By Peter Toth
This is Macedonia now where we are watching the National U16 Championship for boys. It is the game between MZT Skopje and Partizan Vodno Sans that we notice the center of the white team. Rebound after rebound the young center catches guiding his team into a strong leading position. Thus I started to follow the young center as he countinued rebounding which at the end of the game topping at more 20 which is more than that of any other player in the whole competition has made. After a short investigation by the officials we are told that the young center was and still is one of the best rebounder of his age and was selected as the best player in free throws in a Serbian basketball camp two years ago.
Having learnt this it seems obvious that we decide to approach the kid, whose name is Stefan Donakovski (23. 06. 1997.) playing for MZT Skopje. The first thing one notices about him is, of course, that he stands out not only from his own team, but also from the whole competition of boys born in 1997, as for his 15 years he has just passed 198cm. He is a real South-European center-project with an extremely slim, but very quick body, with huge feet running the floor firmly and fastly and having extremely large basketball hands which palm the ball so easily as one sees NBA pro-players holding it at a media shooting.
When addressing Stefan for an interview I had to realize this myself as being a man of average stature (given my 1.77m) I hardly reach the chin of the 15 year old youngster. So it seemed obvious to ask him to take seat in order to question him about his past experience and future perspectives.
As born in Macedonia he has started sport quite early. Although, thanks to TV broadcast, he was encharmed by US basketball at a very early age, in the beginning sport, just like for so many youngsters in Central and Southern Europe, meant football for him. He started kicking the ball when he was seven years old but as from that age he grew exceptionally fast he soon felt uncomfortable at the football ground and had to realize that this game was not so much for him.
“After some months of staying away from football, it was my father who suggested me to try basketball. At that time I was 10 years old reaching 165cm and my foot has just grown out of my size 42 sneakers. These circumstances given, basketball seemed a very reasonable perspective.” It was with team Junior that basketball first entered in Stefan’s life and since then it hasn’t let him go.
„At first I started to train only because I have always been so much taller than any other boy of my age. Growing 5-6 centimeters in each year, I just enjoyed the advantages of my towering stature catching rebounds and blocking high shots all the time. (one can do nothing but confirm that it is not only him but also the spectator who enjoys this entertainement of his). But after I have settled in the team MZT Skopje I really started to feel other aspects of the game. When playing the center position I get filled up with a certain type of positive energy, can’t describe it any other way, an energy which drives me up and up. When I started playing at 11 I immediately felt taken by the game I was somehow compelled to go up and up to reach towards the rim, the ball the height and I still feel this irresistable draw once I get closer to the court.”
The enthusiasm what the interviewer immediately notices in Stefan obviously helps him a lot on as well as off the court. I have been told that even being away from practice he trains carefully, running and lifting weights at home to keep up condition. Speaking about his future plans he is very modest. „I have to work very hard. I know my strengths are shot and defense capabilities and to catch the ball without jumping, but I am fully aware that this is way not all. I have to practice gain muscle and experience, but I hope I will succeed in basketball and one day I can play for a professional basketball club in Euroleague: clubs like CSKA, Fenerbahce, Barselona or Real. When we won the championship with my team in 2012 there was so much crowd in the hall, I can’t describe the feeling, but I know I want to achieve it again and again, not so much for myself, but for my team and my club.
