Chad Ford's Yugo Diary 4

Wow! Lots of Eastern European phenoms in this article!

http://insider.espn.go.com/insider/story?id=1484363

Can Milos Vujanic save the Knicks?
by Chad Ford

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- During the joint U.S.-NATO bombing of Belgrade, the city was under constant attack, and life in Belgrade came to a standstill when the bombs came raining down. When the planes flew overhead, sirens would ring through the city and citizens in the streets would rush to the nearest bomb shelter.

The story goes that one morning, a group of basketball players, riding a bus on their way to practice, was pulled over by police shortly after the sirens started wailing. The police officer boarded the bus and told the players to get off and hide in the shelter. The players refused.

"Practice gym is close," they said. "Our coach will kill us if we are late."

The police officer tried again. "You are not safe here. You must protect yourself."

Again the players refused. "We are close to gym. We'll be all right."

Again, the officer tried to reason with them. "Gym is not a bomb a shelter. You may get killed if Americans drop a bomb on it."

The players still refused. "We aren't worried about that. The Americans would not bomb the gym. They know future NBA players play in there."

DEC. 18: THE KIDS

10 a.m. So far it's been easy to check out the star big-men like Darko Milicic and Milos Vujanic. Getting at the younger Yugoslavian studs has proven to be a much trickier endeavor. Clubs have caught on to how the NBA works over here. It's a good and bad situation. Some teams welcome scouts with open arms. If an NBA team discovers a kid, all is not lost. It's good business. The Yugoslavian club will get a $350,000 buyout from the NBA and possibly much more from the player if he goes high in lottery.

Perovic and Samardziski
Our correspondent is sandwiched by 17-year-old Kosta Perovic (left) and 15-year-old Pedja Samardziski.
Others aren't so ready to open their doors. Partizan, the club owned by Vlade Divac, has banned all scouts (and media) from its practices. The team has struggled some this year, but it's mainly because it is absolutely filled with the best young talent in the country. On Saturday, Ronzone and I checked out its junior team and told you about 15-year-old Pedja Samardziski.

As good as he is, Pedja isn't even close to Partizan's top young prospect. Ronzone and I catch a cab over to the Hala Pionir, the place where Partizan plays, with a plan. Red Star is also practicing there and we get approval from the team to watch practice. Partizan is scheduled to practice right after Red Star. Ronzone is good friends with Partizan head coach Dusko Vujosevic, and he's hoping he can talk Vujosevic into letting me stay for practice.

Ronzone and I don't spend much time watching Red Star. The team is playing good basketball at the moment, but it doesn't have many NBA prospects. The one intriguing guy is a 6-foot-11 forward named Vladimir Tica. Tica is draft-eligible this year and has puzzled scouts for the last few years.

"Two years ago, I was real high on him," Ronzone says. "He's got great perimeter skills for a kid his size. But he hasn't really gotten any better the last two years. He's the type of guy that will make you fall in love with him for one play. But over time, all of the rest of his plays don't add up to much. I'm just not sure on him."

Ronzone says that there may be nothing wrong with the kid. He may just be on the wrong team. Ronzone then goes on a pretty intense breakdown of Red Star and its coach. It's all very impressive. He knows these kids and the systems they're in. Many teams have four or five scouts to watch the 350 or so NCAA teams. But most rely on just one scout (if that) to cover the more than 2,000 FIBA teams that dot the globe.

"You've got to look at the coach and the system too," Ronzone says. "Teams that don't come over very often miss all of that. They see players out of context, and they don't see them in enough different situations to see what they can do. The U.S. players are probably over scouted, to the point that all you see are the flaws. On the flip side, these kids are under scouted. Teams are missing kids who can really help them."

"The Pistons can't draft them all," Ronzone says with a smile.

10:45 a.m. Ronzone notices the court is partitioned and hears balls bouncing on the other side. We casually walk over and peek behind the curtain.

Bingo.

On the other side are three of Partizan's top young players getting worked out by some assistant coaches. They include Marko Lekic, a 17-year-old, 6-foot-10 power forward who many feel may be the best prospect in Yugoslavia behind Darko Milicic and Kosta Perovic, another Partizan big man. Lekic is working out with Blagota Sekulic, a 6-foot-10 three-man who some scouts believe will be a late first rounder this summer. On the other side of the gym, working alone with another assistant coach is Uros Tripkovic, a 16-year-old, 6-foot-6 point guard who already is being prepped to take over the team once star point guard Milos Vujanic leaves for the NBA at the end of the season.

Ronzone and I sit down quietly at the end of the bench and hope we aren't noticed. Lekic is working on his power moves off of the baseline. He looks awesome. He has broad shoulders, thick legs and explodes to the basket. Lekic has Ronzone drooling. On the far court I'm watching Tripkovic catch and shoot on the perimeter. He has made 12 consecutive 3-pointers from different spots on the floor.

"This just got interesting," Tony says. Five minutes into the workout, an assistant coach spots us from across the gym and begins heading toward us. A friend of Ronzone's is also in the gym and he walks toward the coach in an attempt to intervene. There is a heated discussion and Ronzone's friend tells us we have to leave.

"Doesn't matter," Ronzone whispers to me as we walk out of the gym. "I saw everything I needed to see."

12:00 p.m. Word has spread throughout Yugoslavia that Ronzone and I are here. The journalist I spoke of Monday, Djordje Matic, has written a piece on me in the Glas Javnosti newspaper, and by Wednesday they are coming out of the woodwork. One by one the top young players are making their way to my hotel to get interviewed. By the time we leave, I will have interviewed more than dozen players in just three days.

Slavko Vranes
At 7-foot-6, Slavko Vranes would be the tallest player in the NBA.
The most interesting is 7-foot-6 giant Slavko Vranes. Vranes speaks great English and is incredibly enthused to get the interview under way. As we meet in the lobby, he forgoes the handshake and puts his huge arm around me to give me a hug. He's so big he literally has to bend all the way down to hug me. It is a hilarious sight.

Vranes is just 18 years old, but he already is making a big impact on his team, B.C. Buducnost. Vranes, like most big men, is quick to play down his size. He's still a little uncomfortable in his skin. He tells me he's just a regular guy and that he'd be a good basketball player no matter what his size was.

"I'm nothing special," he tells me. I'd beg to differ.

Vranes, if he gets drafted this year, would likely be the tallest player in the NBA. He wears a size 20 shoe, but it's his intelligence that keeps impressing me. He is speaking almost fluent English. When I ask him where he learned, he holds up three fingers and says school. Vranes took English in high school for three years. I took Spanish for four and have trouble ordering at Taco Bell.

While he doesn't have all the offensive skills that make the Yugoslavian big men so great, the upside is there. He's very coordinated for his size and runs the floor like a guard. Vranes can explain this.

"I take karate since I was a kid." Really. "I am brown belt now. I would be black, but I don't have time to practice it much. I spend too much time in the gym working on my game."

It's showing. Last year he didn't play at all. Now he gets major minutes, though he claims he's "nothing special" at least four more times. The more we talk, the more I understand why.

After about 15 minutes, he begins to open up. As you can expect, Vranes was teased as a child for being so tall. He's struggled to gain acceptance. All he wants is to be normal. "I don't mind being tall," he says. "It doesn't make me special. Just different. We're all different."

Vranes goes on to tell me that he had to leave Yugoslavia when he was 16 after his coach kept hitting him. "He hit me and call me stupid and say that I am a worthless player. I finally came home and tell my parents that I quit, I can't take it anymore. But I soon change my mind and decide that I should go somewhere else to get better and come back to Yugoslavia when I'm ready."

Vranes packed his bags and moved to Turkey. In a little over a year he learned to speak fluent Turkish and developed into one of the premier young big men in Europe. Now he's back in Yugoslavia, playing with a vengeance. Scouts are flocking to get a look, and within the next six months, he could be headed to the NBA. Not bad for a kid who has had to fight constant abuse his whole life. As you guessed, Vranes isn't as impressed with his story as I am.

"It's nothing special."

1 p.m. More players arrive looking for an interview. This time it's Kosta Perovic, largely regarded as the third-best young prospect in Yugoslavia behind Darko Milicic and Pedja Samardziski, the 15-year-old phenom we spoke of on Monday. Something catches our eye immediately when the two walk into the lobby. Perovic is taller than Samardziski. That takes Ronzone and I both by surprise. The scouting reports on the two have Perovic listed at 6-foot-11 and Samardziski listed at 7-foot-1.

“ I'm still growing. Right now I'm 7-foot-2, but tomorrow I may be 7-foot-3. ”
— Kosta Perovic, age 17
We immediately ask Perovic, who turns 18 in April, what's up. "I'm still growing," he responds. "Right now I'm 7-foot-2, but tomorrow I may be 7-foot-3."

You have to love the quick wit of all of these players. They are comfortable sitting down for an interview and like to turn the tables on me. They have many questions about the NBA. Their knowledge of the league is incredible. Perovic says his favorite player is Hakeem Olajuwon. Olajuwon is a Hall of Famer, sure, but Perovic was 12 years old the last time the Dream was practicing the shake. Ronzone mentions GM Joe Dumars at another point in the conversation and then asks Samardziski if he knows who he is. "Of course. He is Bad Boy."

Perovic and Samardziski both want badly to play in the NBA. For Perovic, the dream may not be far off. He's actually older than Milicic and plays a prominent role for Partizan and for the Yugoslavian national team. Unlike Milicic, however, Perovic is very thin. He tells me the plan for now is to stay in Yugoslavia one or two more years to work on getting stronger.

Could he be a lottery pick in 2004? Every scout I talked to agreed that he'll follow in Darko's footsteps. "He's got great length, is another skilled post player and an excellent shot blocker," one scout says. "He gets pushed around a little down low, but you can already see the improvement. His game is very similar to Gasol's. Give him another year and he'll be big time."

Perovic's advantage is that at 17, he's already playing against the top talent in Europe. His team usually gives him significant minutes, and the learning curve is impressive. Intense five- to six-hour practices every single day aren't hurting him either.

Nenad Kristic was in a similar position to Perovic last season. In just one year he's gone from prospect to legit NBA material. Scouts expect the same thing from Perovic next year.

Samardziski hasn't even made it onto the senior team, but he's already dreaming about the NBA. He idolizes Tim Duncan, "He's the smartest big man in the league," Pedja says.

Pedja is full of stories. He's actually from Macedonia and comes from a basketball family. His father was a star in Macedonia and took Pedja with him wherever he played. Pedja says he's been playing since he was 3. Spend five minutes with the kid and you can tell that he has a passion for the game that will get him far. After I tell him I'm done with the interview he looks surprised. "That's it?"

"Do you have more that you want to tell me?" I ask.

As a matter of fact he does. He wants me to know that he's not just a big man. He won two 3-point contests at a basketball camp last year. Two years ago he took it upon himself to guard Tony Parker. "He is very fast. I try to get down low to keep up with him. I do an OK job. But after the game, my back hurts for two days. I should probably stick to guarding big guys. What do you think?"

Not a bad idea.

7:30 p.m. Much to the relief of the hundreds of Knicks fans that keep e-mailing me, after being kicked out of practice and denied at every turn, we finally get a chance to see Milos Vujanic, New York's second-round pick this year. Partizan has a big Euroleague game against CSKA Moscow tonight, and Ronzone and I have front row seats.

Milos Vujanic
Vujanic
The arena is filled 30 minutes before the game. The gym is filled with smoke by the time we get there. When the players hit the floor for warm-ups they look like they're practicing in the fog. The Partizan fans know how to party. They sing, they chant, they throw fire crackers at our head and everyone goes berserk whenever the cheerleaders hit the floor. The place is literally vibrating 15 minutes before tip-off.

Ronzone and I know we won't be seeing guys like Lekic and Tripkovic, but we're hoping to get a much better look at Perovic along with two players already drafted last summer, Vujanic and Nenad Kristic. This is a great game for prospects. CSKA has Viktor Khyrapa, an Andrei Kirilenko look-alike who's widely considered to be a mid first-round pick in the 2003 draft.

Scouts from the Clippers, Sonics, Rockets and Bulls are on hand to watch the game. Oddly, Partizan has decided to pull Perovic from the starting lineup tonight. Ronzone smiles and tells me we won't be seeing him tonight.

"They know we're all here," Ronzone said. "They don't want us to get a good look."

For once, Partizan doesn't need him. Perhaps Vujanic also knows that we are here. He's been playing at nosebleed levels this season and is now widely considered to be the top point guard in Europe. Vujanic is a 6-foot-4 Energizer bunny. He cannot stand still for five seconds. He's running, darting, pushing, diving.

At first glance, his game is eerily reminiscent of Steve Nash's, with one or two differences. Both players are fantastic shooters (Vujanic goes 4-for-9 from beyond the arc tonight). They both love to push the ball up the court, and always keep their cool even under pressure. Vujanic, however, is a better athlete and a tougher defender.

The NBA's best point guards all have one thing in common -- the ability to split defenders and get the ball to the basket. Jason Kidd is the master of this, and Vujanic isn't far behind.

“ What's going on with Latrell Sprewell? You think I will get to play with him? I want to play with him. He is a good player. ”
— Milos Vujanic, second round pick by the Knicks last June
One second he's shooting 3s. The next he's pushing the ball on the break and dishing a perfect behind-the-back pass to a trailing teammate for the jam. The next time down, he's battling for offensive rebounds, and then he's flinging himself into the stands for a loose ball. Vujanic has a killer jump stop and can pull up on a dime and sink the open jumper.

CSKA has no answer for him. At times they triple-team him, but he always makes them pay. He is putting on a show tonight. Of all of the players we've seen on the trip, he is by far the best. His stat line at the end of the game tells most of the story: 28 points on 7 of 14 shooting, seven assists, three rebounds and three steals in 36 minutes. Most important, Partizan scores a huge upset over CSKA.

After the game I sat with Vujanic and talked about the Knicks. His first question to me was telling. "What's going on with Latrell Sprewell? You think I will get to play with him?" As Insider readers already know, this is right up my alley, and I quickly get him up to speed on the latest rumors.

"I want to play with him. He is a good player." Vujanic must be reading the N.Y. Post every day. No mention of Allan Houston or Antonio McDyess. Spree's popular even in Yugoslavia.

Vujanic says his favorite player is Allen Iverson. You can see a little Iverson in his frantic style. We talk about Iverson for a second and then Vujanic turns to his translator and says something in Serbian.

"Milos wants to be clear. He likes to watch Iverson play. He is a very good player. But he doesn't want to be like Iverson. You understand?"

All too well.

Now for the bad news. Vujanic isn't convinced he's coming to the NBA next season. He's concerned about his role with the Knicks and how many minutes he'll get. I tell him that his only competition is Charlie Ward and Howard Eisley. He understands. But the kid loves to play so much, he's still wary.

"I just want to make sure I'm getting a chance to play. If not, it's maybe better for me to stay here."

A complete breakdown in scouting led to Vujanic slipping into the second round. Vujanic said his lack of a U.S. agent may have had something to do with his slip, but he's happy he ended up in New York. He played there in a tournament three years ago and fell in love with the city.

His experience in the World Championships has really helped his progression. His confidence level rose tremendously after he more than handled Andre Miller and Baron Davis in Yugoslavia's win over Team USA. Now he's already pining for the chance to go one-on-one with Kidd.

The Knicks may have screwed up a lot of things the last few years, but after watching Vujanic play, there's hope in New York. Combine him with a lottery pick like Darko Milicic and a healthy McDyess, and you have a completely re-energized team.

Nets fans also should breathe a big sigh of relief. I caught what has to be Kristic's best game as a pro. He went off for 19 points on 6 of 10 shooting last night. That's huge when you consider he was playing against former NBA big man Victor Alexander for most of the night. No, Alexander wasn't a top-tier big man in the NBA, but he's very strong and gave Kristic a good taste of what he'll be in for each night in the NBA. Kristic responded to the physical play with a series of spin moves, fade-aways and a couple of thunderous dunks.

As for Khyrapa, it wasn't his night. He struggled with his jumper and was benched for much of the game in favor of a kid named Sergei Monia. Monia may be one of the best finds of the entire trip.

He also didn't have a great game, but you could tell the 19-year-old could play. He has a fantastic body, is extremely hyper on both ends of the floor and can really stroke the ball. He's 6-foot-8 and can play three positions (shooting guard, small and power forward). Monia is raw, but after consulting with most of the scouts there, the consensus was that he's a legitimate first-round NBA prospect.

After the game, his teammate, Victor Alexander, confirms the analysis. "That kid is impressive, man. His coach makes him really tighten up in the games, but in practice he kills. He's a ferocious dunker and loves taking it to the basket. He jumps, rebounds, fights down low. The kid is a player."

11 p.m. Perhaps the coolest thing about being here is the chance to go out with all of the scouts and hear their stories about that one great prospect who no one else knows about.

Scouts have secrets. Lots of them. They are also paranoid as hell. They all believe other scouts have 7-foot-6 point guards hidden away in the hills of Siberia. Of course, none of them will admit to doing it themselves.

Ronzone is coy when I ask him if there is any truth to the rumors. The stories go something like this:

A scout discovers a big kid no one knows about. He arranges for him to travel to an undisclosed location. He hires a top-notch coach and has the kid in the gym every day, working on his game. The theory goes that when he's ready, the scout's team will put his name in the draft. No one discloses any information on the kid, and the scout makes sure he doesn't work out for anyone. Because no one has ever seen him before, there's a good chance everyone will pass him by. Then the team swoops in, during the second round, and drafts the next Dirk Nowitzki.

I ask for examples and find them in short supply. Still, they tell their stories with absolute conviction. There is a hushed reverence to the whole thing. And late at night, it all gets a bit spooky. The whole scene, for some reason, reminds me of Quint, in the movie Jaws, telling Brody and Hooper about a shark attack when his ship, the USS Indianapolis, is sunk by a torpedo.

"Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. Thirteen-footer. You know ... you know that when you're in the water, chief? You tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. Well, we didn't know. 'Cause our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. Huh huh. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, chief. The sharks come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know it's... kinda like 'ol squares in battle like a, you see on a calendar, like the battle of Waterloo. And the idea was, the shark would go for nearest man and then he'd start poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark would go away. Sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a shark, he's got ... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'. Until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white. And then, ah, then you hear that terrible high pitch screamin', and the ocean turns red and in spite of all the poundin' and the hollerin' they all come in and rip you to pieces."

Clippers scout Fabrizio Besnati, however, has a story that actually might have some teeth to it. Before he worked for the Clippers, Besnati was the general manager of a team in St. Petersburg, Russia. On one scouting trip, Besnati ran across a seven-foot kid in the middle of Nowhere, Siberia. Besnati was intrigued and eventually arranged for him to go to a small club in Italy to work on his game.

The thinking was that in a couple of years, Besnati would pull him out and he'd have a nice player. Shortly thereafter, Besnati left the St. Petersburg team and joined the Clippers scouting staff. Upon his return to Varese, Italy, Besnati was shocked to find that his kid had grown -- four inches and more than 60 pounds. The kid, Pavel Padkolzin, now stands 7-foot-4 and weighs more than 300 pounds.

According to Besnati, the kid isn't just big, he can play. "He's been practicing every day for over a year, and the development has been better than you can imagine. He can shoot the 3, is a great ball handler and has a great feel for the game."

Of course, because he's tucked away, no NBA scouts have seen him play. Besnati swears that if he were scouted like Darko has been, he's an easy top 10 pick in next year's draft. "I'm serious about this. He's that good. He makes Slavko Vranes look like a toothpick."

I'm skeptical. Besnati invites Ronzone and I to visit him in Italy. He says we'll need 10 minutes to make up our minds. We laugh the whole thing off. Besnati is clearly intent on proving the existence of such a kid. He gets on the Uleb Cup website and pulls up the team site. His name is nowhere to be found on the roster and Besnati gets upset.

"I know he's here somewhere." A minute later he begins laughing and directs us back to the web site. He's pulled up a copy of this year's team picture. Standing in the back row, in the middle, is the biggest guy I've seen since Shaq. He's standing two players away from former NBA center Shawnelle Scott. This kid makes the 6-foot-11, 270 pound Scott look like Kerry Kittles.

"That's him," Besnati says, still laughing. "You're going to break the biggest story of the draft."

Ronzone and I are stunned. Besnati leaves 10 minutes later. Tony and I are still staring at the picture. Minutes later, Ronzone talks to Joe Dumars and tells him they may have to make a little detour on his next trip to Europe. After seeing the picture, I expect another 28 GMs to start booking their flights to Verase today.