Bosnia and Herzegovina’s men will participate for the first time at the FIBA 3×3 Europe Cup. Sitting 25th in the FIBA Ranking – Men, Bosnia and Herzegovina completes the strongest group in the competition scheduled to take place at the Bucharest Metropolitan Circus, September 14-16th. Group A is the only one of the four on the field featuring three nations ranked inside the Top 25 FIBA Federation Ranking.
Based on the bone-structure of the powerful team Vitez – a Top 15 team in the World Ranking at the beginning of the year and a very well-organized group that behaved exactly like a professional 5×5 basketball team when they were forced to bring in new players to replace two injured leaders, Bosnia&Herzegovina aims high, but trembles as well.
Zeljko Palavra is a team-leader and a formidable shooter who ended up as the main scorer in many major competitions – such as the Prague Masters, back in 2016 and 2017 – after having surpassed world #1 Dusan Bulut. Palavra received a rough diagnosis from the doctors of a Nova Bila hospital, it has been announced on a 3×3 certified website. His condition causes the formation of dangerous blood clots and might have even kept him away from the field all season long, lipik3x3challenger wrote. A former world #40, recently recovered after a knee injury, Palavra admitted that he played two matches with thrombosis and that he was extremely lucky, avoiding greater complications. His presence in the team is good news, but his level may be lower than usual. In addition, Adi Bambur, another Bosnian 3×3 basketball top player, suffered a tendon injury in 2018 and did not make the team.
Under the circumstances, Nedim Mustafica appears as a team #1. He started playing basketball, late, at the age of 14. However, his rise was fast and impressive: Nedim managed to win numerous individual prizes.
Best player in the Individual Ranking: Ranko Krizanovic – 111th place
Previous results at FIBA 3×3 Europe Cup: First presence
Players: Nedim Mustafica (27, 2.00 m), Marijo Blaskan (30, 1.98 m), Zeljko Palavra (30, 1.94 m), Nikola Budic (25, 2.02 m)
Group A, with Serbia and Spain.
