Article on Nesterovic and Udrih in Slovene edition of Playboy

[actionman]

Cover (http://geocities.com/sakegood/Spurs-1.jpg)
First two pages (http://geocities.com/sakegood/Spurs-2.jpg)
Third and fourth pages (http://geocities.com/sakegood/spurs-3.jpg)
Last page (http://geocities.com/sakegood/Spurs-4.jpg)



Maybe one of the Slovene posters can translate the article for you.

It doesn't say much, though, so better to feast your eyes on the covergirl. To stop the guessing, I'll tell you right now that she's from Poland, not Slovenia.

There, I've had my moment of glory. From now on I'll continue to lurk in the shadows and just read what you guys are writing.

[E20]

Please upload all the pages with the naked ladies on them, thank you very much in advance. :)

[actionman]

That, my friend, is for another forum ;)

[timvp]

What up?

Are you coming back next year?

Maybe by then the Spurs can have another Slovenian.

:smokin

[Experiment2100]

Your Yahoo site is dead, can you hosts the pics with imageshack

[actionman]

Will try.

[actionman]

Here you go:

http://img15.imageshack.us/img_viewer.php?g=spurs45qb.jpg

[ShoogarBear]

Sorry, this site is temporarily unavailable!
The web site you are trying to access has exceeded its allocated data transfer.

[timvp]

Scroll down for working link.

[ShoogarBear]

The working link is just an article on Rasho and Beno.

Screw that.

[jalbre6]

The working link is just an article on Rasho and Beno.

Screw that.


http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/2796/spurs13vx.jpg

[Manu'sMagicalLeftHand]

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/9574/spurs22mw.jpg

Hahah, Rasho looks like Indiana Jones! :lol

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/2796/spurs13vx.jpg

Damn, that chick is hot!

[Summers]

Very cool... thanks for posting! Hope someone can translate. :)

[E20]

Dude we need the links with the naked ladies!!!

[Phenomanul]

We need to irrigate this site with hormone suppressing code....

[SpursWoman]

Dude we need the links with the naked ladies!!!



Man, could you wait another couple of years to post shit like that? It's disturbing hearing minors talk that way...you aren't that much older than my kids.


:wow :fro :lol

[E20]

SW, I'm not half as bad as the kids at school(any).

Also, that wasn't me, my stupid hormones make me do it.

[RobinsontoDuncan]

he's 16 and a guy, Spurs Woman, it would be far scarier if he wasn't sex obssesed, then there would be something wrong.

[jalbre6]

SW, I'm not half as bad as the kids at school(any).

Also, that wasn't me, my stupid hormones make me do it.

Attaboy.

[Slomo]

Here is the translation. I know some parts do not make much sense but I'm only the translator. If you don't like it, learn Slovenian and write to the author :)

Personnaly I did not like the article since it is quite vague, simplistic and showed a poor knowlege of the NBA (ie he writes in the article that Beno played at the all stars weekend in the game opposing western rookies to eastern rookies). The structure of the sentences also drove me crazy.

I guess that people are not buying Playboy for the articles after all :p




Slovenians in the NBA


By Bor Dobrin



At this moment we have 5 Slovenian players in the best basketball league in the world, enough to form a starting lineup that would be a medals contender in any championship – be it European or World. According to basketball legend Vlade Divac with Rasho, Beno, Primoz, Bostjan and Sasha, we have one of the best national teams!



The history of our European championships appearances is quite similar to the faith of the Texan freedom fighters who gave their lives at the Alamo, the site that is at the heart of today’s San Antonio. No one of the Alamo defenders lived to experience the independence from Mexico that was achieved by the battle that began there. Let’s hope that our national team will suffer a less tragic faith. It would be a real shame if we couldn’t join the talents of our boys, that are so in demand in this most competitive basketball milieu.



Two of them currently play in San Antonio. Radosav Nesterovic a Spur since last season has been joined this season by Beno Udrih. Rasho changed neighborhoods after his first four years in the NBA. He has signed a six years contract with the San Antonio Spurs, who won two championships in the last six years, for a “mere” 42 million dollars. Minus a couple of Dollars that go to the IRS and his manager, of course. To many back home who only judge him by his not so stellar stats, this figure is the best indication of how much he is valued in the world’s strongest league. His game is best described in this statement by his coach Greg Popovich: “Rasho is the type of player whose statistics never accurately show how much he contributes to the team, but believe me he is an indispensable member of the starting lineup!”.



We went to see for ourselves how life is treating Rasho and Beno in San Antonio where we spent five days with them, a whole working week. During that week they played three times – Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If we judged by this week alone we would get a totally wrong picture of what life in the NBA is like. Except for the games their obligations to the club were limited to three short, two hours long trainings sessions on game day. Journalists are allowed to enter the training facility about fifteen minutes before the end of the training and we got the impression, that nothing much more strenuous was going on than freethrows practice. The impression was further confirmed by Rasho’s and Beno’s playful competition at scoring baskets from the middle of the court – for a small wager that would be paid after the season, of course. That week Rasho was more successful and managed to build a nice lead despite his height and the position he plays on the team. Of course trainings are more strenuous for Beno since he has to bring two big boxes of the famous American doughnuts for the whole team before each training. A tradition that Rasho does not oppose to, he paid his dues a long time ago.



Before the games the players are free to do whatever they want. No command, interdictions or even controls. Well at least not directly, according to Rasho, anything they do in such a small city is pretty well known, although nobody will ever mention it out loud. Until you break some unwritten rule which will then be “politely” pointed out to you by the club officials. Beno is quick to point out that despite the lack of any apparent supervision the club knows better than even yourself when you need an extra training, practice a specific facet of your game or day of rest.



The whole club appears quite relaxed and respectful of traditional American family values. It manifested itself best when we attempted to peek deeper into the functioning of the club, we asked to attend the whole training or to travel with the team to an away game. According to Tom Jons, the team’s spoke person, the Spurs are one of the leagues more private teams who do not allow anybody from the media to cross over the privacy line regardless if they’re from NBA TV, Sports Illustrated or, unfortunately, the Slovenian edition of Playboy.



Our two players gladly opened their homes on the other side of the Atlantic to us. Rasho lives with his family which takes care of our boy’s good disposition. Well they do also take care of Beno who lives alone.



Whenever one of the other Slovenian NBA players is in town – during our visit it happened twice – they all meet at the Nesterovich home and enjoy the culinary prowess of Rasho’s father and mother, Cedo and Branka. We can confirm that, as they would say in Mladina (Slovenian weekly magazine), we licked our plates clean.



And although they all have a game the next day these meeting do last quite late into the evening. The competition system of the NBA severely limits these gatherings to a few occasions per year. That’s what Rasho misses the most in the US – not being in touch with his home. According to him he really looks forward to any visits from Slovenia, even though he feels a lot more comfortable with the Spurs than he did in Minnesota, where he couldn’t find a real connections with the other players. San Antonio is totally different, probably due to the colorful international character of the team. After one of the games Rasho invited us to a restaurant that’s also popular with the other players. While we were their we had a very nice and relaxed conversation with the Spurs’ guards Tony Parker (France) and Brent Barry (USA), Tim Duncan (Virgin Island), one of the active NBA legends, on his way out came by our table and wished us bon appetite. We also received the visit of two boys who left our table excited that they got a couple of Rasho autographs.



Fame also followed us to “Eleven”, one of the city’s more popular night clubs, where Rasho took us after dinner. We were surrounded by attractive ladies who wanted to have their picture taken with Rasho. We also enjoyed the company of “G”, who was already featured in the American edition of Playboy. Since she stayed in our company longer (I can only talk about how much longer if it’s preceded with the famous journalist phrase “off the record”) we quickly agreed on a photo shoot for our edition of Playboy during our next visit to these parts of the world. Well the party did not last for long because of a – for us quite funny – legislation where they literally pry your beer out of your hands a few minutes before 2 am, regardless of how much is still left in the bottle, and where they will slap close the doors of any still open club at 2 am sharp. It almost seems like even the state is trying to keep athletes out of trouble when in public.



Rasho told us that for him our “late” partying was quite an exception , that happens only a few times a year. 82 games in the regular season will do that to you, even despite having less training session than in Europe. Beside watching movies (specially the old Yugoslav films that he adores) his spare time is mostly occupied by charities and community work. The Spurs are very much part of the local community with many activities for children. These activities range from donations, purchasing of books, education programmes and even giving away game tickets. Believe me the figure in Dollars and Cents is quite impressive and so is the number of players and other club officials that participate. It wouldn’t be a bad idea for teams on this side of the Atlantic to take notice. Maybe they’ll be inspired by the newly founded “Rasho Nesterovic Foundation” which is currently involved in the refurbishment of public basketball courts in Slovenia.



Rasho appears reserved when you first meet him – it’s the result of experience gained in 7 years of playing in the NBA – Beno on the other side is quite the opposite. Already from afar he gives the impression of confidence, almost cockiness, that is definitely needed if you want to succeed as a rookie – it helps him overcome the difference between a brilliant, 25 points, game one evening and a game where nothing he attempts goes his way the next.



He says (Beno) that he always believed he would play in the NBA one day, even at the PG position where the competition is the toughest. He also does not seem to mind the fact that he has to live in San Antonio (as opposed to home). When you look at his apartment, where despite plenty of space you will find only the bare necessities, you get the impression that he is there only temporarily, only until the time when a better opportunity will present itself and he will maybe settle down. He spends his free time playing games on Playstation furiously breaking his own records, and reading the biography of Peter Vilfan, his first coach that was written by our colleague Tadej Golob. We also had the impression that Beno spends a few evenings more than Rasho discovering San Antonio. Well he has Rasho’s one year advantage to overcome. None of the above bothered him when he was nominated as December’s rookie of the month or when he became the first Slovenian player to participate in the All Star weekend where he played on the rookie team.



Confidence and the wish to succeed is common to all five players, but it manifests itself differently with each of them. Rasho, Primoz and Sasha are so concentrated on the game that it seems they wouldn’t even notice a bomb exploding on the side of the basketball court, Beno and Bostjan on the other hand give the impression they could easily chat with the viewers in the front rows seats during the game.



All the boys are great individualists despite the different roles assigned to them by their respective teams. The earnings in the NBA are much more difficult than the impression that one might get by spending just a few days with them. Endless days of preparing for the season, innumerable trips from one game to the other, being under constant scrutiny by the coaching staff do not appear as a very friendly working environment. I believe that many of you would gladly trade places with them, specially after checking their bank accounts. But you should ask yourself: Could I handle it?

[timvp]

Awesome job, Slomo. Thanks.

So you actually bought Playboy for the article? That's a first.

:)

[mookie2001]

thanks slomo!

[thispego]

Awesome job, Slomo. Thanks.

So you actually bought Playboy for the article? That's a first.

:)
:lol
thanks slomo, they got a shitload of coverage in that mag!

[Summers]

Thanks Slomo!

[SpursWoman]

he's 16 and a guy, Spurs Woman, it would be far scarier if he wasn't sex obssesed, then there would be something wrong.




:wow :fro :lol

[Dingle Barry]

pretty sweet article and thanks a lot for the translation

[Slomo]

Awesome job, Slomo. Thanks.

So you actually bought Playboy for the article? That's a first.

:)
That's my story and I'm sticking to it :p