymore. The majority of people are disillusioned with the idea of unity, due to the long bloody breakup of former Yugoslavia. There are no major groups trying to get south Slavs to unite. Princip's memory has been twisted to fit Serb ideology, and the general public has accepted this, because Serbian nationalists are the loudest voice.  

This project was interesting because I got to see how people have such different views on the same event. It is so fascinating how current events shape how we look at history. So how do we know if our view of historical events is true? A simple question can lead to very complicated conversations about the difference between history and memory. I think memory is a subjective way of viewing the past through our own experiences. Whereas, history is the study and interpretation of the facts through evidence. Unfortunately, history might be impossible to do because everybody has an ingrained bias.

Research Project: Balkan Food (posted by Annie)

 

Introduction

For my Balkan project, I decided to learn about the differences in Balkan food because I like cooking food, eating food, and trying new foods. How this all started was when I was bored in Moshi, and decided to look at my mom’s cookbook. I made peanut-butter cookies, and wanted to cook a lot more. When we were trying to figure out what we wanted to research in the Balkans, I was wondering what makes different dishes special in different Balkan countries. I focused on burek, a pastry with a savory filling inside, cevapi, a grilled meat cooked over hot coals, and moussaka, a casserole-type dish. To my surprise, I learnt that there aren't that many differences between the different Balkan countries' food. However, I learnt that by looking into the history behind the food, you learn about the subtle differences in the dishes.

Background

Did you know that it is rude for food to be left on a plate in the Balkans? That shows how much the Balkans care about food (Gostina). Before we get into further detail, you probably need to learn about the history behind the food in the Balkans. Meat and vegetables have always been part of the culture, for the Thracians had a long culture around meat, and the Slavs brought agriculture and vegetables. There are not so many spicy spices, because, according to Thomas Moore Devlin, the Balkans like to emphasize meat and vegetables (Delvin). The spices that they use are a lot of savory, a mix of spices like oregano, and paprika, ground up red pepper (Robert). The main vegetable bases are tomatoes and potatoes, which I find interesting, for potatoes only came to the Balkans in the 19th century, because of the Colombian exchange. The Ottomans also had a big influence on Balkan food. They brought red peppers, which is a key ingredient in all Balkan food (Gostina). They also were Muslim, which means that they did not eat pork. When they conquered the Balkans in the 14th and 15th centuries, they spread their religion around, so now in some countries like Bulgaria, they do not use pork as a big ingredient (Viking). 

Methodology 

To learn all of this information about Balkan food, I had to interview Robert from Bulgaria, who kindly organized a cooking class for us in his restaurant. I interviewed the baker from Pekara Stari Most, where we got burek in Mostar, and the cooking class in Mostar. I read and watched 21 articles and videos, and ate a LOT of food. I also made cevapi in Montenegro, moussaka in Bulgaria, and burek in Bosnia.

Section One: Moussaka 

The first dish that I studied was moussaka. Moussaka consists of potatoes, tomatoes, ground beef, paprika, and other ingredients. It is basically a casserole with a cheese topping. There are only subtle differences in different countries. In Turkey, it is not layered, and they use lamb. In Bulgaria, since they are mostly Eastern Orthodox, they use pork and beef. In Greece, they use eggplants. The Bulgarian version, the one I made, consists of eggs, cheese, potatoes, and sometimes spinach. In Romania, it is the national dish, sometimes they even put noodles in it (Cooks Without Borders). 

There are many different types of moussaka, originating from different cultures.  The Bulgarians have some origins from the Thracians, which are 55% of the “genetic landscape”, early Slavs, which are 40%, and Bulgars, which are 2.3% (Wikipedia). According to the Youtube channel, History with Dr. Tam, “the Bulgars originated from the Turkic nomadic warrior tribe that came from the Pontic-Caspian steppe, and arrived to the Volga and Danube during the 5th-7th century.” Britannica says that “the Bulgars were derived from a Turkic tribe of Central Asia (perhaps with Iranian elements)”. The main idea is that they are a mix of cultures. The southern Slavs come from modern-day Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus. They started attacking the Byzantines, and yet, the Byzantines still hired some Slavs as mercenaries. The Slavs started crossing the Danube at the same time as the Bulgars, the 5th to 7th century. At this time, they also even attacked Constantinople! They intermarried with Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, and others. They went from being tribes to being kingdoms. That shows us the background of moussaka. 

The Greeks are way older than the Bulgars, and they have the most differences in their moussaka. The Greek language originated from 34 centuries ago, so roughly in 1400 BCE. The earliest form of Greek was Mycenaean Greek. The reason why the Greek version has eggplant is because in Greece, it is warm weather, and that is the climate that eggplants grow in. The reason why this all connects to language is because when you read a recipe, you read it in your own language, so it also comes with some nationalism. According to John Shea, the Greeks see themselves as "homogeneous", unlike the Bulgarians. In 1920, Greek Nicholas Tselementes, wrote a cookbook about Greek food, and made moussaka based on a French recipe. The way he made it is usually the way we make it now, so that shows how diverse the food is (One Dish Closer to Perfection). This shows us that even though moussaka has subtle differences, it intertwines with bigger issues of nationalism. 

Nicholas Tselementes

Section Two: Burek

One of the most famous Balkan dishes is burek. Burek is a round pastry with many different fillings, but the most common ones are either cheese, spinach, meat with onions, or sometimes even pumpkin. According to Srdjan Garcevic, an author of the article I read, burek comes from all over, and each Balkan country thinks it's their own (Garcevic). Serbian burek has pork, while in Bosnia and Herzegovina, they don’t use pork, for they are mostly Muslim. Burek can either be eaten hot or cold, but I prefer it hot. When I first tasted burek in Niš, Seria, I thought it tasted very flakey and delicious, and couldn't eat enough of it! In the cooking class in Mostar, the teacher said that since they don’t use pork, it does not stick together as well, so they use a rolling pin. To make the pastry really thin and flakey, you had to flip it on the rolling pin. I flipped mine too slowly, so it fell on the ground! In Bosnia and Herzegovina, they say that the word burek only refers to meat, while other fillings are called pie. The teacher at the cooking class in Mostar also said that to get permission to marry, the wife had to cook burek in front of her mother-in-law, to see if she was eligible (Mostar cooking class).

Burek has a lot to do with the Ottomans.The name burek comes from the Turkish word bur, which means "to twist" or "bend". This refers to the method of turning the dough into a circle (Garcevic). In 1385, the Ottomans conquered Niš, in modern-day Serbia. According to Garcevic, in 1498 in Niš, the first modern version of burek was made. Bosnia managed to hold off the Ottomans until the Battle of Kljuc, in 1463. The Ottomans brought Muslim people to Bosnia, to spread Islam. People also converted for economic reasons, for you had a higher status if you were Muslim. That is how Bosnia became mostly Muslim (Viking). This shows how eating burek goes back to the Ottomans and their influence on Balkan religions. When I ate burek in Niš, Serbia, it was pork, while in Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina, it was beef.

Section Three: Cevapi

In my opinion, cevapi is one of the best Balkan dishes. It contains grilled meat shaped into four fingers in length, and put into bread with raw onions. The best way to cook it is over coals, a video said (DW Food). When we were in Mostar, my dad made my sisters and I eat at a cevapi restaurant. It was a crowded space, filled to the rim with tables and chairs. We managed to get a table, right by the kitchen. We ordered a five piece cevapi dish, which came with bread and the raw onions. It tasted very smokey, which proves that they were using a grill. My dad and I made cevapi, but it was hard because the grill was hanging from above, so it would swing when someone touched it! As I said before, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, they only use beef. That is the main difference between the different countries cevapi. The other difference is just the names, for in Bosnia it is called ćevapi, in Bulgaria it is called kebapche, and in Serbia it is called chevapchichi (DW Food). According to one article, cevapi is becoming common street food in the U.S.A, that shows how popular it is becoming (Balkan Bakery)! Like burek, so many countries want cevapi to be their own, Bosnia and Herzegovina even tried to get protected status, which means that they want to say that cevapi only comes from Bosnia and Herzegovina (DW Food). 

Cevapi comes from the Ottoman “kebab”, which refers to the Persian word meaning “to cook meat over an open fire”, which pretty much sums up cevapi. When I ate at a cevapi restaurant in Mostar, the cook said that in Bosnia and Herzegovina, they have more in common with the Ottomans than the other Balkan countries, for they are mostly Muslim. This goes back to the breakup of former Yugoslavia. After WW1, and the breakup of Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman rule, Yugoslavia was made. It consisted of kingdoms and regions, with Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia (Feature History). The breakup of Yugoslavia ultimately happened because of the death of Tito, the communist leader of Yugoslavia, for he did not allow the cultural tensions to rise. The death coincided with the economy dropping, and the cultural tensions rising in some certain regions, such as Croatia and Slovenia (WonderWhy). The war in Bosnia happened because in 1992, the Bosnians voted for independence, but the Bosnian Serbs did not want independence, so they declared war. Soon after, the Croats joined. By 1995, the war had resulted in 100,000 civilians killed, and over 2,000,000 people were forced to move (Remembering Srebrenica).

Ultimately, the combining of cultures created amazing food, but left a tragic war that killed innocent civilians. In Mostar, the place where I ate cevapi, there are 41% to 45% of Muslims, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina it is 51%. That shows why the man at the cevapi restaurant said that they connected more with the Ottomans, for it is because he is Muslim, and his ancestors converted to Islam because of the Ottomans conquering Bosnia. 

Conclusion

For my conclusion, I made a three course meal. The appetizer was a mushroom soup, the main course was stuffed zucchinies, and the dessert was stuffed apples with lemon sauce. I learned from cooking that you get tired very easily. Time management is also very hard, because you have to plan out when the dishes are being made. Ironically, the Balkans do not have that many differences in their food, but have large political differences.

Works Cited

2nd Cevapi. Restaurant. 3 Mar. 2026.

Alina-Ioana Gostin, et al. Nutritional and Health Aspects of Food in the Balkans. 2026. London, Academic Press, 2021.

Babbel.com, et al. “Why Do Some Cultures Eat Spicy Foods and Others Don’t?” Babbel Magazine, 7 Sept. 2018, www.babbel.com/en/magazine/spicy-foods .

Balkan Bakery. “The Definitive Guide to Balkan Food (2025).” Balkan Bakery , 17 Sept. 2025, www.balkan-bakery.com/post/the-definitive-guide-to-balkan-food-2025 . Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.

Britannica Editors. “Bulgar | People | Britannica.” Www.britannica.com, www.britannica.com/topic/Bulgar.

BudgetTraveller. “Riding the White Horse: A Serbian Food Odyssey - BudgetTraveller %.” BudgetTraveller, 16 May 2021, budgettraveller.org/best-food-from-serbia/. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.

“Ćevapi - Serbian National Dish.” Www.youtube.com, 13 Mar. 2026, www.youtube.com/shorts/rndiCR_Aacs. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.

Cooking Class. Mostar. 13 Mar. 2026.

Costa, Luis. “The Origins of Greek: Language and History - Traductanet.” Traductanet, 24 Oct. 2024, traductanet.com/latest-news/the-origins-of-greek-language-and-history/.

DW Food. “How Different Types of Cevapcici Are Made in the Balkans.” YouTube, 10 Aug. 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVSc3TId3LE. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.

History with Dr. Tam. “History of Bulgars.” YouTube, 2 Feb. 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZKbuIC3NU8. Accessed 18 Mar. 2026.

Kings and Generals. “How Did Bosnia Become Muslim?” YouTube, 27 Feb. 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsO5Auo8sCM. Accessed 30 Apr. 2025.

Lydiac. “The Soul of the Balkans: A Taste of Tradition and Togetherness – Exploringthebalkans.com.” Exploringthebalkans.com, Aug. 2025, www.exploringthebalkans.com/2025/08/01/the-soul-of-the-balkans-a-taste-of-tradition-and-togetherness/. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.

mitrov_admin. “What Is Serbian Goulash and How to Make It?” Rakija Grill, 21 Oct. 2019, www.rakijagrill.com/blog/serbian-goulash-ingredients/. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.

Pekara Stari Most Bakery. Mostar. 13 Mar. 2026.

Robert, and Diyan. Farm Bites. 19 Feb. 2026.

Sanders, Laura. “Inside the Balkan Kitchen with Irina Janakievska.” Undiscovered Balkans -, 25 Nov. 2024, undiscoveredbalkans.com/the-balkan-kitchen-irina-janakievska-interview/. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.

Srdjan Garcevic. “Delicious Histories of Favourite Balkan Foods.” Balkan Insight, 31 Dec. 2018, balkaninsight.com/2018/12/31/delicious-histories-of-favourite-balkan-foods-12-23-2018/bi/all-balkan-countries/. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.

“Traditional Cuisine - Serbia.com.” Serbia.com, 23 May 2024, serbia.com/about-serbia/traditional-cuisine/. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.

Vix. “One Dish Closer - One Dish Closer - Moussaka; an Unexpected History.” Onedishcloser.com, 2021, www.onedishcloser.com/blog/2010/12/18/moussaka-an-unexpected-history.html.

Wiley. “Moussaka, a Spectacular Dish with a Curious History, Gets a (Long Overdue!) Makeover.” Cooks without Borders, 13 Dec. 2020, cookswithoutborders.com/new-story/2020/12/12/moussaka-magnificent-makeover. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.

Research Project: Basketball in the Balkans (posted by Eliza)

 

 INTRODUCTION / BACKROUND

        My favorite sport is basketball, and my second favorite hobby, besides reading, is playing basketball. So, when it became time to choose our projects for the Balkans, dad and I both immediately jumped to the idea of doing my research project on why people from the Balkans are so good at playing basketball. The former Yugoslavia is a bit smaller than the state of Florida when counting people, and there are between 14 to 20 NBA players from the west Balkans at any given time, and 18 from Florida (Ritter). The top two NBA players right now are both from the former Yugoslavia: Nikola Jokić of Serbia and Luka Dončić of Slovenia. There are also many others, such as Ivica Zubac of Croatia, Nikola Vučević of Montenegro, and Jusuf Nurkić of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Cornilles). I have decided that people from the former Yugoslavia are so good at basketball because of height, inat, and the most important factor is the tradition that produces role models.

METHODOLOGY

For my research project I read 9 articles or websites, mostly coming from places like The Ringer or NBA.com. I also watched 5 videos and 2 documentaries, plus, I interviewed five people: Coach Nina, Ivan the taxi driver, Coach Ivana, Coach Alen, and Ritim, our tour guide in Belgrade. I also went to the Korac Cup in Nis, Serbia, watched KK Pelister play in North Macedonia, and went to several historic sites in Belgrade. But the biggest thing I did was just participating in basketball practices and games in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sombor, Serbia, Bitola, Macedonia, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Belgrade, Serbia.e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e 

SECTION ONE

The first, and most obvious factor of why the former Yugoslavia is so good at basketball, is height. The former Yugoslavian countries are consistently ranked in the top 20 of height, with Montenegro being 2nd, Bosnia and Herzegovina 7th, Serbia 9th, Slovenia 11th, and Croatia 13th. The US is ranked 47th (Jacobs). And if they aren’t already tall enough, their height average is increasing by 1.7 centimeters every decade (Moore). Here is a quote by the journalist Liam Brooks that helps explain the origins of why the western Balkans are so tall: “The Slavic migrations into the western Balkans during the 6th and 7th centuries brought populations with northern European affinities. These groups exhibited taller statures compared to the Mediterranean population due to genetic variants associated with growth hormone regulation and skeletal development” (Brooks). The former Yugoslavia also has the highest percentage in the world, 70%, of a gene called I-M170 that can be traced back 22,000 years (Jacobs). Another reason for height is that in the western Balkans the diet mostly consisted of homemade cheese and river fish. Even now, there are still lots of small towns that focus on eating non processed food, which raises your vitamin level altogether (Brooks). My basketball coach in Mostar, Coach Ivana, said that genes definitely had a big role in why people from the western Balkans are so good at playing basketball. So I guess you could say that genes loaded the gun, but diet pulled the trigger. 

SECTION TWO

The second reason is a word you've probably never heard of. That word is inat. Inat translates to spite but it is much more than that. Inat is a mentality from of the centuries of war, the centuries of having to be tough. Heck, Belgrade was destroyed 44 times! Here is how some people from former Yugoslavia describe it. Miroslav Raduljica, a scout for Mega Basket: “Inat, it is like spite, but not like spite. It is a combination of all emotions, to fight your best against all odds” (Raduljica). Vlade Divac, a former Serbian NBA player, said: “Inat. It is in our DNA. It is when everybody is against you, and you want to prove them wrong” (Divac). Or as our tour guide in Belgrade said: "Inat is a feirce determination to win that comes from the Balkan countries being so small" (Ritim). When you look at anybody from the former Yugoslavia play, you can see that they play with spite. For instance, Nikola Jokic got mad at Jaylen Williams, and somehow Jokic’s brothers are even more scary. Jokic clip. Also, Bill Simons, a NBA broadcaster literally said that Luka Doncic has been playing with spite, but really, it's inat. Also, my dad says that inat makes a great IPA.

SECTION THREE e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e 

The third, and I think the main reason for the western Balkans being so good at basketball, is tradition. And what comes from tradition? Role Models do, and you can't get into the NBA without one, so I will be telling you about both. In 1923 an American worker from the Red Cross named William Willand introduced basketball to Yugoslavia (Gordan). There is a plaque that we went to in Belgrade commemerating where the first ever Yugoslavian basketball court was. William also later noted in his journal that the region was “ripe with power” (DNVR Sports). Partizan and Red Star, the two main basketball clubs, came in 1945, the same year Tito officially became head of the new government. When we were in Belgrade, we went to the two teams original basketball courts in the old fortress. Partizan and Red Star are still the two most competitive teams in the country, maybe even in the universe. Nikola Jokic played for Mega Basket, a newer team that focuses on developing young talent, until he went to the NBA. When we went to Nis, Serbia, we watched a game between Mega Basket and Partizan. Even though Jokic used to play for them, not even one person was cheering for Mega Basket. Ivan the cab driver said that was because Mega Basket was formed after the other teams and you cheered for Partizan because your father taught you to because your grandfather taught it to your father, and so on. The game had to be stopped because Partizan fans got too rowdy and were throwing things on the court. Someone even threw a firecracker at the ref's head. However, everybody was saying that it was nothing and it happened every game.

Tito encouraged basketball to unify the country, and as Anna Gordan says: “Socialist countries such as Yugoslavia would empower team sports as a way of promoting community. There was no better way to make people equal than by putting them in team sports” (Gordon). Yugoslavia also used communism to create something that was unheard of, and that thing was positionless basketball (Cornilles). Before Tito, everybody had strict positions, and sure you might say “People still have positions” but that is not entirely true. Nowadays if you are tall, you don't just get to be tall, you will also have to learn more ball-handling skills. Jokic is leading the NBA in both assists, something that guards normally do, and rebounds, something that centers normally do. When we went to Jokic’s hometown, Sombor, and asked the bartender what Jokic what like and how he got to be that good, he said that “Jokic has always played like that, it is how you play here, for sure" That is what William Willand talked about in his diary, that special talent that no other place has. We e 

For every generation there were around four western Balkan basketball players that everyone looked up to and admired. Coach Alen, the assistant coach at the basketball lessons in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, explained that firstly there were the founding fathers of basketball. Nebojša Popović, Radomir Šaper, Borislav Stankovic, and Aleksandar Nikolić. Then, the generation who looked up to them had a fantastic four of their own. Vlade Divac, Dino Rađa, Dražen Petrović, and Toni Kukoč (NeverEnoughBall.com). Then the next generation came along and that is… Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Ivica Zubac, Nikola Vučević, and Jusuf Nurkić! C c c c cc c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c cc  cc c c 

CONCLUSION

For my conclusion I went to the Dražen Petrović statue in Zagreb, Croatia. Dražen Petrović was a Croation basketball player in the 1990's, and he was a six-foot-five shooting guard on the Trail Blazers. Tragicly, he died in a car accident when he was 28 and in his prime. The fact that the Croation government built a statue to him and not some government official says a lot about how much people from the western Balkans love basketball. For them, basketball was like a shining light in the darkness of the Balkans.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Alen, My Assistant Coach.

Conn, Jordan Ritter . “The Balkans Boom.” Theringer.com, 21 Feb. 2023, www.theringer.com/2023/02/21/nba/nba-balkans-nikola-jokic-luka-doncic-mvp.

Cornilles, Austin. “The Lost Basketball Empire.” Readbutterflies.com, Butterflies, 9 Aug. 2024, www.readbutterflies.com/p/yugoslavia.

DNVR Sports. “Nikola Jokic & the History of Basketball in Serbia | DNVR Documentary.” YouTube, 23 Nov. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeTmrsVW8qE.

EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL. “Land of MVPs - EuroLeague Basketball Documentary.” YouTube, 13 May 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMDJsLc01Lg.

Gordon, Anna. “Nikola Jokić and the Phenom of “Positionless” Basketball.” Time, 1 June 2023, time.com/6284066/nba-finals-nikola-jokic-serbia/.

Ivan, The Cab Driver.

Ivana, My Second Basketball Coach.

Jacobs, Frank. “Step Aside, Dutch People. Montenegro Is the Tallest Nation on Earth.” Big Think, 2022, bigthink.com/strange-maps/not-dutch-montenegro-tallest-people/.

NBA. “A Powerhouse in the Heart of the Balkans 🇷🇸 | FULL EPISODE | Belgrade.” YouTube, 5 Sept. 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LCvOy7QHf8.

---. “The Story of Luka Dončić’s Rise! | Pass the Rock.” YouTube, 25 Apr. 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=koRsmtiH2XQ.

NBA Europe. “IVICA ZUBAC | the Full Story of Croatia’s Latest NBA Star.” YouTube, 3 July 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=BttNrekSoYQ.

NBAT2. “Joakim Noah Attends the World’s Wildest Basketball Game in Serbia | NOMAD.” YouTube, 29 Jan. 2026, www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKnuVyG2q4A.

Never Enough Ball. “The Wild NBA Origin Story of Jusuf Nurkic.” YouTube, 15 Aug. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1jiz3gfAnU.

Nina, My First Basketball Coach.

“Once Brothers.” Netflix, 2010, tv.apple.com/us/movie/once-brothers/umc.cmc.5c70p7f83yup47etvtzr6650u.

The Armchair Historian. “Yugoslav Wars | Animated History.” Www.youtube.com, 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2wF6K4wsv0.