My girlfriend, who grew up in Croatia and visits every August, kindly cut her trip a bit short to fly back to the U.S. and attend the wedding of my close friend. She had just spent a few days on Hvar, a Croatian island that has apparently become quite the high-end resort destination–especially for Croatian athletes. Among the celeb-letes who were there (according to Croatian media) at the same time as my girlfriend: Toni Kukoc, Iva Majoli and Goran Ivanisevic.
My girlfriend and I had been hanging out for about a day when, out of nowhere, the following conversation took place.
Her: “Oh, I forgot to tell you. Dino Radja walked right by us in Hvar.”
Me: “What? Dino Radja walked right by you and you’re just telling me this now?”
Her: “Well, I was too busy looking at lavender, so I didn’t see him.”
Me: “What?” (Note: I am familiar with lavender, but usually as something one smells, not looks at).
Her: (with a sheepish smile, perhaps realizing the enormity what she has disclosed): “Well, you know how much I like lavender.”
Me: “You know he played for the Celtics, right? I think he even put up a 20-10 one year.” (Note: He averaged 19.7 and 9.8 in 1996, so I was close).
Her: “Of course!”
Me: “So you missed your chance to take his picture and talk to him??”
Her: “Well, I didn’t know he was around until my sister told me he had just walked by. Then he was gone.”
In her defense, a) it’s not really reasonable to expect her to stalk Dino Radja on the street just because I happen to write for a Celtics-themed blog; and b) everyone in Croatia is giant compared to us puny Americans (this partly explains the high number of awesome athletes that come from Croatia despite the fact that only 4.5 million people live there), so a 6′11” dude walking down the street doesn’t stand out in Hvar like he would here.
In any case, the much-anticipated CelticsHub interview with Dino will have to wait. Now back to discussing the 2009 Celtics.
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Wow, you are lucky!
At least Dino didn’t rip his shirt off and ask your girlfriend to “spit it out” while grabbing her around the waist. That only seems to be something celeb-letes do to my wife.
I LOVE DINO RADJA! He was so much fun to watch in the 90’s. He finally won a championship in 2002 with some foreign team….according to wiki.
Dude, you have to realize that in Croatia you would look like a complete fool if you saw a famous athlete and just started pestering him or asking him for autographs, especially during summer vacation!! It’s just not done over there.
Famous people like Kukoc, Radja, Ivanisevic, etc all walk around like normal people for the most part.
@pitar: I know. I just enjoy giving her shit.
Hell, I think the bigger missed opportunity was not talking to Goran. My favorite Wimbledon ever, by far the most entertaining tennis player in years. The man stomped on that Australian pretty boy Rafter.