
Well the chickens have come home to roost; and one of their
eggs has been hatched in the country’s most powerful and competitive youth
league, the NYBL. The NYBL who just
completed their 3rd session has become the proving grounds for many of the
nation’s top players. This weekend
Balsa Koprivica from Serbia via NYBL team; Team Florida validated on the court
claims of future stardom and must now be considered in the discussion as one of
the top players in the world in the class of 2019.
Koprivica whose father played internationally and played
against the original 1992 Dream Team stands an imposing 6’9 – with mom
standing at 6’2 there has to be little surprise that their son is pushing 6’10
already in the 7th grade. Balsa who has only been in the states now
for a little of two years; speaks an impressive level of English and
articulates his goals and dreams with respect to basketball exceptionally
well. His favorite player is Kevin
Durant and long term he see's himself progressing as a full time perimeter player. At 6’10, 235lbs one may
assume that this is the makeup of a traditional back to the basket post player. Those assumptions would be wrong, Balsa runs
the floor extremely well for his size and shows extremely soft hands in
receiving the ball. He can handle out to
19ft and shoots the 3-points shot at a high percentage off the catch and bounce
already with great form and touch! One of the better passers out
the post that we have seen his basketball IQ and ability to read cutters and
double teams speaks to a player much more his senior.
The game that Balsa displays is not simply one you see in
the lay-up line. He translates; we are
talking production NOT potential. There
wasn’t a game this weekend that Balsa didn’t grab 10+ boards which can be
considered his minimum. But his three
30+ point outburst prove again and again that he is next level good. These are not just layup after layup; its
three pointers, catch and shoots, dribble drives, mid-range finishes and of
course dunks in traffic and on people.
His size as a 7th graders translates and makes sense already
at the NBA level; with continued work and natural growth America and is looking
at a future high level star.
Thank you NYBL for introducing us to this talented star of
the future - you have done it again!
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