The Link Between Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic and Europe’s First Basketball Star

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4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

Basketball has grown into a worldwide sport over the past several decades. Just look at the past six NBA MVPs: Giannis Antetokounmpo from Greece, Nikola Jokic from Serbia, and Joel Embiid from Cameroon. Waiting in the wings are Slovenia’s Luka Doncic and Canada’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. But this worldwide explosion of talent did not happen overnight. Like any other explosion, it starts with a single spark. In Europe that spark was named Radivoj Korac. Korac played for the Yugoslavian national basketball team in the 1950’s and 60s, and quickly gained acclaim after winning The Best Athlete of Yugoslavia (Zlatna značka), and Yugoslav Sportsman of the Year (Sportske novosti award). He laid the path for future European superstars to follow in the years to come. Sadly, Korac never got to see his true peak or join the NBA after passing away in a tragic car accident at the age of 30. Today, Baxter Holmes joins the show to tell us the story of the legendary Radivoj Korac, and how his stardom spawned the European dominance we see today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Baxter Holmes, the NBA Conference finals begin tonight with the Celtics hosting the Pacers in Boston, and I'm wondering, what have you been thinking about as the action has gone down?
0:11.0	I've been thinking about the changing of the guard, the emerging
0:14.9	young stars that have really announced themselves on the stage. We think of
0:19.7	Minnesota's Anthony Edwards. I'm also thinking about the fact that the
0:22.8	NBA is going to crown a different champion for the six straight season
0:27.2	which hasn't happened since the mid-70s into the 80s which really speaks to
0:32.3	the parity of the NBA right now.
0:35.4	But a moment that stood out for me from this last week was watching Dallas Maverick
0:39.7	superstar Luca Donchich hailing from Slovenia, severely hobbled by all these injuries in a fierce
0:49.0	playoff battle against the Oklahoma City Thunder, leading his team to the second Western Conference finals
0:56.7	appearance in three seasons.
0:58.7	The series is over.
1:00.4	The Thunder season is over and Dallas is moving on coming back from 17 points down to win the series four games to two.
1:09.0	Dontchitch also finished third in MVP voting this year and his triumph over the thunder came
1:14.3	just days after Denver Nuggets Superstar Nicola Yolkich who hails from nearby
1:18.7	Serbia was announced as the winner of his third NBA MVP award in four years.
1:25.0	N. KOLA, three MVPs and a championship in four years. What a run. But we got a game to play tonight. So you are
1:39.2	the NBA's Kia MVP. Congratulations. This third MVP puts Yokoach in
1:46.7	elite company with guys like Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and in spite of the nuggets falling to the Timberwolves on Sunday
1:54.6	night, Jokich is still just one year removed from becoming the first player from that part
1:59.8	of Europe to win finals MVP. It's over.
2:05.0	It's over.
	...

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