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great preview from r/nba
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/4y2917/why_is_tomorrows_quarterfinal_between_serbia_and/
Tomorrow night, one of the biggest games in Serbian and Croatian basketball history takes place in Rio. Even thought the match starts at 03:15am in local time, I doubt there will be anyone asleep, because a win in this match would be more celebrated than actually winning a medal.
Yes, everyone will say that soccer is the most popular sport in Europe, and in Croatia and Serbia as well (Serbia recently won the U20 World Cup in 2015, and even though their senior squad didn't qualify for the "real" World Cup in Brazil, they celebrated like they won that one
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), but basketball really is something else. I believe a lot of you don't know that Yugoslavia was the only country besides USA and USSR that won an Olympic gold (3 silvers and 1 bronze as well), and everyone should know the story about the most important Olympic team (or as we call it - The real Dream Team). I also recommend watching Once brothers, an ESPN documentary about the relationship of Vlade Divac and Dražen Petrović through the breakup of Yugoslavia.
After all those glorious years, just when the Yugoslavian basketball was reaching its peak (winning 1990 World Cup while beating both USA and USSR, and dominating 1991 EuroBasket), it all came crushing down. A war started. And while Yugoslavian squad was split into two parts, the passion for each of them grew stronger and a big rivalry was born.
Now let's talk about the actual subject. The Curse.
It wasn't long before the two countries met. It was in 1995, at EuroBasket in Greece. Both Yugoslavia (Serbia) and Croatia dominated their groups with 6-0. They were supposed to meet at the finals, and what a match that would have been, hadn't Croatia lost to Lithuania in the semifinals. But the two countries did eventually meet, at the podium. Yugoslavia won the tournament and Croatia was third placed.
The tensions were really high at that moment. While the two countries were playing basketball in Greece, a war was happening at home. The Yugoslav team were about to receive their gold medals, and an unprecedented move happened, Croatian team stepped down from the podium and walked off the court. That marks the start of The Curse - Croatia left the podium, never to return again. Former (and current) Croatian coach, Aleksandar Petrović (older brother of Dražen Petrović), recently said that they had to do that under the pressure from the political top.
The next game between two countries was in Spain, at the 1997 Eurobasket. And that's when the curse started taking its toll. Croatia was leading 62-61, and Saša Đorđević (current coach of Serbia) took the ball and scored this amazing buzzer beater. Yugoslavia went on to win the tournament again while Croatia didn't make it to the Quarterfinals.
Yugoslavia (later Serbia) met with Croatia two more times, and won both games (80:66 in EuroBasket 2001, 7  2 in World Cup 2010, both in Turkey).
One of the most memorable games happen in 2010, in the Adriatic League finals, between Partizan and Cibona (club champions of Serbia and Croatia) in Croatia's capital, Zagreb. The game went to overtime, and in final seconds, Partizan missed clutch free throws, Cibona caught the ball with 6 seconds left, and, now a very well-known player, Bojan Bogdanović scored an amazing three-pointer from the corner to make the game 74-72 for Cibona, with the shot clock at 0.6 seconds. The crowd went wild, players almost rushed on court, Cibona's coach struggled to hold them back waiting for the final buzzer. Dušan Kecman from Partizan took the ball and threw it from full court out of desperation. And the ball went in. The next day, if you asked anyone about the game, they would just say: "The curse."
Croatia really didn't step on the medal podium again, while Yugoslavia, later Serbia had better luck.
Tommorow's game is more than just a game. The curse will definitely stay, but the real question is, who will stay affected by it?
Why do I say that?
Because before the start of the Olympics, "Serbian Sports Minister Vanja Udovicic had issued a directive to the country's athletes to conduct a protest walk-out if any Kosovar athlete stepped onto the medals podium." Sounds familiar? The saddest part is, that the Minister is actually a very successful athlete himself, he was one of the best Water Polo players in Serbia.
So, if Miloš Teodosić, Bogdan and Bojan Bogdanović, Nikola Jokić, Mario Hezonja, Dario Šarić and others didn't convince you to watch the game, I hope this story changes your mind.
Greetings from Belgrade, and may the best team win!
Edit: I didn't mention Argentina winning the Olympics in 2004 because I was speaking about a period before Yugoslavia broke up. (They threw us out of the group, so don't think I forgot about them.) ---
"though time has passed, im still the future" (c) black thought
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