“	We’ll hurt anyone foolish enough to underestimate us	„
		Jasmin Hukic

Bosnia-Herzegovina is the only nation to emerge from the former Yugoslavia which has failed to capitalize on the former country's basketball heritage. Due to the war legacy, many of its nationals are living in other countries and have chosen to pursue their national team careers outside of Bosnia-Herzegovina. For that reason, the Bosnian team is again crippled, but not without ambitions at this EuroBasket.

Danilovic, Alibegovic, Savic, Mulaomerovic, Zadravec, Sesar, Askrabic, Becirovic, Planinic, Mamic, Markota... It’s not a long list, but we have surely left out a couple of names. All those guys never played for their native country, Bosnia-Herzegovina. The reasons vary – some were born when their country was part of the former Yugoslavia or left to other countries (mostly Slovenia) to pursue their careers. Others gravitated towards the capitals of their nations of origin (Belgrade for the Serbs, Zagreb for the Croats), while many of them fled the war to Serbia and Croatia and stayed there and ended up competing for those national teams. When the war ended, Bosnia-Herzegovina found itself seriously diminished in basketball terms, amongst other woes, and never fully recovered, seriously trailing other former Yugoslav nations.

And just like them, it has a whole colony of players earning their living abroad – an incredible total of 217! The country that has hosted the most Bosnian emigrants is Germany – 30.

Having said that, one must stress that the basketball journey of a war-torn country like Bosnia has been nevertheless remarkable. Bosnia & Herzegovina have qualified for six EuroBaskets since the split of Yugoslavia in 1991, just one less than Croatia and Slovenia who have made seven. On the other hand, the latter have had more success at EuroBasket and the Bosnians never reached the second round; what’s more, they have failed to win a single game, except in 1993 in the first round of the EuroBasket in Germany. In Belgrade, they hope to take it to the next level. But that might prove to be hard.

“We are in a very tough group”, said head coach Mensur Bajramovic. Indeed, between France, Greece, Slovenia and Bosnia, most would point out at the latter to be the outsider. Again, there are no easy groups at the EuroBasket, so the Bosnians have some hard work in front of them.

The mood during the preparation period was good, albeit with problems in terms of participation. Bajramovic trimmed down the initial list of candidates from 24 to 16. Many players cancelled their participation during the preparations, including team star Haris Mujezinovic, who made it clear as early as the qualifying round that he didn’t intend to play in Belgrade. Bosnia will miss his experience and muscle in the paint. Absent will also be the giant (2.17 m) Nedzad Sinanovic, who didn’t want to miss the Portland Trailblazers training camp. Finally, the coach would have loved power forward Damir Krupalija to have been able to play – but he too has submitted his cancellation.

		Damir Mrsic

Surprisingly, arguably the best Bosnian international player to date, Nenad Markovic hasn’t been included in the list of 24. True, he just turned 37, but still possesses unmatched outside firepower and passion for the game. The proof – he just signed for the national champions – Bosna Sarajevo – for three years. There’s currently no one in the national team able to replace his shooting and leadership qualities. But as they say, you’ve got to work with what you’ve got, and indeed the Bosnians did: they started the preparations with a lukewarm outing at the Mediterranean Games in Turkey with two wins and two losses, finishing sixth. It was a good opportunity to test the young “rookies” without taking definitive conclusions. However, Bajramovic was pleased with the performances of versatile big man Milos Mirkovic, and sweet shooting swingman Mujo Tuljkovic. Bosnia went to the next tournament in Ohrid and produced a noticeably better outing - three wins in three games, with excellent performances from Teletovic, Bajramovic and the freshly included Domercant.

		Henry Domercant

This was a huge boost for Bajramovic, whose squad hopes to make a historical breakthrough, which means advancing to the second round and the quarter finals. “We’ll hurt anyone foolish enough to underestimate us” warned one of the main players in the team Jasmin Hukic.

Hukic is a sure fire starter, together with Kenan Bajramovic, Damir Mrsic, Elvir Ovcina and Henry Domercant. The American combo guard from Efes Pilsen has recently been granted Bosnian citizenship and authorized to play for his adoptive country’s national team. Domercant perfectly epitomizes the story of the Bosnian basketball exodus previously described: with more than two hundred of its citizens professionally playing ball abroad, Bosnia-Herzegovina had to turn to America to find a guard! The world on its head. You can’t blame the Bosnians. After all, all the countries of the former Yugoslavia will have up to seven players born in Bosnia, or born from Bosnian parents. This is globalization, Bosnian style.