"There are better and younger players than me. Let them play. They are the future.
At 29 I am an old horse. Right?" - Croatian NT starting center Mario Kasun

If this is really Mario Kasun's final decision it presents a huge blow to all future Croatian NT efforts. At this moment, Croatia has no other frontcourt player who could guarantee P+R double-double each and every game, regularly play above the rim and match the athleticism of much younger opponents.

By making this decision he set a clear example what some of his senior NT teammates should have done after their disappointing performance in this year's Eurobasket. At 29 years of age he is ONLY THE FIFTH OLDEST PLAYER on Croatian NT roster behind Prkacin, Nicevic, Kus and Vujcic. In this year's Eurobasket in Poland he averaged a miserable 13,3 minutes a game and was not once paired with Nikola Vujcic to form the potentially most dominant frontcourt duo of the competition. In the quarterfinal game vs Slovenia he was pulled out of play after a solid 13 minutes of action with ONLY ONE PERSONAL FOUL on his stat sheet.

This was not the first time the Croatian NT coach Jasmin Repesa failed to capitalize on Kasun's frontcourt value as he averaged only 18,4 minutes of play during the 2007 Eurobasket in Spain, while being the team's second leading scorer with 10.1 points per game. The critics may say he was foul-prone and injury plagued but the truth is that he was placed on the bench during decisive moments of many games, when he was absolutely determined to help his homeland team more then anybody else IN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE.

After crashing down in Poland, the Croatian NT "black box" has now been officially found and opened. It tells a story that even being in minority, 4 guards (of which neither one is a true shooting guard) played 44.8% of overall minutes and managed to dominate the team's scoring by making 49.7% of overall points scored, while roster majority of 6 big guys played 40% of overall minutes and scored only 41% of overall points scored.

On the other hand, big guys pulled down 48.8% of overall rebounds (vs only 28.4% pulled down by guards) creating numerous offensive opportunities which were at the other end mostly executed by guards in the last 10 seconds of numerous possessions. Not only did he remind us of unique time-out speech techniques used by Croatian handball coach Lino Cervar; Repesa also failed to capitalize on our potential inside presence and to develop a healthy inside-outside connection which could have been our only chance in slow-tempo conditions.  COACH REPESA USED SMALLBALL LINE-UPS TO PLAY SLOW-TEMPO STYLE.

"Kas" will always have a special place in Croatian NT fans memories. He idolized legendary Drazen Petrovic, presented a fearless style of play similar to great PF Dino Radja and dunked the ball like Shawn Kemp.

HE APPROACHED EACH AND EVERY GAME LIKE IT'S HIS LAST FOR TEAM CROATIA.

Good bye Mario, we will miss you.