Lazic and Petkovic Leave Bosnia Squad After Dodik Pressure

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s basketball team flew to Lithuania on Sunday without two players of Serbian descent, just hours after the pair parted ways with the squad at Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade, the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (KSBiH) confirmed to the Klix.ba news portal. Forward Aleksandar Lazic, 30, and assistant coach Zoran Petkovic left the national team on the eve of the second round of World Cup qualifiers against Lithuania, just as Republika Srpska’s relationship with the joint institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, national sport included, has once again become a point of contention in Sarajevo. The case has drawn particular interest in Serbia for two reasons: both men are contracted to Igokea from Banja Luka, a club whose most influential figure is Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) leader Milorad Dodik, and media in Bosnia report that they had to choose between the club from Laktasi and the Bosnia and Herzegovina jersey.

The KSBiH told Klix.ba that the split happened shortly before the flight, while the team was already on its way to Vilnius.

“We parted ways with them at the airport in Belgrade after they received a call from their club. That is all we know and can say at this moment, because we are still on our way to Vilnius, where an important World Cup qualifier awaits us,” the KSBiH said.

The federation did not confirm any details about the reason for the departure, only the fact that Lazic and Petkovic are no longer with the team.

The trigger for the crisis was an incident on Friday evening at the Mejdan Hall in Tuzla, where Bosnia beat Italy 78-76 in the first round of this qualifying cycle, with Lazic scoring seven points in that game. Part of the BH Fanaticos fan group chanted insulting messages about Ratko Mladic during the match, and some media also reported a banner with the same message in the stands. Mladic had died the day before, on August 27, at 84, in the detention unit in Scheveningen, where he was serving a life sentence handed down by the Hague Tribunal for crimes committed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

According to reporting by N1 and Sport klub, the pressure on Lazic and Petkovic came from Dodik, who, as Igokea’s patron, threatened the two men with the loss of their positions at the club if they stayed with the national team. N1 reports that Lazic left Tuzla by bus for Belgrade on Saturday morning together with his teammates and the coaching staff, and that the call to return to Laktasi reached him only just before the team arrived at the airport. The KSBiH has not confirmed that part of the story, nor said whether the split was a sporting decision or the result of outside pressure, as Bosnian media allege.

Teammate Jusuf Nurkic, the only NBA player in Bosnia’s squad, offered his support to the pair on social media. “If it were up to Lazo and Zoka, they would be with us in Lithuania too,” Nurkic wrote, adding that both men rarely miss out when their club duties allow it: “Lazo is one of those professionals. Every time his club allowed it, he was here with the national team.” In the same post, he also noted that both players, like most of their teammates, had given up their own vacation time for the country.

A concrete offer followed from Tesanj. Basketball club Gradina announced on the same day, August 29, that it was ready to offer Lazic a contract if reports that he had been blackmailed turned out to be true.

“Dear all, if reports in some media are accurate and our national team player was blackmailed, KK Gradina Tesanj is ready to offer him a contract immediately,” the club from Tesanj said in a statement posted on social media.

Head coach Dario Gjergja traveled on to Lithuania with the rest of the squad, where Bosnia plays the second round of qualifiers on Monday at 17:30. The official 12 man roster published by the KSBiH includes, among others, Jusuf Nurkic, Luka Garza and Kenan Kamenjas, with Vojin Ilic added in place of Asim Gutic. That same roster still formally lists Lazic as one of the traveling players, meaning it was either drawn up before the decision on his departure was made, or had not been officially corrected by the time this story was published. The federation has not clarified the matter, and it remains unclear whether Bosnia will face Lithuania with 11 or 12 players.

The case raises the question of how deeply club and political interests from Republika Srpska can reach into the roster of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s national team, an institution in which Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats otherwise compete together under one flag. For Belgrade and for the Serb community in Bosnia, the episode is also a reminder that sporting success, such as the win over Italy that preceded the incident, can quickly turn into fresh grounds for dispute over who gets to represent Bosnia and Herzegovina, and under what conditions. Whether the KSBiH will officially explain the reason for parting ways with Lazic and Petkovic, and whether either man will return to the team after the game against Lithuania, remains an open question for the days ahead.