THE BALL BOY, too young to tie his sneakers, made quite the impression on Goran Dragic.
The kid was the son of a veteran player on Geoplin Slovan, an Adriatic League first-division club where Dragic began his professional career. The boy, 5 years old when he first met Dragic, always had a basketball in his hands and put up shots any time a basket was open. Occasionally, he entertained the crowd with halftime dribbling exhibitions at midcourt.
"It's really hard to predict how the future would go," Dragic says more than a decade-and-a-half later.