09-10-2023, 10:37 PM
(09-10-2023, 07:19 PM)omahen Wrote: I remembered a couple of examples. Slovenians Beno Udrih and Sasa Vujacic had quite decent NBA careers. Weren't stars, but useful role players.Other than Luka and Nesterovic probably had best careers of all Slovenian players. I don't want to go into discussion about the reasons why, but they somehow almost never came to play for the national team, often citing "excuses" that were took by fans as if they just don't want to play (lets say very similar reaction as Schroeder had about Kleber). After their career was finished, they are basically "forgotten" in Slovenia, despite having much better careers than many other celebrated players. A lot of fanbase hates them and media doesn't really cover them. I noticed that Udrih became head coach of one of G-league franchises (Milwaukee, if I remember correctly) this season, yet I didn't even notice that news in Slovenian media. Milic was loved as a player. He is just a "deep bench" assistant on Mavs and, let's be honest, got his job because of Luka only, but is being covered all the time by Slovenian media.
A complicated issue, to say the least.
It seems clear that for now, Luka sees his future (after basketball) as being in Slovenia. I'm sure that has something to do with his approach, to your point. It will be interesting if that continues to be his plan. I'm sure Dirk's plan was to retire to Germany, too, but when the dust cleared he stayed here in DFW. Pretty interesting journey these international phenoms go through.