NO MONEY, NO PROBLEM: Cibona Zagreb borrows Croatian PF Mario Delas from Zalgiris Kaunas
2009 FIBA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP - MARIO DELAS HIGHLIGHTS
Time has definitely changed. Or stopped for some.
Cibona, a Croatian basketball giant with substantial financial problems which we have already reported before, is loaning a MVP of 2009 FIBA World Championship from it's traditional Euroleague rival Zalgiris Kaunas.
And that's not all Folks. Cibona, which ows all of the salaries to the majority(meaning over 90%) of the Croatian players who played for the ball club in the last THREE seasons is now again testing the stability of already crushed players market making the move for which they really can not firmly guarantee a payment.
Cibona's newly appointed coach Zdravko Radulovic is naturally very happy about the transfer which brings him even more formidable frontline power (for free?):
"We are very close to the aim of having a young, potent team made from Croatian players, who should become future basketball stars. Mario Delas, Leon Radosevic and Tomislav Zubcic have played together since they were kids. I am very glad that Delas and Zubcic will compete for the minutes, this will make them both better."
Recent 2010 FIBA European Championship in Zadar has confirmed that Mario Delas is a serious ball player, but who needs to show even more presence on the both ends of the floor and raise his overall level of agressivness.
His career has been stumbling down since leaving Croatia last year. If his agent made this move a year ago Delas would regenerate his career playing alongside Cibona's "young guns" trio of Bogdanovic-Zubcic-Radosevic.
It's is amazing that in one year player such as Radosevic has completely overshadowed Delas by his recent career achievements, and he was only his sparingly used back-up in the 2009 FIBA World Championship. At this point Delas is stucked behind him in a Cibona rotation and awaits a chance to again prove himself.
But with a recession hitting Croatia hard there are really no guarantees that this season will be a look-a-like of the previous one which Cibona led by ingenious coach Velimir Perasovic and PG Jamont Gordon made a one to remember.
Although coach Radulovic talks about competition between Delas and Zubcic it needs to be stated that Zubcic is forced to play a power forward due to a incompetence of almost all coaches who have worked with him in the past.
He still has talents to play a small forward, but the time is running out for him. At this point 6'10'' Zubcic has been brainwashed and forced to continue his career as "a worker" instead of "the creator".
Even if Delas establishes him as the best of the three above mentioned prospective power forwards he will still have to compete for a starting job with a proven Croatian 26 year old journeyman PF/C Drago Pasalic, who is alike Delas also from the town of Split.
Without coach Perasovic and amazing court leader in Jamont Gordon this bunch of talented Croatian players could easily become a bunch of hungry Wolves in the dark and cold Euroleague winter. And why is that - because money still makes this world turn around. Of course, there are always exceptions, and the last Cibona season was a huge one.
The players should still act accordingly to the most famous line of the movie "Jerry McGuirre": "Show me the money!". Either that or they are free to join CroHoops League.
Marjan Crnogaj is editor-in-chief of Nba.blog.hr & CroHoops.com.
He can be reached at marjan.crnogaj@gmail.com