Wow "plug" | If Qianyu hadn't disintegrated, would he be able to put together a picturesque lineup for Teacher Yoo?
Written by/Yu Ruiyin
In February this year, Nikolai Jokic invited only two guests outside the old covenant to celebrate his 28th birthday. Who is it? Luka Doncic and his girlfriend.
Whether in the NBA season or offseason, the two brothers never seem to disdain to hide their strong "base" and tacit "understanding". The more players at the top of the pyramid, the simpler the friendship between them, pure sympathy and like-mindedness, plus the common anxiety (if any) in body management. As for the theme of the former Yugoslavia that the Onmyoji are keen on, how the Serbs play with the Slovenes seems to be outside the scope of this happy brother.
Jokic and Doncic have a good personal relationship, which is considered to be a good family.
For the "post-95s" or even "post-00s" born many years after the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, they have not experienced the change of nationality in their passports; Although there are inevitably a few gunshots in the Balkans in my childhood memory, more or less, after all, I did not go from fighting side by side and being intimate like my predecessors who were born 30 years earlier, and overnight they became their own masters and saber rattling.
Therefore, the hypothesis of "if it hadn't been disintegrated, how strong would the former Yugoslavia be?" is more like a free team in competitive games for Balkan teenagers who have not experienced those years. Without a hint of historical nihilism, with the relaxed mentality of "think about it, it's beautiful", I imagine how pleasing the combination of top talents is. After all, when the "super teams" of football and basketball become commonplace in this golden era of the golden yuan, we might as well take the "super teams" that failed to become a reality as the end of our series.
1990s: Super Battleship divides into AB teams, and it is already one step away from reaching the peak
Back in 1986, when Belgrade, the former capital of Yugoslavia, submitted its bid for the 1992 Summer Olympics to the IOC, Serbs, Croats and most citizens of the former Yugoslavia in the Balkans probably could not have guessed what would happen to them six years later. As we all know, it was Mr. Samaranch's hometown of Barcelona that won the right to host the event, and that year's Olympic stage, the Yugoslav flag was not raised. Not only because the country began to fall apart, but also because of sanctions, the athletes of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (the largest political subject after the dissolution, which can be regarded as the predecessor of Serbia) could only compete as independent athletes, just like Russia today.
So, not surprisingly, collective projects were not available.
By then, Divac was already established with the Lakers and could not compete in the 1992 Olympics.
Before this, even if the former Yugoslav family separated, it did not prevent fans from imagining the scene of the Yugoslav League and Croatia "encircling" the dream team. After all, in 1990, at the Men's World Basketball Championship in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the former Yugoslav team blocked the United States 99-91 from the final. That can be regarded as the last straw that crushed the dignity of American basketball before the world's powers forced out the "dream team".
Dragen Petrovich, who scored 31 points in that game, was 28 years old in 1992, and after grinding in the NBA, he had already "killed the red eye". Kenny Anderson, who once partnered with him in the Nets, recalled in a documentary: "He once scored 40 points against Jordan, and when he was in line with Jordan, he would say, 'What's the matter, pass the ball to me, I'm hot right now, let me kill him.'"
Petrovich at his peak was able to single out Jordan's existence.
It was also Petrovich's penultimate year on earth. But in that summer of glory in Barcelona, he and Kukoc and Radega, who were a few years younger than him, won a valuable silver medal for the nascent country of Croatia. At that time, everyone imagined the fighting confrontation of Petrovic vs Jordan, Kukoc vs Pippen, Radgar vs Barkley, but if there is an additional Divac, does it mean that someone is "taking care" of Robinson and Ewing on the inside?
Divac, who has played three seasons with the Lakers, did not wait for his Peja and Bodiloga, and with his European Championship, World Championship and Olympic silver medal helpers since the late 1980s, several of them wore Croatian plaid shirts. In Divac's resume, the three-year honor vacuum from 1992 to 1994 was somewhat bleak by Croatia's Olympic silver medal and world championship third place. The stop came at the 1995 European Championships in Greece, with Danilovic and Bodiloga's Divac, who won the first national championship of the Yugoslav Federation after the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia.
After that, the fate curves of the two national teams quietly intertwined. The Plaid Army, who lost Petrovich, began a long dormancy, and most regrettably, this dormancy period coincided with the golden period of Kukoc's maturity and solitude in the NBA. With the new generation led by Peja, the Yugoslav League/Serbia carried the honor until the summer of 2004 in Athens, when the Chinese men's basketball team led by Yao Ming miraculously defeated them. Before that, two consecutive World Championships titles and the 1996 Olympic silver medal were enough to inspire a generation, but they failed to shake the monopoly of the previous dream teams on Olympic gold medals.
The men's basketball world championship won two consecutive championships, and the Yugoslav men's basketball team regained its glory.
If that Bulls were the super-sixth man in the second "triple-in-a-row" championship, would history be rewritten?
More than a decade of long dormancy: behind the silence of the adult team, there are always young people
The Croatian men's basketball team in the post-"Petrovic + Kukoc" era, although the talent of previous generations is still above the standard, but it has never been able to find a leader who carries the flag. In the strong Europe, with the rise of the forces with many NBA players outside the Eastern European camp, Croatia can hardly even secure a place in the finals of the Olympic and World Championships (later restructured into the World Cup). The best result since then was just the semi-finals of the 2013 European Championship.
The team that has experienced the history of "Yugoslav League→ Serbia→ Serbia", life is not going well. After the miraculous defeat at the 2004 Athens Olympics, until the silver medal at the 2014 World Championships, Serbian basketball was in a slump, with few chances to finish in the top four at all levels. Divac retired, and there were not many occasions when Peja represented the national team in major competitions, and most of the names such as Teodosic and Kostić carried the team forward.
In the past decade, even if you gather players who can still fight in Serbia, Croatia and other former Yugoslav countries, it may be difficult to take advantage of the strong teams such as Spain, France, Argentina, and Lithuania that "encircle" the United States team.
But at that time, the young people in the Balkans were actually not idle.
In the big ball event, the performance of the European Youth Championship can basically be seen as a precursor to the results of the senior national team in the next 5 to 10 years. In the 23 editions of the Basketball U20 European Youth Championship held so far, the champion has been lost to the former Yugoslav team 7 times (5 times in Yugoslavia/Serbia and 2 times in Slovenia). The Slovenian team that won the title in 2004 was the 18-year-old Dragic in the team, and he entered the NBA four years after that victory, and sent Slovenia to the top of Europe in 2017. Now, they have Doncic again.
Dragic and Doncic have together sent the Slovenian men's basketball team to the top of Europe.
After a dark period of groping and twists and turns, Serbia's young people are also groping, forbearing, and then waiting for an outbreak in strict accordance with the cycle of rejuvenation. The runner-up team of the two U19 World Youth Championships in 2011 and 2013, the leaders of those two youth teams, Bogdanovic and Jokic, have been tempered by the NBA and have become the strength of this generation of Serbian men's basketball teams.
Gradually, compared with the slightly starry Balkan teenagers who have been dormant for ten years, when discussing "how strong the former Yugoslavia is if it has not disintegrated", they will be pleased to find that they can put together an all-star team.
If they play together...
If we continue this hypothetical proposition, we may be able to put together a championship-winning lineup.
Vucevic and Nurkic are from Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina respectively, which seem to have a lower presence than Serbia and Croatia, if there is a chance to partner with Jokic on the inside and explore a reasonable rotation, do you think these "three highs" are picturesque? What's more, Nurkic and Mr. Joe in the early years of his NBA career did partner with the Nuggets.
Surić and Zubac, from Croatia, can make the interior line in this lineup configuration seem so crowded and luxurious.
At that time, the Nuggets could only leave one person, and Jokic was the right bet.
The name of the outside leader cannot be disputed, and all that needs to be done is to match Doncic with a helper who can play.
Serbia and Croatia each contributed one Bogdanovic. Bogdan and Bojan were close to each other because of the same surname when they met on the NBA court. It's just that if the same team wants to print the jersey, it can be strictly separated.
Chanchar, who just won the championship with the Nuggets and Mr. Joe, may be able to get a place in this lineup.
Bogdan and Bojan, everyone is from the Bogdanovic family.
How many more spots are reserved for brothers who are not in the NBA? Mičić (Serbia), who has excelled in the Efes team this season, Moussa (Bosnia-Herzegovina), who went to Europe after training in the NBA... Don't forget that Teodosic, who has long disappeared into the mainstream spotlight, can still average 10 points and 6 assists per game at the age of 36.
Unfortunately, there are no ifs, although this does not prevent us from forming a dream lineup. In fact, as early as the moment when the former South Yugoslavia fell apart, the super team where the heroes of the world entered my country will no longer exist. Today, without inheriting the suffering and hatred of the previous generation, it is also the happiness of this generation to be able to smile when they meet on the field.