Serbia Day 18

Day 18

Day 18 is wrapping up. A full day as my last day here in Serbia. Got up this morning and headed to breakfast at 9 with the last individual meetings being held at 10:30. Finished those up pretty quickly and then Kelsey and I scooted to meet Jelena and her parents. It was very nice to get the opportunity to meet them and spend some time with them and her little brother. The little brother looks just like Jelena and is a basketball player as well. Jelena’s dad is a big man who played for the Macedonian National team and her mom, well I would never have picked her out as Jelena’s mom. She is very pretty and looks young. Her Estonian roots of fair skin and blonde hair wouldn’t tip anyone off either.

So we departed for a drive downtown and enjoyed a walk through Skadarlija. This is the Bohemian district we visited about a week ago but it was really nice to see it again. Very pretty area. I told Kelsey that even though most of the team was going to a lake to lay in the sun, I felt that this would make her trip that much more complete. She seemed pleased by it. We walked around for a bit and then sat down for lunch at a famous place called “The Three Hats”. It was an outdoor patio and it was nice. We ordered an appetizer tray which had smoked bacon, prosciutto, a Serbian butter, corn bread, a cheese of some sort, and a bean mixture. It was very tasty. We also had 2 salad plates with some great tomatoes, cucumber, onions and peppers. The tomatoes seem to taste so much better here. Jelena said the peppers were called paprika. Sprinkle a touch of salt on them and WOW, fantastic. For a drink I had pure blueberry juice. It was nice but had some zing to it. Quite tart but very nice. Now on to the main course. Two meat plates came out. Sausages, little steaks, pork skewers, a rolled pork, bacon wrapped chicken…MMMMM. What an incredible array of flavors. What a great meal. We sat and chatted after lunch for a while and Jelena said the place they were going to take us had a very big and long pork they serve on a plate and it was known as the “Female Dream”. I laughed out loud when I heard it and so did they. Quite an interesting name. While we were eating the band showed up and started playing at the restaurant. They came over and played a song and then walked away. When they saw me reaching for my wallet they came back. They got some money and they were like flies, they wouldn’t go away. Very nice though. An accordion, a stand up bass and 3 guitars. They sang a popular song which Jelena and her mother sang along with. Once again they could have been ordering a double whopper combo and I would have no idea. It was all snap, crackle and pop to me.

After the meal we headed over to a pedestrian area and a little market area. It was good to have Jelena with us as she was able to show me some things and talk me through some things. Picked up a few things and a rather unique souvenir for myself so it was mission accomplished. We made our way back to their car and then headed to the river for a nice walk and then we went onto a riverboat restaurant and sat on deck and had a drink. I opted for the strawberry juice. Another solid choice. My favorite would have to be the pure cherry juice that I have had here but they did not have it on this boat. The boat looked over the river to the Belgrade Castle and you could see where the Danube and Sava Rivers meet. It was very nice and relaxing.

As anyone who knows me, I can’t go for very long without talking basketball so I had to ask her dad about basketball. With her as an interpreter we had a very nice conversation. I asked about his national experience and I asked about how the game has changed since he played. He said he played when the changes were going on so he had both the offensive minded era and the defensive minded era. He mentioned the impact of the game on the 3 point shot. He coaches his son’s team so I asked what the norm was for practice to game ratio and he said it was 4 to 1 during the school year and now they go 5 times a week with no games. They would like to play a few more games during the summer but the economic times make it difficult. I asked about practices and he said they spend a lot of their time on footwork, passing and all of the fundamentals. They work on layups from all different areas and basically put a lot of time into techniques. They don’t seem to work on defensive and offensive systems. They practice 4 times and play 1 game and that is the norm. Keep in mind that this is a grade 5 team. Can you imagine what would happen in Canada if we told the coaches and parents that we had to do this? There would be complete anarchy. We would be “cheating the kids” and “not teaching them how to compete”. I came to Serbia hoping to discover the “Land of Basketball” and it was slowly being uncovered. Today it busted down the doors. These people have it figured out. In our country it is all about the games, the sneakers and the track suit, coaches running presses and the latest and greatest plays with the aim of getting kids exposure and NCAA looks. What a PILE OF SHIT that is. We need a system that teaches kids how to play and not just believe their hype. We have 4 NCAA kids on our team and trust me it didn’t make anyone shake in their boots. We had some “no name” Europeans totally kick their ass because they could flat out play. The Turkish girl who dropped 32 on us did it on 3 point shots, drives to the basket and just plain outsmarting us. Had we made it to play against Russia or the Czech Republic or a team like that we would have been dismantled. The state of basketball in our country is a shame. We have a lot of work to do but if we really want to get to the highest level we have to get back to the fundamentals and get rid of the presses and zones at the lower levels. Teach the kids how to play. Some may argue that the U.S. doesn’t have to do things differently but they have a bigger talent pool and their players compete every night versus the best in the world. They had to make adjustments to get back to the gold medal level. We have pretty much slid into third world status in the basketball world and we need to make it better soon. They have basketball “factories” here that produce tremendously talented players. They have the resources and they care about basketball.

So I will finalize my basketball rant by saying that I didn’t have the best experience with our games. As always though I always study things and try to learn. I have learned many things about the international game this year. How does that help me in Cape Breton you may ask? The answer is that we have to think about multi-skilling our players. Make them more adept at ball handling and passing. Improve their conceptual thinking. The teams here beat us on fundamental skills and a more solid mastery of the concepts of the game. I watched some great basketball and filmed a lot to take home with me. I am not looking for the greatest new play. What I am looking for are actions that were tough to defend and I am looking for the usage of skills with a focus on the decision making within their offense and defense. Russia was by far the prettiest team to watch when it came to the overall package. Hungary ran some sweet offensive things that were all based on concepts. Australia was also very solid. Some great things to take from every game I watched.

On the other side of things, the trip was VERY eye opening. While it was a tiring schedule it was nice to get to see a different part of the world. What I have observed about Serbia is that the people here are tremendously proud people. There is poverty everywhere and it is a tough way of life for many but they manage to make it work. How do they do it? They care tremendously about their country and about other people. It was nice to see some history that was both good and bad. The beautiful castle and the many historic buildings told a nice history of Belgrade. The site of the concentration camp and the bombed out buildings showed another side of history. It is amazing what these people have had to go through and yet they endure and continue to smile. One thing I hope our players have learned from this is to appreciate what they have at home. For every young person who is buried in their Ipod and text messages and who complains about what kind of tracksuit their team gets, I would love to take them here to see what they could be having. I know seeing those bombed out building gave me a better sense of the world in which we live. Canada has its’ faults but it is a pretty great country. I thank everyone who has ever gone to war to defend the freedom we have. I really would not want to deal with what this country has had to deal with.

So back to my day. We were supposed to make our way back for a meeting at 5:45. We left our little floating restaurant in plenty of time. When we got to the right exit for the bridge it was blocked off and the traffic looked pretty rough. We ended up getting back here around 6pm and were late for the meeting. Kelsey and I hustled over for one last quick team meeting, Afterwards the girls were going to the closing ceremonies. I said no to that as it was not of interest to me. Deb, Linda, Ed (a massage therapist) and I went up the street to the Holiday Inn for a late supper. What an awesome last big meal in Serbia. A nice prosciutto with melon appetizer followed by a great pesto vegetable soup. The main course was a chicken pasta with sundried tomatoes and rosemary. YUMMY. The meal was good and we had a great chat. A nice way to finish the trip. I must say the food was definitely good, for the most part, on this trip. A tad bit salty though. I figured I have had my limit of salt when two deer were waiting outside my room this morning!!!

The people of Serbia have treated us so kindly. I know many can say that they did it because of the games but it didn’t matter where we went, people talked to us and treated us very nicely. Did I also mention that the women were absolutely incredible? I think that statement just had to be made. If I could speak to all of the people of Serbia at one time I would say a great bit HVALLA.

So as I write this the village is bouncing. There is music blasting and the athletes are enjoying themselves. They are trading all of their clothing and basically having a good time. The temperature is nice so I may take a short walk around the village one last time.

We have an 8AM breakfast with departure for the airport at 9:45AM. My travel day tomorrow looks like this:

Day starts at 7AM Belgrade time – 2AM Cape Breton time

9:45 Departure for airport

12:40 Depart Belgrade

3:10 Arrive in Paris

4:25 Depart Paris

5:55PM Arrive in Montreal

7:50PM Depart Montreal

10:15PM Arrive in Halifax

ASAP after that – Depart Halifax and drive to Cape Breton

Estimated time of arrival – 3AM

Total Time of the Journey tomorrow – roughly 25 hours

I will definitely sleep along the way.

So once again, to the 2 or 3 people who have stayed awake long enough, thanks for following this again. It’s been an interesting journey. I’ll have lots of pictures when I get home. As I said when I started, basically this blog was so my mom could follow along and kind of keep an eye on me while sharing the experience along the way.

I’ll see you soon Mom, Volim Te

See you all in Canada.

Coach