Croatia international and Minnesota Timberwolf Damjan Rudež discusses what the absence of Croatia at the 2016 Olympics meant to him as well as the current state of Croatian basketball in the NBA. Rudež did not come off the bench in Minnesota’s 107-99 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers Sunday afternoon.
Now aint that da truth
Because the situation with Shoes Bender was discussed in length back in the summer. I assumed everyone was informed about it. My bad if not everyone was informed about it
The shit show is that our federations (you name the sport) never position our athletes to achieve success. Instead, our athletes achieve success despite the inept leadership. They overcome poor leadership. Just imagine the results we could achieve if we had normal leadership. Instead, we have the shitshow in soccer with unqualified national team coaches leading the way (Strucnjak Stimac, Kum Kovac and now with Druga Liga Cacic) or all the way down to the youth ranks where club teams refuse to release players or in this situation with Shoes Bender where the kid makes the trip with the team and then announces he wont play for the national team the day before the first game. I’ll also mention how poor the organization was by the basketball federation when they hosted the first round of games in Zagreb during Eurobasket. Its a leadership issue and we don’t have it.
My only point is to not buy into the BS when we hear athletes talk about what an honor it is to play for the flag or other sranje that comes out of their mouths. I judge them based on their actions and not their talk.
Why didn’t you write the details on your first post, instead of making it seem like Bender flat out refused to play for no reason? There was a big penalty involved if he didn’t honor his contract, but you could appreciate the finances at steak, right? What shit show are you referring to? The team finished in second in the world and could’ve, almost did minus the botched free throw, without him.
What’s up with all the question marks?
Ummm, Shoes Bendar refused to play for the national team. Did I get something wrong? Nothing complicated at all about it.
He had a shoe contract with Adidas, I believe. While the Cro basketball federation had one with the Jordan brand. At the youth level all players have to wear the Jordan brand, as stipulated by the contract signed with Jordan/Nike. Shoes Bendar said he could only wear Adidas and decided his shoe contract was more important that playing for his homeland. Again, did I miss something here?????? So, next time you hear someone say it is an honor to play for the homeland, don’t always buy that line of BS. Because we have players who don’t believe in the “za dom…..spremni” lifestyle. Instead, they believe in the shoe contract lifestyle.
And to be clear, I am not killing the kid over it. He made a free choice. He valued his shoe deal contract more than playing for his homeland. Nothing wrong with that. Not everyone bleeds for the Croatian flag like I do and some of you do. Just remember that he valued his shoe deal more than his homeland when you decide to go be a jocksniffer and wear his jersey.
Again, if I got anything wrong, please feel free to correct me.
Ziva,
Why don’t you elaborate as to why Bender couldn’t play. It was a little more complicated than simply refusing. Bring up some facts and be objective with your post.
Good point Ziva. I’m not as big on basketball that I am on soccer. But it looks as if the two are intertwined. New article coming out tonight. Thanks for inspiring me.
Failure is the only way to describe the basketball team this past summer.
And will it get better??????? I don’t know. We do have some young stars. But, remember this. the kid who will be drafted in the top 3 in the 2016 draft, Dragan Bendar, refused to play for the national team earlier this summer. He refused to play for the national team. So, as we watch this Simunic ducumentary and hear from various soccer players about the honor of playing for a national team, don’t forget we had a basketball player refuse to play for his national team.
The shit show will continue.
I was thinking Saric. I was watching NBATV the another night and they brought up prospects still in Europe. Tomics name came up. I don’t know why if he just inked a new deal.
Good interview Ante, but Tomic is unlikely to ever play in the NBA after inking his new deal with Barcelona. Were you maybe thinking of Saric?