Serbian finds peace in China

CHANGSHA – There’s a Serbian who’s lived in China over the last five years and he’s enjoying the experience of his life as assistant coach of the Jiangsu Tongxi team in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).

Nenad Hrovic, 39, knows the ins and outs of Chinese basketball like the palm of his hand. With imports moving in and out of the 20-team league as fortunes take a swift turn, it’s difficult to keep track of who’s on which team. But Hrovic is always on top of every situation. Basketball is his love and passion. It’s his life. And China is the perfect setting for Hrovic to live his basketball dream.

Through the years, Hrovic has learned how to speak Mandarin. “I’m not fluent,” he said with humility. “I can get by conversing. But I struggle in reading. My wife, however, is fluent.” But you wouldn’t think he’s not fluent by the way he converses with his Chinese friends. Hrovic’s wife is Serbian who has a master’s degree in Chinese literature and a second master’s degree in Chinese language. She’s now pursuing a doctorate in Chinese language at Fujian University which has a student population of 40,000. They have two children and the family resides in Nanjing. Hrovic is well-liked in Chinese basketball circles because of his scholarly approach to the game, his dedication, his friendly nature and his positive attitude.

Hrovic was only 28 when he got his first coaching job in Cyprus. Then, he coached for 4 1/2 years in Jordan before heading to China. In Jordan, Hrovic was involved with the national U14 and U16 teams and also coached at the club level.

“Nanjing is wonderful and I think China is the safest place in the world,” said Hrovic. “During the offseason, I stay with my family in Nanjing. But during the season, I stay in the hotel with our team. Moving from one city to another for the CBA games, I actually prefer to ride the bullet train instead of fly. There is tremendous support for the home teams and it makes the competition even more exciting.”

Jiangsu Tongxi’s head coach is Qiang Xu and last season, the team posted a 10-28 record, finishing 17th. One of Tongxi’s players is Palestine star Sani Sakakini. Another Serbian Memi Becirovic coaches the other Jiangsu team called the Dragons.

In 2013, Hrovic was tapped by FIBA to submit a report on his observations of the conduct of the FIBA Asia Championships in Manila. “I thought Manila set a high standard as a host city,” said Hrovic. “Some games were played late in the night but nobody seemed tired at the end of the day. The atmosphere was unbelievable. Filipino fans truly enjoy their basketball.” Hrovic was again tapped by FIBA to submit a report on this year’s tournament here.

At the start of the tournament, Hrovic said Korea could surprise as the darkhorse. But after losing a 76-73 decision to China in the first round of the preliminaries, it’s been downhill for Korea. A 69-63 loss to Qatar dealt a severe blow to Korea’s hopes of landing a favorable seeding for the knockout quarterfinals.

Qatar’s naturalized player Trey Johnson said he doesn’t know why the name on the back of his jersey reads “Finhoir J III.” “My full name is Clinton Finhoir Johnson III,” he said. “Finhoir was my grandfather’s name and my parents made it my middle name. Honestly, I don’t know how my grandfather got that name. I don’t know what it means. They call me Trey because I’m the third Clinton Johnson. The name on the back of my jersey should be Johnson but they put Finhoir instead.”

Johnson led Qatar to third place at the 2012 FIBA Asia Cup in Tokyo but wasn’t held over for the 2013 FIBA Asia Championships where the national team signed up Jarvis Hayes as the naturalized player instead. Qatar officials said Johnson was injured and that’s why he was bypassed. Johnson, however, said he was ready to play. At the Asian Games in Incheon last year, Qatar tapped Boney Watson as its naturalized player.

Serbian Rajko Toroman’s contract with Jordan expires on Oct. 15 and it’s not certain what’s next in his basketball odyssey. Toroman, 60, coached in Serbia, Belgium, Hungary, Cyprus, China, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Holland, Iran and the Philippines before moving to Jordan over a year ago. He piloted Iran to the 2007 FIBA Asia title and the 2008 Olympics and took the Philippines to the 2011 FIBA Asia semifinals.

Toroman had difficulty assembling a competitive unit for this year’s FIBA Asia tournament. Veterans Sam Daghles and Zaid Abbas reported for training camp late. Alex Legion wasn’t Toroman’s original choice as naturalized player. The first option Jay Youngblood wound up with Lebanon.

It didn’t help that Jordan was drawn in a tough bracket with China and Korea in the first round of preliminaries. Jordan lost to Korea, 87-60 and China, 84-67. A 98-68 win over Singapore propelled Jordan into the second round. Jordan got a huge lift when it upset Qatar, 84-73, to start the second round and Toroman made it two wins in a row with an 87-73 conquest of Kazakhstan. The weight of the early losses to China and Korea, however, was a drag. It came down to a do-or-die game against Lebanon last Tuesday and the Cedars won, 80-76 to boot Jordan out of the knockout quarterfinals.

Against Lebanon, Jordan was crippled by the absence of 6-9 Ali Jamal Zaghab who had 12 points and nine rebounds in the win over Kazakhstan. In his place, Jordan reactivated 6-9 Mohammed Hussein who sat out the last four outings due to a suspension for engaging a team official in a verbal exchange. Hussein delivered nine points and eight boards. Daghlas was a missing ingredient with only four points and one assist while Abbas shot a lowly 2-of-12 from the floor to finish with seven points.