Passing on the torch, Bogdanovic looks to Croatia's young guns to light up

MILAN (Italy) - Bojan Bogdanovic is in a reflective mood. Understandably so. 

Croatia’s tower of strength declares that FIBA EuroBasket 2022 will be the end of the line for his international career.

Not an irrevocable call, of course. Always time for a change of heart, albeit he is now 33 old and it's been a dozen summers since he made his debut as a fledgling star at  FIBA Basketball World Cup 2010, in Turkey.

"We had our best years when Drazen Petrovic, Toni Kukoc and Dino [Radja] played. Basketball was almost the number one sport in Croatia."

 
“It's been a while,” he smiles. But he has kept returning, kept grinding, kept the faith that a nation considered among European royalty can ascend to a podium once again.

With veteran status comes rich experiences, and with that, a demand to look back – and ahead.

Legacy, for the Utah Jazz guard, has acquired an importance.

“I would like to leave something behind me,” he reveals. “So this EuroBasket is a perfect chance for me and my teammates to do something special. 

“It's going to be pretty hard. I'm trying to help my young teammates to grow pretty quickly - and to make an impact on the game, right here, at this tournament.”

He is of the last generation of players born before Croatia became independent, born five years before the former Yugoslavia definitively splintered into separate states. A redrawing of the basketball map in tandem.

From the might of Yugoslavia emerged new identities, but with those past legacies still attached, from national team competitions and from the exploits of the incomparable Jugoplastika Split, three-times club champions of Europe.

They were, and remain, revered.

“We're were a bit like The Beatles,” one of their stars, Dino Radja, reflects. Wherever we go, people were waiting us with flowers. People liked us because we played nice basketball. It was a bunch of talented, hard-working guys.”

From that group came the core of the Croatian team which was bested only by the Dream Team of the United States at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics, adding bronzes from the subsequent World Cup and the next two EuroBaskets.

“We had our best years when Drazen Petrovic, Toni Kukoc and Dino played,” Bogdanovic acknowledges. “Basketball was almost the number one sport in Croatia.”

"This EuroBasket is probably one of the best-ever with all players who are playing for their national team, So it's going to be pretty tough to win every single game." - Bojan Bogdanovic

A rod, however, made for the backs of every successor since.

“We all know who Toni and Drazen are. We have talked here about how Dirk Nowitzki is one of the best European players Drazen is there as well. 

“So just trying to fit in their shoes with all medals that they won is really pretty tough for us. But we have got a really good young generation that is coming right now with (Ivica) Zubac, (Dario) Saric and a couple other young guys. So I hope they're going to do something special as well.”

No time like the present, he signals.

“We are trying and that's our goal. But this EuroBasket is probably one of the best-ever with all players who are playing for their national team. So it's going to be pretty tough to win every single game. But we have got a lot of talent and I hope that we can spring a surprise.”

Their start, in the group stages in Milan, has brought one win and one loss.

Despite bumps in the build-up, and that lack of killer DNA that comes with perpetual success, they remain among the contenders to pick up a medal in Berlin in two weeks’ time.

Newcomers and old hands alike, Bogdanovic underlines, are keen to write a fresh chapter in the history of Croatian hoops.

“Especially because we missed out in the last couple of years playing big competitions,” he says. “So I think that, this year, we are even hungrier. A lot of young guys want to prove themselves on a high level.” 

To be part of a triumphant run would be the ideal farewell. Or maybe bring extra incentive to keep this hunger alive.

“I'm just trying to be big brother and talk to everybody and hold them together on and off the court as well,” Bogdanovic grins. 

He would miss this so. “It's always nice and exciting to be part of a national team.”

FIBA