Nightline's Daily Line
Behind the Scenes at Nightline: Sneak Peeks, Updates, and Observations
Nightline's Daily Line is our blog, where you’ll be the first to find out what stories we're working on each day. Plus, our anchors, correspondents and staff share the latest behind-the-scenes information from the newsroom and the field.
RECENT POSTS
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
« Internet Gun Store Owner: 'We Need Real Answers' | Main | Guns & The Stars & Bars »
Shooting Hoops in Kosovo
February 18, 2008 6:21 PM
On this day when the World looks at Kosovo's declaration of Independence from Serbia, here’s an observation from a reporter's notebook of ten years ago, jotted down in Pristina after US and NATO Forces pushed the Serbs out of Kosovo in June of 1999. For more past Nightline coverage of the crisis in Kosovo, click here.
Gerry Holmes reports:
We had been in Pristina for about 5 weeks following NATO's entry and Serb Forces' exit. The coverage had gone from round the clock to an occasional piece every other day and we welcomed a little break from our house in Pristina where we filed our pieces.
Two of our local fixers (one Serb and one Kosovar-Albanian) asked a producer and I to play some two on two pick up basketball. Sounded like a great way to unwind and get some exercise after the previous weeks' work.
We found a high school black top with baskets still up (the nets were mostly torn, but still clinging to their rings). We could still see smoldering smoke floating through the air behind the basket up a hill in a neighborhood where Serb houses had been burnt down the night before. A quiet, but eerie and surreal atmosphere for a pick up game. Things were calming down in town, but only in that most fragile and uncertain way.
We started to play. And that's when I realized we were part of a one on one game (Serb versus Kosovar Albanian) and we were their two foils. These guys could play ball. They had an intensity on every step, shot, and even occasional foul, as they engaged with each other as if they had been NBA all-star rivals for years.
They had talent and had honed their skills on the playgrounds of the Balkans with an eye to the Pantheon of American ballplayers seen on screens all over the world - and you could see that American influence in their game. Their moves were dazzling. The Serb had an aggressive, muscle based game with strong drives to the basket. Drive after drive the points kept adding up. I would get an occasional assist. His opponent was piling up the points with flawless outside shots that just kept sinking. Beautiful arcs and moves so fast, you couldn't get a hand on his shots.
What emerged was a fun, energetic - at times tense- pick up game that spoke volumes to me in that one moment about the possibility of some sort of reconciliation someday. It was my first glimpse of the incredible talent that has come out of the Balkans and onto the NBA courts in recent years, and I was in struck then by their talent and healthy sense of competition on that court, that day.
I've lost touch with them both, but I wish them well on this day and who knows, if Kosovo is recognized by the International community someday, maybe those remarkable talents I witnessed will play out in a championship round of basketball at the Olympics….Kosovo-Serbia for the Gold. Maybe…someday.
February 18, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (4)
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/433071/26255118
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Shooting Hoops in Kosovo:
Cute. When it's 'Kosovo-Serbia for the Gold', the devil will be wearing a parka in hell!
Posted by: Jovan Weismiller | Feb 18, 2008 8:08:38 PM
Dear,
I'm a korean living in seoul.(name: Oh Minseok)
Korean special investigative team are investigating samsung
corporation.
But they does not work right.
I am suspicious to be bought off.
samsung corporation has many crimes.
And the team investigates samsung corporation.
It contains korean companies samsung,huyndai,sk CEOs' illegal issuing
stocks or bonds.
The quantity are plenty.
(Three company CEOs did(and are doing) many crimes to me.
Many koreans are knowing it.
But many koreans are bought off by illegal issuing stocks or bonds.)
The team are knowing it.
Korean special investigative team must investigate this.
But they are trying to conceal it.
I ask for asking for this criminal investigation to prosecutors in any
country.
And help the shareholders.
P.S)
Three companies are hacking me.
And are suspicious to use my name and email illegally.
If you receive another message that I dictated above are not true,
it is not from me, but from three companies.
The things I dictated above are true.
Posted by: Oh Minseok | Feb 19, 2008 3:35:17 AM
Gerry, don't give me your perfidious bullshit about wishing both the Serb and Albanian well. Kosovo is Serbia, understand! And stop meddling in the affairs of countries that are not on your continent! Slavs fought valiantly on the Eastern Front to rid the world of Hitler and eventually they managed to obliterate Communism from within, what else does your White House want? Kosovo! Never! Serbia will fight for what is right!
Posted by: Michel | Feb 28, 2008 8:55:59 AM
Gerry, don't give me your perfidious bullshit about wishing both the Serb and Albanian well. Kosovo is Serbia, understand! And stop meddling in the affairs of countries that are not on your continent! Slavs fought valiantly on the Eastern Front to rid the world of Hitler and eventually they managed to obliterate Communism from within, what else does your White House want? Kosovo! Never! Serbia will fight for what is right!
Posted by: Michel | Feb 28, 2008 8:56:02 AM
Post a comment
