The morning after every Nets game, Bosnian Nets fans who didn't stay up the night before can tune into any one of a number of YouTube channels and find highlights of Mirza Teletovic, every made three, every dunk, every assist, etc.
That's probably preferable to "Teletovic Fever," a phenomenon Bosnian media has found from Sarajevo to Jablanica: fans wandering around in a zombie-like state at work and school, exhausted by staying up late to watch Nets games on NBA TV. Or they can simply wait for the next installment in videos like this highly produced paen to their hero by Mirsad Mustafic. There are a lot of them, too.
On Tuesday night, there was even more celebration in Bosnia. Not only had Teletovic played another great game but the Nets announced they had acquired the rights to 29-year-old Edin Bavcic, a 6'11" power forward from Foca, Bosnia, who was once thought to be a better prospect than Teletovic. Fans rejoiced that Bavcic, a member of the Bosnian national team, might join their now beloved Nets. Although Billy King has said that's a long shot, he did draft him in 2006 as Sixers GM. Bavcic's European agent, who works with uber-agent Jeff Schwartz, wants the Nets to invite him to summer league. Hey, Pero Antic is doing well as a 30-year-old rookie with the Hawks.
But it's Teletovic who is the Bosnian hero, if not super-hero, a patriot who is given somber duties like last July when he attended the collective burial of 400 newly-identified victims of the massacre of Bosnian Muslims in the city of Srebrenica on July 11, 1995. A rising European hoops star born on a stone in the forest outside Srebrenica two days later was there. He said of Teletovic, "I've followed him from childhood, and he's really a true role model." His moving description of growing up during a war was one of "The Association's" finer moments.
After a rookie season where he was underused and truth be told ignored, there's a lot of pride about what Teletovic has done for the Nets ... and a lot of joy that their hero has succeeded.