Serbian Summer Slapstick

DARKO THE DESTROYER?

--One decent playoff series and now Darko thinks he's the best player Europe ever produced. The Euro Champs are still more than 2 months away, but the newly emboldened Mr. Milicic has pumped a little bit of early juice into the festivities. In an interview for Serbian daily paper, Vecernje Novosti (my first stop before ESPN.com), Darko states that Serbia will destroy host country, Spain, & every other European country in their path:

"We'll destroy them all - Spaniards, Greeks, Lithuanians, Russians, Frenches, Italians... All of them! They're good, but we can demolish them all. Spain is not unbeatable. I like to play against Pau Gasol, he's soft. If we win Gold medal in Spain, I'll take my shirt off and then I will jump from Parliament terrasse. After that I dont need anything else in my life".

Calling out Spain & specifically Gasol--calling him "soft": Nice. Though I'm not sure if that's good for Pau's rep if Darko calls him soft.

Darko will have ample opportunities to back-up his bold proclamations in Spain because he should be Serbia's main frontcourt option this summer. As of right now, Serbia is probably going to face Spain in the 2nd round, so it will be interesting to see how the Madrid fans welcome Darko. Stay Tuned.


SERBIAN SEARCH PARTY--Where's Radman?

--The second part of this Serbian Saga has to do with the unknown whereabouts of Laker Vlade Radmanovic. Last we heard, Serbian Head Coach Zoran Slavnic is offering a TV or laptop computer to anyone who can get their hands on the cell-phone digits of Radmanovic. It seems like no one in the Serbian basketball federation can get in touch with Vlad or Sasha Pavlovic for that matter.

Can't say that I'm too surprised that no one can contact Vlad. His own NBA coach has already been on record describing Vlad as "a space cadet". He also missed a chunk of this season with a bum shoulder because of a snowboarding accident that he initially said was due to slipping on ice.

And this ain't the first time Vlad has had a bizarre incident with his national team. Still remember fondly in 2002 during the World Champs when the cameras panned up into the stands & Vlad is sitting up in the stands while Yugoslavia was on the court. Just sitting with some Yugos fans while his team was warming up to play. He had a run-in with his coach about playing time & was kicked off the bench at halftime of the Semifinals. Also, after Team Serbia's disastrous showing in the last Euro Champs, supposedly Vlad was in the middle of some scuffles with teammates after the lost to France. I just wonder if Vlad's whereabouts are worth a Plasma Flat-screen or just a regular 25" CRT?