By Peter Toth

Bosnia is far, Bosnia is exotic, Bosnia has problems, but in terms of basketball, Bosnia is an inexhaustible resource of promising talents and young hopes. And what is true for the country is even truer for one of its most distinguished teams, the OKK Spars in Sarajevo. The team, especially its junior and U16 players, are regular participants of all the most important European competitions. Today, however, we had the opportunity to peep behind the scenes and check the resources that produced players like Jusuf Nurkic or Doko Salic, that is the youngest players in the U15 team.

It is the size that strikes me first when I see the team. Kids, hardly turned 14, and many of them are already over 6 foot and their center towers even above them. Erwin Gutic (2000) is already 6’ 9” which, for a 14 year old boy, is huge, however it is not only his height, but rather his speed and remarkably soft hands which I immediately notice. He runs the court quickly, follows the competition very well, standing always where he is needed, just as all the other, much smaller players. When going for scores he is extraordinarily agile and has a good hand to hit the rim and undefeatable in rebounding, blocking. Once he gets the ball he just throws it over the heads of his opponents hitting the rim 3-4-5 times, one after the other resulting in 24 points at the end of the game.

When approached, the young giant looks down on me cheerfully and answers in a surprisingly nice English.

 -"I have always been bigger than anyone else around me, so basketball was a must. I started at a club called KK Rin, Sarajevo when I was 7 years old. Although I was extremely tall, I always “played up”, that is with boys 2-3 years older than me, so I have never been treated as a real center and learned the "Basketball Alphabet" of almost every position. I was 11 and about 6’ 4” when the club was purchased by OKK Spars (the team of Salic and Piric and Bajo) and I automatically became part of the best environment possible. Coached by Bakir Srna, the former coach of the national U14 champion KK Bosna, a new era has begun".

-"This was the time when we started to take his basketball mania seriously – interrupts his father who comes to pick him up - at the beginning we were sceptical. Erwin was just an ever-growing giant with a spider-like body of 115 lbs, two heads taller than everyone, but uncoordinated and slow, much prone for injuries. But with Spars he has been working astonishingly hard and now with his 198lbs and experience at all posts he has grown out to be a confident and very strong player".

-"Now I am “playing up” for the OKK Spars U16 team, working together with players like Darko Bajo, Sabahudin Jahic and others – says Erwin proudly – but I still need to develop in strength, athleticism and speed to compete with them. But last season I played important games in Paris and Milan, beating Armani, and got the gold medal in the Bosnian league for year 2000. So I am desperately looking forward to the new season".

So do we all, observing Erwin Gutic is definitely one of the high hopes of Bosnian youth basketball.