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I've been thinking about the tragic story of Serbian basketball player Boban JankoviÄ. I remember seeing what happened to him when I was a kid and it was one of those things that burned a mark on my mind forever. A short thread.
I donāt know the background to why basketball is so big in Eastern Europe, but it just is. JankoviÄ was into the game. He was born in what was Yugoslavia in 1963 and was playing professionally before he was 17. It helped that he was 6ā 7ā.
He played in the Yugoslavian league until 1992 when he moved the Greek Basketball League ā another country with a love of the game. He played for Panionios, becoming popular with fans. And then came a play-off match against Panathinaikos on April 28 1993.
It was a tense match, 56-50 and eight minutes left on the clock and JankoviÄ drove to the hoop and scored a big 2 points... but... the ref ruled it out and called a foul against JankoviÄ. It was his fifth foul of the game, which meant he was off.
(if you don't know, you donāt go down to 4 in basketball, like the 10 men in football, but 5 fouls and youāre subbed out for good, game over, early bath, all that)
JankoviÄ wasnāt pleased, understandably, but then something happened. He should probably have stormed off, kicked a water bottle, maybe even punched the ref. But he didnāt. In frustration, He slammed his head into the concrete post that held the basket up.
Even watching it again there, my stomach lurges. It was one moment of madness, like we've all had, but it had devastating consequences and as we know, there's no turning back the clock.
He collapses to the floor, head down at first, then he lifts it, but can't shift it more than a couple of inches. A team mate rushes to him, begins to pull him up, there's still just 6 points in it, but JankoviÄ doesn't get up.
When he headered the post, he did it with such force that he permanently damaged his spinal cord and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. He died just 13 years later. Panionios retired his number 8 jersey.
While this is a grim story, to end on a brighter note, his son Vlado JankoviÄ also hit the 6ā 7ā mark and also became a pro, where he also plays in the Greek league.
