November 26th 2009 – it was on this occasion that CBF “Big Boss” Radic introduced his sudden protege “Joke” Vrankovic as the new Croatian NT head coach. No one from CroHoops.com staff was asked to attend this suspicious & shady event.
Underachievement is an understatement. In the recent 2011 EuroBasket competition, the Croatian NT lost preliminary round games vs Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Greece achieving everyone’s nightmare – not qualifying to the TOP 12 teams for the first time in Croatian NT history.
And that’s not all folks. Over the last 6 months, the Croatian NT & club basketball deteriorated, while all NT selections performed poorly with the exception of U16 NT led by extraterrestrial Mario Hezonja.
This all was really no surprise to anyone except for the ex-referee, who is nowadays know as the “Boss” or “Godfather” of Croatian basketball, Mr. Danko Radic.
The way Radic operates Croatian basketball is simple & shady. He has turned it into his own gold mine with financing coming either directly from the State or from the poor citizens who need to pay enormous fees to his referees if they want to play the “queen of all games”.
It’s a public secret that basketball in Croatia is no longer a players’ sport. It’s belongs to the referees, who determine the present and the future of the game.
Through his deputy network and media satellites quietly installed to secure his own chair, while erasing the complete proud history of Croatian basketball before his tenure, Radic is able to control the destiny of Croatian basketball and potentials.
Ex-Croatian NT head coach Josip “Joke” Vrankovic became Radic’s favorite back in 2010, because of his decision to not support a movement called “Generation’92”, consisting mainly of Croatian players who played in the legendary 1992 Olympics Final vs Dream Team I.
“Generation ’92” has been active since the 2005 EuroBasket failure, but it had limited/no success in gaining ground from Radic’s authoritarian mechanism, with it’s members losing hope and thinking that “Radic tenure may endure all of their life time”.
It’s really a shame on Radic and his organization not to embrace names like Kukoc, Radja, Vrankovic, Perasovic, Cvjeticanin, Tabak, Komazec and anyone else. Drazen Petrovic’s brother, Aleksandar “Aco” Petrovic, has became one of the Radic’s worst nemesis over the years.
Croatian NT players describe the atmosphere in the locker room/bus/hotel as “comfortable”. That’s exactly the same adjective Cibona’s players used after underachieving under Vrankovic in 2007/08 season.
You can bet that the other Vrankovic for example, that is Stojko Vrankovic, would do a 100% better job on Croatian NT bench, based on his career achievements, experience, overall charisma and “this-one-is-going-down-baby” attitude.
Radic’s organization has hit the bottom while managing to demote basketball from the #1 place of team sports in Croatia back in 1992 to the last place in 2011. Everyone except Radic feels that his time is off. It’s time for change. Please sign the petition for Radic’s immediate resignation.
