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What's up everybody, welcome back to the All Things Croatia podcast.
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I'm your host, Stanko Zovak, and I'm bringing you the best of Croatia from around the globe.
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This episode is brought to you by Adriatic Tours, the best place since 1974 to book your
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Now eat a modalia and let's get started.
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Alright welcome back to the podcast everyone.
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In this episode we have a very special guest with us, Dino Raja.
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Dino is a Croatian former professional basketball player and is commonly regarded as one of
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the greats, having won two FIBA EuroLeague championships, two Olympic silver medals,
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and was inducted into the basketball hall of fame among numerous other accomplishments.
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He's the Croatian national team's second all-time scorer and in this episode we're
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going to hear about his career, some stories from his playing days, and hopefully get some
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all-important questions answered.
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Dino, thanks for coming on the podcast.
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You're welcome.
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Yeah, but I really appreciate you taking the time to come on this because you're somewhat
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of a legend, especially with us, Croatian and Croatian diaspora.
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Your name always pops up when you talk about great Croatian athletes, in particular great
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Croatian basketball players, so it's really an honor to have you on here.
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Thank you.
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It's good to have you to be here.
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Before I start asking about your career and some stories from your playing days, can you
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talk a little bit about just growing up in your childhood?
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I mean, I know you were born in Split.
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What was sort of your childhood like there?
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Very simple.
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You were on the street all the time, no screens, no mobiles, no TV program.
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You have one channel that worked mostly all day and that was it.
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One cartoon of three minutes at 7.15 in the evening and that was it.
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It's simple, like all boys I spent most of my days on the street playing some ball or
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football or basketball or handball or anything.
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On the summertime, we move all that on the water sports and you go home only when your
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mother called you to eat and back to the streets.
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Yeah, more simple lifestyle than today's kids.
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Pretty much.
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Were you good at the other sports as well aside from basketball?
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I tried many sports when I was a kid.
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I tried with the handball, I tried rowing, I tried water polo, I tried swimming.
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In Split, these water sports are very popular.
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I did a lot of that but later on when I started the basketball, which was pretty late, I fell
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in love with it.
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Basically I fell in love with the people that I found over there.
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We kind of bond very soon and we spend a lot of time with each other before practice, after
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practice and that's why I hung around.
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What age did you start playing?
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I started when I was over 14.
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I was like 14 and a half when I came to my first basketball practice.
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Wow, yeah, that is pretty late.
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Were you already tall at that point or did you grow later on?
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I was tall but not like today.
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No, so were you?
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I know that helps a lot of people who have growth spurts later on in basketball because
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they play like a point guard, they dribble a lot and then once they grow taller they
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keep those skills.
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Was that something that helped you as far as dribbling and being agile?
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No, I was lucky when I started it was good basketball school in Split and then when I
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grew up a little bit I was lucky to be able to work with some of the basketball best with
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Chosic, Slajko Trdenic, Milenatov, Božo Malcović and those guys really impacted me a lot
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and I learned from them a lot.
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Normally I had to emphasize on Slajko Trdenic because he was the guy who worked with us
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hours and hours and we used to practice in the summer time for like 10 hours a day.
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So we did everything, we were probably pioneers in that kind of work because as a big guy
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we did all guard the program and the wing program and running and dribbling and everything.
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Not only big guys do big stuff and little guys do little guys stuff, we did a little
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bit of everything.
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So it was really great to have those kind of coaches and you don't know that when you
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are that young but later on you realize who helped you the most in your career.
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That was at Hugo Plastika or Dalvin?
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Hugo Plastika, Dalvin I was just a little bit before Hugo Plastika.
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When did you start to get noticed by international scouts?
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I really don't know.
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We used to go out and play these tournaments in Germany, in France, all over the place.
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But it's not like today.
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You know everything about everybody because you can see it on YouTube on any kind of media,
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social media.
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Back then it was nothing.
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We have like newspapers where you can read some names and numbers but you don't know anything.
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First time I think we played this, it was one famous tournament in Mannheim in Germany
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where some Americans were coming and I think the first time I was like 16 to attend that
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tournament with a national team.
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And I think that was the first time when we went on public display internationally.
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And then you were drafted in 1989 originally, right?
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But you had some issues with the club?
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Yes, yes, yes, yes.
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I was under contract with Hugo Plastika and they didn't let me go.
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And that was the same draft here as Petrovic and Divac and sort of the first wave.
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Petrovic was there before.
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It was the same with Tony Kukoc and Divac I think.
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Okay, okay.
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So you had some issues with your club?
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No, no, no, they were later after me I think because I'm one year older than them.
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I don't really, I mean I had to check it.
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I really don't remember.
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It was a long time ago.
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Well you ended up going, I believe to Italy after that to play for the NBA?
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Yes.
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What was that experience like for you?
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I think it was a good experience for me because you know, living with my parents and going
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professionally where you are, you know, the guy responsible for everything, guilty for
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everything and living on your own for the first time, very young.
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I think it helped me a lot growing up as a person, not only as a basketball player, but
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it was just one level above that I was playing.
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And I think it was good.
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Maybe I should have stayed there a year or less, but you know, one year here or there
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it's more or less the same, so.
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So that was your first experience, I mean living abroad, living outside of your parents
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all?
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Yes, yes, yes, it was a really good experience for me.
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I love Italy, I love playing in Italy.
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You know, the life, the food, the language and everything.
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It's a great good experience.
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Coming back to the draft a little bit, nowadays you know it's so televised and it's a huge
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event and everyone's there and it's on TV and you know everyone waits for the draft
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day.
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Where were you when you were drafted?
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Was it as big as it is now?
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For me it was huge, but you know, when we get into the talking with the Celtics, they
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approached me here before we were playing some pre-Olympic tournament in Holland and
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they approached me and of course I was you know very honored to be even mentioned in
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the Celtics organization because you know back then it was Celtics and Lakers and nobody
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else existed.
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It was pre-Georgian era and pre-Golden State era and all these players of today.
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So when they approached me I was really you know honored and surprised that they want
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to talk to me and I really wanted to go there but you know how the rules are in NBA.
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So when I was approached from some other people I told them you know I don't want to go to
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NBA, I want to stay in Europe and that was my goal.
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And then you know nobody took me and you know I agree with Celtics already and they took
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you know a player in the first round who was you know a better player.
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Then if they took me in the first round and the second round they would not take such
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a good player.
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So we made a deal that I tell everybody I'm not coming so nobody took the chance of you
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know losing a draft pick.
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And I land up you know the second round the Celtics I remember them calling me like at
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6 in the morning.
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Where you already?
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You had draft it you know you had a plan tomorrow to catch.
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You were at home asleep or were you waiting by the TV?
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Yeah yeah I was at home asleep but they woke me up.
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It's hard to imagine even going to sleep waiting for a call like that.
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I knew that's going to happen but you know how draft is you never know maybe somebody
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take a chance but maybe you know back then it was not only two rounds like today it was
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six seven rounds so maybe somebody would take a chance and later rounds or three rounds
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I don't remember how it was.
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And they did it and I was very happy and the next day I flew immediately to Boston we had
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a press conference everybody was very sceptic about me they thought I don't know English
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and I have problems you know Europeans it was very hard you know to be you know pioneer
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in NBA back then.
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Well yeah I wanted to ask about that as far as being a European player was there any I
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mean I wouldn't discrimination maybe is not the right word but was there any I don't know
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sort of feelings against the European players that maybe they can't compete in the NBA or
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definitely definitely not I don't want to say it as anything racist but it was you know
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back then you didn't have videos that you can see you could see only somebody in person
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and whatever scouts they were in Europe there were only few of them you know it's opinion
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of one guy not not not not like today so people were sceptic you know about not only European
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players about anybody who who who would come out of their system of you know college that
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you can see every day and follow for years and then you draft somebody but somebody who
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comes from Europe who play they don't know what kind of competition is this league or
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that league or whatever it is so it was it was pretty pretty hard for them to take somebody
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understand that but it was also hard for somebody to to go there because you know the life completely
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different not only many more games but the games that the least longer there's you know
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game in Europe is 40 minutes or there is 48 minutes so it's like 20% longer game plus
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you have more games so it was hard physically mentally you know playing back to back games
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which you don't have here in Europe playing you know five times a week sometimes it's something
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that that was really hard to adjust to. That makes sense yeah what else was hard to adjust
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to in terms of just like living there outside of all the different mentality different food
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different you are always in the plane you are traveling always you don't have time
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for nothing I mean during the season you are you are like putting you're like somebody
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put in a blender and just start the blender on October 1st and then stop it on April or
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May depend how far you go and you are you are surviving inside all the time.
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Well I'm sure even weather wise it was going from Split to Boston is a big change weather
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wise too. That's not the problem because you go you travel to the different cities even
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Europe where they have snow and stuff but the real challenge was that you go from Boston
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on the winter time where you have a minus temperature and then you go to Florida where
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you have a nice weather and then you go from Florida to Denver where you have even worse
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minus and then you go from there to LA where you have nice and warm weather then from there
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you go to Utah where you have again snow and then you go from there to San Francisco where
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you have a nice mild weather again and then you go to Minnesota where your tears are iced
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and that's that that was probably you know the hardest thing and then from the game to
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game you after the game you you sit in the plane you travel to some other area and then
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you play a game tomorrow again so it was it was hard but you know you you you just from
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after sometime just the first year was really hard and then after after you just get used
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to it. As far as the like community of Croatian fans for you in the US when you're playing
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for Boston? No they were everywhere. I met people especially in Toronto they have a huge
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Croatian community in LA in San Francisco in Miami I met so many Croatians around
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around the US. My family is from my dad is from the LA and he remembers going to a game
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where you gave some speech before I forget what he said you were talking about but they
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had some press conference before for the Croatian community and you spoke before the game and
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stuff like that. Yeah we used to do that all the time I had some people in Boston too from
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Croatia that lived there and you know we find each other always. Sort of on that on playing
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in the US you know we think we as an American I guess I think of you know the NBA is the
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pinnacle of basketball maybe now it's changing a little bit but as far as the fans and the
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stadium it's pretty mild in terms of compared to European fans and everything. Nothing compared
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to Europe especially compared to certain places not all the places are the same but you go
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to Greece or some places in Italy not all of them some places here in Zadar for example
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people go crazy and it's not easy you know to mentally you know survive that. Yeah I've
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only seen videos I've never been to a basketball game outside of the US but yeah I've seen
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crazy everyone has players and all kind of stuff all kind of stuff spitting at you throwing
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coins at you oh wow everything on you huh so not only is it better I guess if you're
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the home team there but if you're the opposing team it's a lot worse then I'm sure. It's
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fun it's fun it's really fun it builds you as a character also. That's a good point yeah
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I want to ask you about 1992 Olympics I mean that was a groj I had an incredible team that
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was sort of the maybe golden age of groj and basketball and that was you guys won the silver
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medal against the US it was also an important time during the homeland war 1992 did you ever
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think about the role at the time did you think about you know the role you were playing
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and sort of showcasing Croatia on an international scale through basketball. That was definitely
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the most important thing that you know we did because you know nobody knew about Croatia
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back then and we had to show world not only about basketball and that was believe me that
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was less important than showing people around the world that something is happening in our
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country and we need help and we were on a mission and what we did in the semifinals it
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was just pure pure survival because of death and if I can guarantee you if situation was
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not like that it was normal peaceful situation we wouldn't win that game. We just you know
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we know what people were going through and we just put some you know extra effort and
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extra you know desire you know some crazy crazy mind woke up to win that game and to
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be able to play with the you know Americans with a dream team and showcase everything
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that is going on in front of you know more than a billion people. So it was more than
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just basketball you guys were aware of that the whole time. You mentioned the dream team
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I wanted to ask you about that which you guys played twice throughout during that Olympics.
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They say that that dream team is the greatest basketball team ever assembled would you agree
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with that. Definitely without any doubt. They were that good. Definitely. Definitely. Just
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when you when you only mentioned their names Jordan magic bird you know you and David Robinson
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Mark Price unbelievable people. Well you you guys had played them once I guess during the
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rest around the group and we're playing finals in group. So then what was the plan having
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played them once going into the gold medal game. How do you plan for to play against
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the greatest team ever created. You know us just being in a gold medal game was a win
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and we just went there and try to show the world that you know Croatia is there and some
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you know red and white you know squares are all of a sudden famous and it was really the
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most important thing and it was like a reward for us for job well done and we knew we really
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zero almost zero chance to beat them because we're really short. We had only you know
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five players that can match with them and our bench was not strong and that they had
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you know you didn't know which starting line which line up is better first or second one.
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So it was really you know game without any pressure and it was good for us both of those
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games was good for us to to see where do we stand and how that game was very important
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to me personally because I figure out they are not you know the Martians and we can compete
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with them and we can score on them we can defend on them and we can you know succeed
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in NBA that was very very important for all of us I think.
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Well also on that team with you was the late great Dražen Petrovic. I want to ask you
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a little bit about him if you can talk you know for the the hospital like myself who
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was too young to see him play can you sort of describe how he was as a player what was
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it like to play with him.
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He was definitely one of the greatest players that you know that exists you know he's a
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he's a guy who was an example you know in working out he was always the best on the
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practices and when when you don't practice well he was one that would yell on you before
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the coach and he was always you know work work work work work and when somebody who
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is the best has shown you something by example then then you follow and that's how I learned
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how to be a leader of the team and his example was very important part of that.
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So he was I mean nowadays my generation knows Kobe for his you know sort of mentality and
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that's that that that was it that was it he didn't have that kind of physicality like
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Kobe but the mind his mind was exactly like that.
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Were you guys close how long did you course we were playing together for like six seven
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years in a national team and we were good friends and we talk a lot when he was in in
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the US before me we would speak almost every other day and because he wanted to know like
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all the scores from from the Croatian league from the basketballs the soccer all kind of
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leagues he would be interested in and the without internet everything I would have to
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buy a newspaper send read all the scores to him and we did that every every other day.
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And so he came in a few years before you did to the NBA.
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Yeah he was there he was there before me.
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He was still in Portland for your first year.
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No no no he was he was there four years before me I mean he went 89 when I was drafted he
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went there but then then I went one year in back to split and then I went three years
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in Rome and these four years he he was in Portland and New Jersey.
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When when because I went to 93 after after he died I went to Boston.
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I mean when we were together in a national team I already signed for the Celtics and
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he was giving me all kinds of advices and then unfortunately he died in the middle of
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that training camp.
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Yeah the terrible event that happened he's definitely one of the greats his name is always
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mentioned you know great.
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We were really good friends and it was really really hard you know hard hard summer.
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I'm sure yeah for everyone.
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You know I want to talk a little bit about sort of you know the modern today's NBA recently
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Luca Doncic you know had a quote he said that it's easier to score in the NBA a lot
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easier to score in the NBA than it is in the Euroleagues was that I know it's a different
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completely different era of basketball but was that the case for you back in the day
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or no?
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Well definitely today is much easier I think that the offense is much more protected that
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it was back back in the days I think that it's much easier to score today than it was
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back then.
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The game definitely has changed the game looks more like you know all-star game during the
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regular season where you come on the game to see a heavy load of you know nice passes
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and dunks and shooting threes and you know run and gungy during the playoffs it's a little
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different but I think back then it was much much harder to play again there would be the
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crap out of you especially in certain places like in New York like Detroit and surviving
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that it was difficult task.
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Yeah well I was watching I heard you in an interview talk about I think you were talking
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about Shaq and you mentioned how you know as soon as you would get the ball in the paint
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everyone would just swarm you and in today's NBA you know you can have all the time or
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you were talking about Luca Longi and how he was pump faking.
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Yes Luca Longi yes yes.
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And I was like well times are changing but you know he is one of the greatest talents
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that I have ever seen really him and Jokic they are guys that see game you know three
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steps ahead not one step ahead but three steps ahead and that's something that you are born
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with that's something that you cannot learn as much as you want but these guys are incredibly
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talented.
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Yeah yeah incredible athletes incredible players yeah I was watching your highlights and as
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soon as you know you would take one dribble in the paint there's like three guys everybody
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everybody.
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Yeah different times.
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Adino as far as you know Croatian basketball goes right now I mean there's some great players
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in the NBA Yvica Zubac, Boyan Bogdanovich among others, Sharic but it seems like internationally
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you know they haven't been performing as well as you know they have in the past what do
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you think is sort of maybe the solution I'll say to you know getting Croatian basketball
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back up on top internationally.
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Unfortunately the way basketball is today I don't see it happening very soon there are
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few reasons for that first of all there is a fight between you know Euroleague and FIBA
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so Euroleague teams doesn't allow their players to play for national team then on the summertime
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you do have them then NBA players are not playing during the winter qualifications and
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stuff and you have different lineups all the time on the summertime you have all of them
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then on the wintertime you have different players and then it's very hard you know when they
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don't you know bond together, match together they don't have many practices together it's
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really really hard to make something up and then people say yes but it's the same for
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everybody it's not the same for everybody.
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Croatia has less than four million people Spain has fifty million France has sixty million
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Italy has forty million people so you have a bigger pool of players and they have better
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competition within the country where you have these core players that are playing you know
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on a wintertime because on a wintertime Euroleague doesn't allow NBA doesn't allow so we miss
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most of these qualifications because of a lack of quality of domestic players and domestic
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players are not playing here because all these best teams they are taking a lot of Americans
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and they take all the responsibility they are paid a lot they use the basketball heavily
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and the domestic players are you know not deciding the game so you have them being like a role
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players for all the season and then all of a sudden they have to be game deciders for
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one or two games that you play in qualifications so it's impossible and I don't see that change
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in a near future I think first of all FIBA and Euroleague you have to sit down and then
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try to you know figure out how to do this and then you're gonna need some years you
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know for players you know players need to play together this is not basketball is not
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a tennis where you have one player and he goes and practice on his own and he decides
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game on his own you have five players on the court and you have another three or four definitely
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that that have to you know mix and match with each other in order to be successful you know
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creating a team is a long work not just pick players and have them win the game that's
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how you do you know all-star game but nothing important competition long competition stuff
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like that so that chemistry of playing together enough times is like yeah yeah do you know
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what are you up to nowadays are you still involved in basketball I say no no no no no
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not anymore not anymore I'm kind of slowing down with everything walking the dog going
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on the mountains every day and you know trying to enjoy I work with me I was with basketball
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for a long time for 40 years and I think it's time to back off for some some for some younger
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guys to come in I saw you've been playing guitar lately I saw video you were playing
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I think any yeah yeah I have different hobbies I'm skiing and playing guitar trying to learn
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Spanish now wow really how's that you have to how's it how's it going learning Spanish
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good good for one year I'm able to communicate I think I have a teacher I have a one very
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good application that I use and I can understand a lot I cannot understand when they speak
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you know past and you know playing but I love it I really like I can I can see the movie
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with subtitles because with subtitles when I read I can understand what is it about I
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can't understand everything one year is not enough time to learn language but you know
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I love it it's something to do well I've been living here in Zagreb now for almost two years
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and I still my corrosion is horrible it's it's so hard for me to learn all the potagey
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and and everything grammatically so you move here for us to yeah you plan to stay here
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or well I hope my mom is not listening to this when I release the episode but maybe
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it seems she's back in LA my family's in Los Angeles but yeah I like it here in Zagreb
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I like I like living in Croatia it's a different lifestyle of course then you know the US and
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Los Angeles much less less stressed if you are financially independent that's not it's
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really the great place to live yeah everything Palaco, Pomalo as they say yeah I like it a
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lot all right we've only got about a minute and a half here left you know I'll hit you
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with a few quick questions if you can answer them quickly sort of fun ones nicest teammate
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oh deep round in Boston definitely okay player you would least want to fight not teammate
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but anyone you've played against oh shock you don't want to fight shock yeah yeah shock
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with huge huge back yeah it still is he's a great guy you know he's never he was never
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dirty guy yeah that's what I've heard as well and even now he's doing good things you know
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he's strong but he's never he was never dirty guy most memorable shot of your career
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there are so many so many but I have to say the game that we won our first European title
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in Munich it was one of probably the point to where I run the fast break and dug the
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ball for the assurance that we really win the title that was probably the most emotional
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one and final question top three all-time greats in order if you can I would say I would say
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Michael Jordan without doubt is number one I would put that Larry Bird and sorry so you
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had said MJ Larry Bird and Jerry and Kobe as a top three awesome well Dino I want to
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thank you as we're here at the end of the episode thank you so much for coming on the
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podcast and speaking to me and to you know the rest of the Croatian the ospota and who
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else is whoever else is listening to the podcast but yeah I really appreciate you taking the
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time no problem hello to everybody across the ocean