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.