Our Dino among European giants

The name of Sabahudin Dino Bilalović is mentioned in Sarajevo media only once a year, on the anniversary of his sudden death at the age of 43. He died of a heart attack on July 29, 2003, while playing with his little son on a beach in Makarska. 

People from Trebinje remember him as an always smiling boy, ready to joke and help. They affectionately called him Đinka. The basketball court was almost under the balcony of his apartment, the famous Brekana. When he grew to nearly two meters tall, he went among the great basketball names. Everything he achieved came through hard work and his incredible persistence.      

He was part of that Bosna team coached by Boša Tanjević, which reached the final and became European champion by defeating Varese. Dino's name is sometimes mentioned in connection with the European Championship in Germany, where in the war year of 1993 he played for his homeland.

In late June and early July 1993, while the European Basketball Championship was underway, Bosnia and Herzegovina was in a catastrophic state. Television showed mutilated bodies on the streets of Sarajevo and other cities. These were images that horrified the planet. Bosnia was completely surrounded. A terrible famine prevailed. People walked the streets of cities like ghosts.

And then it was heard that our basketball players would, after all, compete in the European Championship, and a spirit of defiance and pride stirred in the people. It was on such small things that we lifted ourselves and brought back remnants of joy into our lives. But that national team was barely assembled. There were only ten players, gathered somehow. As far as I remember, even Mirza Delibašić, who was the coach, had to register as a player.        

In 1993, Dino was 33 years old. It was already being said that he had some heart problems. He could have given up, and no one would have blamed him. But he came to Germany because he wanted to play for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

From game to game, he showed superhuman effort. He scored 21 points against the Russians, 22 against the Italians, 29 against Estonia, 24 against the French, 28 against the Croats, 26 against Sweden, 36 against Latvia... Finally, when the line was drawn, Dino Bilalović was the top scorer of that European Championship. He had an excellent average. Dražen Petrović in 1985 had an average of 25.2, eight years later Dino was averaging 25 points per game. The fact is that only Dino's and Dražen's names are among the top scorers of European championships from the countries of the former Yugoslavia.

Bosnia and Herzegovina finished eighth in Europe. To this day, that remains the best result of the national team.  

Today, the basketball players of Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot even reach the final European competition. Young players, for whom it should be an honor to play for their country, cancel their appearances. Dino played with heart problems and gave the last atoms of his strength. Exactly ten years after that brilliant championship of his, his heart would stop forever.       

The men's national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina has no titles. Not at the Balkan Games nor at the Mediterranean Games.

There is something in us that always wants to deny the success of one of our own. That negating something always shows the power to defeat the best among us and humiliate their achievements. As if silence and stillness are the only world in which we know how to live with dear and valuable people.

We have one and only Bosnian name among the winners: The name of Dino Bilalović among the top scorers playing for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

And we forget him 364 days a year, remembering him only on that day of his physical disappearance.

But the name of Dino Bilalović, a wonderful dreamer, stands as a monument alongside the best European scorers and among those twenty or so greatest basketball names: With Nikos Galis, Šarunas Marčulionis, Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, Tony Parker...