New Knick: Darko Milicic and Serbians Played On, Even as the Bombs Fell

The US State Department in fact had listed the KLA as a terrorist organization until February 1998.  Yet, then Secretary of State Madeline Albright would even go so far as to as to shake hands with a KLA leader, Hashim Thaci, whom was called a "freedom fighter."  I have heard the same thing in reference to al-Qaeda.

Excerpted and paraphrased from Al-Qaeda's Balkan Links, written by Marcia Christoff Kurop for the Wall Street Journal, 11/01/2001.

The ties between al-Qaeda and the United States were also the topic of the film Fahrenheit 9/11. 

If you ask me, NATO supported al-Qaeda and the KLA against the Serbs, as the United States did for the Mujahideen (future Taliban) against the Soviets in Afghanistan back in the 1980s.

Moreover, I do believe that the intent of NATO’s support of the al-Qaeda backed KLA was to contain the mad dogs that they had unleashed in the 1980s against the Soviets. 

To also appease al-Qaeda after their attacks on US embassies less than a year earlier, just as Neville Chamberlain had attempted to appease Adolf Hitler before the NAZI’s invaded Poland.

The Serbs were just a convenient pawn needed to settle a score, and that attempt ultimately failed.  The Serbs resisted instead by playing games of will for scores. 

The Serbs have long been targets of attempts of forcible conversion (ex, the Ottoman's forcible submission to Islam).  Yet, the Serbs have resisted by acting as if, nothing was different.

Everything was the same as it was the day before.  On one hand, that's incredibly noble.  On the other, it should haunt you as to theme that underlines the deeply-rooted problems of the Balkans.

2003 NBA Draft and Inat

The debate has raged.  In the first three picks of the NBA Draft in 2003, Cleveland selected LeBron James, while Denver selected Carmelo Anthony.  Detroit of course passed on Anthony and selected Darko Milicic.

James and Anthony have been bona-fide superstars in the NBA.  There is however, one thing (and that is not the ring that Milicic won with Detroit in 2004 as a backup) that James and Anthony can never take from the one they call a bust, “Inat.”

Inat which is pronounced "eenat" has no true English translation, and has been generalized to mean, "Malice, spite, or grudge."

Even that is a limited, restricted interpretation, says Dragan Milovic, of London's Institute of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies.

It is, he says, more of an attitude of proud defiance, stubbornness, and self-preservation - sometimes to the detriment of everyone else or even oneself.

Excerpted and paraphrased from Inat: Serbia's Secret Weapon published by the BBC, 04/23/1999

The pride of Yugoslavian basketball in Serbia is great.  I also suggest that if you speak to a Serbian that you defer from saying, "Serbian basketball."  For them, "Serbia" is only a technicality. 

Since 1950, Serbia & Montenegro and the former Yugoslavia have won a combined 10 medals in the FIBA World Championship of Basketball, which is more than the United States at eight, and tied with the cumulative medals of Russia and the Soviet Union.

Most recently, Serbia & Montenegro won the FIBA World Championship in 2002.

Darko Milicic began playing professional basketball in Serbia in 1999 at the age of 14. Even though a sport cannot defend your life, it can defend your pride.  It can defend your sense of what is right.

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