Last summer, Dario Saric caught World Cup fever. It wasn’t just because he was a soccer fan. Rather, his native country, Croatia, stunned the world in advancing to the final against France. It was the culmination of a month of improbable fervor that had gripped the country of a little more than 4 million people.
“People just lived for those days,” Saric said.
He had to get a ticket for the final in Moscow and envelop himself in an atmosphere filled with Croatian pride, a pride that filled his heart to do the same on the basketball court.