By John Hollinger
BELGRADE, SERBIA – After four days I’ve said adios to Spain and landed in Belgrade, and the transition turns out to be as jarring environmentally as it is culturally – the ground is white and snow is falling as we land in Belgrade, and it is f-f-f-freezing. Immediately, I realize that getting around may be tricky.
Fortunately, they’re used to dealing with winter weather here and have salted and plowed the roads, because this is enough snow to bring some cities to a screeching halt (coughMemphiscough).
Instead, Belgrade gets on with its business. It helps that I have a short ride to town — Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla airport, the only airport in Europe named after an ‘80s hair band, is also about the only one within ten miles of a downtown. (It’s also the only one where I’ve had a spoon confiscated by airport security as a potential weapon, but let’s try to stay positive here.)
This is my fifth trip to Serbia in four-plus years with the Grizz, and there are likely many more ahead. If you scout basketball at any level for any length of time you’ll end up in Belgrade at some point, because the Balkan countries have produced a ton of talent over the years.
This is my fifth trip to Serbia in four-plus years with the Grizz, and there are likely many more ahead. If you scout basketball at any level for any length of time you’ll end up in Belgrade at some point, because the Balkan countries have produced a ton of talent over the years.
American tourists don’t exactly flock here and there isn’t much that you’d plan a vacation around, but for business travel this city checks all the boxes: There are nice hotels, the food is good, English is widely spoken, and if you don’t brandish a spoon the people are friendly and helpful. Supposedly, Belgrade also has legendary nightlife; ask somebody who isn’t 45 for details.
The biggest challenge here is reading signs (I think Nikola Tesla had a song about this), because Serbia uses the Cyrillic alphabet rather than ours. Thus, you’re basically converting twice – once for the alphabet and once for the language. It’s not that hard once you get used to it, but the backward n’s in particular are weirdly jarring (they’re an “i” in Cyrillic), and they change up several other letters – their “H” is our “n”, for instance, and their “P” is our “r”.
For example, “Бeoгpaд, Cpбиja” becomes “Beograd, Srbija” when Romanized, which then becomes “Belgrade, Serbia” in English.
On this excursion, however, Cyrillic comes in second to snow on my list of concerns. I’m here to see our 2016 second round draft pick, Rade Zagorac, but his team plays in a small town called Sremska Mitrovica that is about 45 miles from my hotel in Belgrade.
For three days it doesn’t ever totally stop snowing, but thankfully it’s a light and sporadic snow, and only a few inches accumulate over three days. Nonetheless, it’s slow and slushy getting out of Belgrade; zigzagging by car through an Eastern European city in these conditions, one feels like an extra in a Jason Bourne movie.
Belgrade was the capital of the former Yugoslavia before it split into six different countries, but basketball-wise it can seem as if the split never happened. The main club teams from these six countries all play in the Adriatic League, and Belgrade is its “capital” with four of the 14 teams. I’ll be watching two of them tonight as Rade’s team, Mega Leks, plays against fellow Belgrade powerhouse Crvena Zvevda — more commonly known by the English translation of their name, Red Star.
Something of an upstart in European basketball, the Mega Leks franchise is renowned for two things: 1) Their neon pink and lime-green uniforms, and 2) a surfeit of recent NBA prospects, including Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Philadelphia’s Timothy Luwawu-Cabarrot, and the Lakers’ Ivica Zubac.
While the former has no explanation, there’s a good reason for the latter: Mega Leks’ roster consists entirely of players in their late teens and early 20s, and the team has a heavy focus on player development. Among European teams, that basically makes them a unicorn, and it’s been a great environment for players like Rade to improve.
The downside of youth, however, is that the team lacks experience – especially with two talented teammates from a year ago now in the NBA. Rade is the team’s only returning starter, and the team enters this game just 5-11 in Adriatic League play after making the finals a year earlier. Red Star, meanwhile, owns a daunting 16-0 mark.
But that’s why they play the games, right? On this night, Mega Leks plays with ferocity and nearly pulls a stunning upset, taking Red Star to overtime before running out of gas and falling, 81-69. Rade has 10 points and 13 rebounds.
The next day, Tuesday, is the rarest of rarities on a scouting trip – a day with no games. I stay in town and watch Mega Leks practice instead. Generally, filling in the schedule on Monday and Tuesday is the biggest challenge on these trips, because most European teams play once between Wednesday and Friday and then a second game on the weekend. (Unlike the NBA, a week with three games is virtually unheard of here).
The next night is my final day in Europe, and I’m watching Mega Leks plays Strasbourg SIG in the “Basketball Champions League”, a new competition that is essentially one notch below the Euroleague. Strasbourg historically has been a powerhouse team in France and has some interesting players of their own for me to watch, but as with Mega Leks they’re a bit down this year. (Again, league rules prevent me from saying anything about the draft prospects I see on this trip. Just act like I wrote something insightful and nod knowingly).
Strangely, the elements become a factor: It’s a frigid 10 degrees outside at game time, and let’s just say this was not the best insulated building in Europe. But Mega Leks starts out on fire, taking command early and hanging on at the end for an 86-82 win. Rade shows the perimeter skills at 6-9 that made us draft him in the first place, wreaking havoc on defense with seven steals and handing out a few spectacular assists.
We meet after the game and catch up for a while, but beyond that my work here is done. I’ve seen a dozen games in seven days, slept soundly on exactly zero of eight nights, and consumed enough caffeine to single-handedly rally the Costa Rican economy.
Even when I’m back, the business from this trip will take on a life of its own – I’ll be filing reports about all the players I saw, following up with our scouts on a few of the more interesting prospects, and submitting a mountain of coffee receipts for reimbursement.
More importantly, I’ll hopefully be refueling my tank — after eight days on the road I’m spent, and I’m only getting a brief respite before I head back out on the road in a few days. Seeing all these places (and sharing my adventures with everyone) is fun, but there’s nothing like returning home to see my wife, getting a good night’s sleep in my own bed, and catching up with my compadres in Memphis. Hopefully my spoon makes it back too.