Along with football, handball, water polo and skiing, basketball is popular in Croatia too. Croatia citizens are sport minded people and they are very fond of joining leagues and competitions however in basketball their country has only few appearances in certain competitions in international level.
They had only appeared trice in Olympic game, twice in World Championship and nine times in the Eurobasket competitions.Alhough Croatia is not that visible in international competitions they had still managed to show their ability and skills in basketball through the Croatia NBA Players that is now bringing honor to their country.
The NBA Players from Croatia is something that they are very proud because of the fact that basketball is very popular in the world, producing excellent players is such an honor to a country.Here are some of Croatian NBA Players which makes their country very proud:
Damir Markota Omerhodžić ( Šveđo)
Markota being a basketball player, I think was his destiny. Due to the world war his family decided to leave Bosnia and settle in Sweden where he was introduced to basketball. Since then he never stopped playing basketball and had enhanced his skills through it.
Due to his excellence and achievements in basketball he became very popular in Croatia and this lead him to be a candidate for the 2004 NBA Draft unfortunately he was withdrawn in the list.
At his first attempt to become an one of Croatia NBA players he obviously failed but it is a blessing in disguise for after that failure he was picked to become a member of the Croatian national team wherein he was able to enhance his skills which would make him show that he is worthy to be in NBA. Because of his determination and great potential he finally became an NBA player, he was picked by San Antonio Spurs during the second round of 2006 NBA Draft. This marked as the beginning of his professional career in NBA.
Mario Kasun
Kasun was born to be a basketball player. At the age of 14 he was already a member of a club in Delnice where he was able to practice and improve the skills that he has. His very first break in basketball was when he became a professional player for the BC Zrinjeavac in Zagreb where he was able to show that he is capable of leading the team.
One of his biggest achievement in basketball was being a part of the Croatian under-21 Team in year 2000 where they became the champion that year. Kasun began his NBA career when he was chosen in the 2002 NBA pre draft, he was a crowd favorite because of the fact that he was the tallest player that time.
His biggest break in NBA was when he became a member of Los Angeles Clippers. After a few months as a part of Los Angeles Clippers team, he was then traded for the Orlando Magic wherein he was able to show off more his talents and had which made him more popular and became known as one of the Croatia NBA players that had bring pride to the country.