At the beginning of the summer, a public announcement was made that the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was experiencing financial difficulties and might be forced to withdraw from the final tournament, not only in the men’s, but also in the youth and women’s competitions. In general, after the greatest success of all time – 5th place in the European Championship – the ladies successfully completed the qualification tournament and qualified for the World Cup for the first time in history, which will be held in distant Australia due to financial problems.
Hearing such words, some fans of the Latvian national team already started to rub their hands, hoping that the next ranked team from those that did not qualify themselves (Montenegro was the first in the ranking, which made it to the championship after Russia was disqualified), could still get the opportunity to participate in the competition. It didn’t happen, because the Bosnians started crowd funding campaigns, but in the end, the government also came to the rescue with help in the amount of 100,000 euros and the teams were able to participate in the competition.
The brightest star of the national basketball association (NBA) Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic of the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team after the loss to the Lithuanians on September 7, which meant exiting the tournament despite two wins in five matches, in addition to victories against the reigning European champions Slovenia , was very harsh in his statements against everything happening around the national team.
Nurkic was grateful and proud of every player in the team, because all twelve players did their best on the field and fought mightily for their homeland, but everything around them was under criticism, so the famous basketball player is ready to take over the leadership of the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, if could improve the situation with the team. “Everything starts with the federation. What do we have? Do we have people running it? A lot of things happen outside of sports, which is the easiest part of it all,” said the center player in a conversation with “SportSport”, expressing his pride for every player, coach and staff member involved in the national team.
Nurkic had previously also posted pictures on social media of how the Bosnians traveled to the European Championships in the economy class of the plane, where slim athletes, including the 216-centimeter-tall Nurkic, had to sit next to each other.
“Give me the position of president of the federation, chairman of the board, and the team of Bosnia and Herzegovina will never have problems with preparation for competitions, hotels or food again. I am ready to take it upon myself to fix it all, if entrusted to me. What’s the point of four players sleeping in the same bed if we don’t get our priorities straight. People must understand that the national team is above everything and athletes need better conditions,” Nurkic is determined, believing that progress is impossible in this situation: “We can do miracles because we have 12 men who do their best on the field. “
In general, the Bosnians demonstrated a very substantial performance and, if they did not end up in the so-called “group of death” six together with the Slovenians, French, Lithuanians, Germans and Hungarians, they would very likely have continued the tournament in the round of 16. It is not for nothing that Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only team that has managed to beat the European champions Slovenia so far. After this duel, one of the leaders of the team, Dzhanan Musa, who was selected in the NBA draft with Radion Kuruc, who will represent Real Madrid next season, said that he could do unimaginable things for his national team, but this time it didn’t work out.
