If you caught Game 2 of the NBA Finals last night, you could clearly see a man sporting what could only be a checkered Croatian soccer jersey directly behind the Golden State bench. He was rooting for the Warriors the entire game, but was he in fact Croatian?
Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t. But Croatian media caught a glimpse of the mysterious ‘checkered man’ and gave him some love this morning when Gol.hr ran a story on him.
But after receiving multiple texts throughout the game asking if I knew the guy and not having an answer for my most devoted readers, I did some research. After some quick Facebook stalking and sending a few texts, I found out that our guy was in fact Croatian. His name is Šime and he lives in the Bay Area. His mom is from Soline, a town on the island of Dugi Otok; right next to Zadar, and his dad is from Sovići in Herzegovina.
I got in touch with him and he was more than happy to answer a few quick questions.
But why should you care? Power of the checkers!
You could be Croatian and see someone wearing the checkers anywhere in the world and automatically become friends with them.
And on Sunday, in Oakland, CroatianSports.com will meet Šime for Game 5 of the NBA Finals to see what his full story is. Why wear checkers to an NBA game?
The NBA has granted CroatianSports.com credentials where we will cover Australian-born Croatian Andrew Bogut as he plays for his first ever NBA title. Denis and I will make the trip up from Los Angeles. Please shoot us an email at info@croatiansports.com if you will be at the game so we can grab a drink before or after.
Follow us on Twitter throughout the weekend @CroatianSoccer. We also strongly encourage you to download the free and brand-new Periscope app, where you can watch all the action through our eyes LIVE from your mobile device.
@ The Truth it’s happening everywhere not just in America.
I’ve come across so many white trash bitches and even more well off wonderbread eaters who would walk right by that guy and head over to hit on some ugly nigger monkey ape, they would then walk by him with the ugly nigger, usually even a fat ugly stupid and straight out of prison nigger, a short fat stupid nigger or a taller skinny drug dealing nigger, it doesn’t matter, seen it many times. Truth of america.
I was thinking about going to a steakhouse tonight and ordering a medium well done t-bone. Should I bring the croatian flag with me to drape across my back as I eat my meal?
No NY-Cro, it’s Iguodala, not budala. My old man makes the same mistake calling him that ;).
But, I agree, bringing the flag to an NBA game, when there isn’t a Cro themed night or anything of the sort, is a bit much. Save it for wherever you go Friday.
I love the flag , but you’ll be making such an ass out of yourself for bringing it there. Budala jedna
@Franjo Tudjman, yes Boze is my uncle. I am guessing then that you are related to Tone somehow. My grandfather, Sime Marin, and him were brothers. I know Sime and Marin Marin are his grandkids.
I got slick back geled hair and a golden chain greasey wog.
just like Istra being chock full of ‘Istrijani’ nowadays….
If that is the case (which it’s not) then you have the Stipe u Gostima effect…
Dida dalmatinac, caca dalmatinac, sin Zagrepcanec…assimilation at its finest.
That’s a double knee slapper.
@Ante B
Tresnjevka is full of Dalmatinci.
Did you bring the flag of Israel or…?
@Sime 10 rows up from the floor it may be hard to see me I am gonna try to get closer
@ Sime, my name is Marin as well. They are on the other side where the school used to be. I think all of the Marin’s are related in some way or another 🙂
If your uncle is Bože, then my father and family knows him well!
That’s for you guys to debate. For me as long as it’s from Dubrava to Tresnjevka that’s all that matters
@Ante B.
Well it’s good to hear there are no Rijeka fans.
@Jarac
Are people from Boka Kotorska Dalmatinci?
@ Ante B
Are people from dubrovnik dalmatinci 😉
I would say more hajdukovci because there are a lot of Dalmatinci up here, especially from Dubrovnik. The guys I know and hang with are mostly for Hajduk…but I would venture to say that most don’t care about Croatian club soccer. Pretty good number of dinamovci though.
@Sime @Ante B.
I assumed so Ante. If I’m not mistaken, you can’t have a Torcida organization outside of Croatia which makes sense. All the Hajduk fans in the diaspora can make a “Drustva Prijatelja Hajduka _(City Name)_ “. The Canadian Croats have made the first one in North America.
Are there more Hajdukovci or Dinamovci in Nor. Cal. ?
Bring a Vatican flag.
Jarac,
They make fun of us just as much as we make fun of them. Bring a flag to the game. Who cares? I would think Bogut would like to see it.
Naprid bili,
As long as I have been in San Jose, there’s no official Torcida Bay Area or BBB Bay Area for that matter. Just regular Hajdukovci and Dinamovci. Although Dukic might want to change that with his Hajduk flag all over the place.
@Bili, Apparently so. I had no idea until all of these rumors about me are surfacing about who I am. A lot of it is comical (still wished I could have dated Kelly Kapowski back in the day)
@Soline, my last name is Grizelj but my mom’s maiden name is Marin. The house she grew up in is on the Japar side. From the benches in front of the church, if you walk past the old ducan and make the first right that you can, the house is all the way in back and actually has a path to the cesta behind their house. What is your last name?
why the hell u bringing a flag to the game? Come on diaspora, and you wonder why we get made fun of in the homeland.
@Stjepan
Which flag? White-field first or the modern day one?
@Sime
Is Torcida Bay Area a real thing?
wow… just Google mapped Dugi Otok
Never really realized how far west that island sits…
on a clear day, you must be waving to all the ginzos in Ancona!
@Ante,
My folks are actually from Soline (it’s as tiny a village can be). What is his last name?
nice job decki!
@Stjepan, Awesome! Where will you be sitting?
I will be a Croatian jersey at the game tonight in Cleveland going to bring a flag as well be on the lookout for me.
Thanks Ante. I will leave it to Danijel to run Torcida out here. I have a mafia to run in Australia in addition to my day job so I am happy to leave this to him, haha.
Torcida Bay Area? That’s our boy Dukic 🙂
Sime, good stuff with the jersey. Making us all proud
Early life[edit]
Muldoon was born in San Pedro, California, the son of Deanna, a homemaker, and William Patrick Muldoon II, a personal injury lawyer.[1] He is of Irish descent on his father’s side and of Croatian descent on his mother’s side.[2][3] He attended Loyola High School, a Jesuit school and graduated in 1991, from the University of Southern California, where he was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity and played Tight End on the USC Trojans football team. He is from San Pedro is he the guy that was wearing the Cro Jersey says he’s 46 on wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Muldoon
@Sinj, thank you. There are so few of us but I am always happy to see how tight we are across the country. My phone nearly burnt a hole in my pocket and drained my battery. It was pretty funny to see some of the comments coming in. This fashion statement went way more viral than I ever thought. Croatians are the best!!!
I hope someone in Cleveland does the same tonight. That would be cool to see. There is a huge population there so you never know.
Always with the jerseys, inserbia.info has over the last few months started making their bullshit more visible on google search, especially the last few months, then spewing serbo-chetnik commie lies galore, always the opposite of reality and the facts, today they’re bullshitting about serbs having to change their religion. People, this is the complete opposite of what the serb church has been doing for centuries, it is documented that for centuries they have been destroying catholic or Croatian greek-catholic churches and erecting their cult centres, incorporating vlachs, gypsies, albanians, bulgarians and anybody they can to become slave shoes/serbs , they have even taken over catholic churches and converted them, THIS IS DOCUMENTED AND FACT. They were doing this right up to the eve of ww2, the official religion of the royalist kingdom of yugoserboslavia. They have been doing this in macedonia, kosovo, vojvodina etc. Time to step it up a notch or 5. Fucking jerseys.
Šime, you made us proud. The text messages on my phone didn’t stop through out the game with people asking if I saw the guy with the Croatian kit on!!!
@sime………congrats for not wearing another man’s name on your back. Some people on this site could learn a thing or two form you, but I guess they have no shame in wearing the last name of another man on their back. I wonder how many of our fathers and grandfathers woll over in their graves when they see disrect of their own last name by wearing the name of another person they don’t know or have never met.
Again, for those of you who are young and impressionable, ask yourself this……..Would (add in name of athlete) wear a jersey with my own last name on it? If (add in name of athlete) would not do it, then why shaould I wear his name.
Never doubt Kvartuc. When will they learn.
Hey guys, Sime here. I am the guy who wore the jersey. First off, No I did not date Kelly Kapowski, although I wish I could have. Second, I had no one’s name on the jersey. I feel like putting another man’s name on my back is a little weird especially if they are younger than me.
I don’t want to steal Ante’s thunder for an article he will do later after Game 5 but Bogut wasn’t the only reason why I wore it. I am surprised at the level of attention this received but I guess you can never doubt the Croatian Pride.
In addition to dating Kelly Kapowski, I also found out that I run the Cro mafia in Australia in addition to running Torcida Dubs in the Bay Area. I guess I have been a lot busier than I have been feeling lately, haha.
Off topic but Bilic has been appointed west ham manager: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/33062196
I wonder if dude had a name on the back of the jersey…….if so, jock sniffing violation has been committed. Plus, there might be some sort of stalking taking place. It appears the Golden State fans are all wearing yellow shirts. This dude went out of his way to wear a cro jersey so Bogut could find him????? That is my interpretation of this. Unless, he knows Porcelain Doll Bogut. When in doubt, ask yourself this……would the same person show up to your place of work wearing a cro jersey to capture your attention. If not, then you shouldn’t do it either.
Power of the Checkers!
Savka Li čast dečki .
Bogut is a beast who competes with all his heart.
A miracle that he is still able to play after so many injuries.
FYI – he has to guard LBJ going to the rim and the rotate back to mosgov. Straight up he shuts down mosgov but LBJ is a force of nature to the rack.
Game plan is to allow LBJ to keep the ball and then protect the paint with Bogut.
This leaves mosgov to roam free for easy buckets.
ZDS
If you ask me, wearing the checkers was inappropriate, since bogut has been playing like a pussy this series, he doesn’t deserve the checkers. The guy has been on his back more than anyone out there, cant even grab a rebound.
I heard he dated Kelly Kapowski!
Can someone ask him that please?
Can you Facebook to find out what it says on the back of the shirt?
I have $10 on it saying “Ziva licks balls”
The easiest way is to ask the women. They know everyone. My wife is friends with his wife on facebook.
not to hard to find out who it was, the cros in pedro/LA know alot of the cros from the bay.
very carefully.
figure of speech man. come on. (to the research part)
There is a show on Thursday nights in Australia called the Footy Show.Its a Rugby League program with a live audience.Not as much these days,but previously you would see 1 or 2 guys in the Checkers every week.They always stood out like dogs balls(I mean that in the good sense)
Still not clear how you found out who he was.
You “did some research?”…
You did “some quick Facebook stalking and sending a few texts?”…
How does someone just do random research and facebook searches to find a guy at a basketball game, lol.
@Naprid Bili,
I was watching the game last night with a few American friends and I told them I would find out this guy’s identity and be having a drink with him in Oakland on Sunday.
They called bullshit on me.
They were wrong.
Power of the Checkers man, I’m telling you.
I gotta say its pretty impressive how you find the identity of a fellow Croat within less than a day haha