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 No peace of mind Athletes in America worry about families back home
Posted: Friday April 02, 1999 08:54 AM
Sports has always been the breath of life in a stifled world. The relief after the horror, which is front page news. Every so often, one touches the other. And as the missiles fly over Europe now, they impact us all. There are moments in our lives that almost seem too absurd for comment. Too tainted by sad irony. The International Olympic Committee this week canceled plans to inaugurate a rebuilt bomb-damaged Olympic Hall in Sarajevo because of air strikes in the region. This in the wake of an announcement several weeks ago that Sarajevo would apply to host the 2010 Olympic Games. A statement as much to it's own people as to the world, that there was life after death, a new tomorrow after the sadness of yesterday in that region. And now the bombs rain again. Somehow Vlade Divac finds his peace these nights on a crowded basketball court. The Sacramento Kings center, who is from Yugoslavia but has American citizenship, worries about his family halfway around the planet. Divac has been through all of this before, finding a way to divide his emotions evenly. But imagine Boban Savovich. On the eve of Ohio State's majestic trip to the Final Four, the freshman from Serbia worried about his family, whom he hasn't seen in 18 months. "It's very had for me to talk about." Savovich says. "I mean, a lot of innocent people are gonna get killed with this." He pauses and stares off in the distance, deep in thought, as if his mind has taken him home once again. "I don't want to talk about it." Savovich grew up in Montenegro, just north of Albania, west of Kosovo on the Adriatic Sea. War has been a part of family life for years. He escaped two years ago, to New Jersey, on a student visa. The emotional tug-of-war knows no boundaries. Elvir Murigi lives in the Bronx and after winning the Golden Gloves last year, fights professionally. His father is fighting a different battle home in Kosovo, serving with the Liberation Army against the Serb security forces. "I worry about him but turn around and say, if he dies, he dies for my country. If my country goes away, why should we live? I don't know why we should live." Elvir has wanted to return to his native land to help with the war but his father has told him it means more to have the Albanian flag fly over Madison Square Garden. The bombs of war take no timeout for games. A soccer qualifier between Macedonia and Ireland that was scheduled for March 27 was postponed until October. This will hopefully give the various sides enough time to settle their differences. The Irish became concerned when Kosovo refugees began filling up their hotel in Skopje, the Macedonian capitol. Two more qualifiers for the European championships, between Yugoslavia and Macedonia and Yugoslavia and Croatia were put off until later this year. Sport can be a tonic, a great cleanser. It is why the Olympic Hall was rebuilt in Sarajevo while the echoes of another war still resonated through the mountainsides. It is why they bother to re-schedule matches. And it is the hope that courses through the veins of those who can only watch from afar. Yugoslavia's football union has called for all of its international players to boycott their teams in any NATO-member country. There are an awful lot of great Yugoslav players all over Europe. It's just another way war is impacting sports.
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