Exclusive: Uroš Tripković Reveals: "It Still Hurts That I Had to End My Career, I Couldn't Even Watch Basketball Anymore!"

To be honest, I don't know why I chose basketball. I went to a few football practices, but I didn't like it from the start. Then a couple of karate practices. You know how it is with kids, when one starts, everyone wants to try. So, a few football practices, a few karate practices, and then, at around 9 or 10 years old, I went to a basketball practice, and I liked it. And that's it, from the age of 10, I've been in basketball, I fell in love with it and stayed.

I think people noticed some talent in me right away, even when I started, though it was just a basketball school. I stood out a bit from the other kids even then. And I truly loved it; even as a kid, I'd go play pickup basketball outside of practice, regularly. Back then, you'd go to the court to play, and you'd have to wait your turn. It's not like today, where most courts are empty, unfortunately. But back then, we played pickup regularly, even outside of organized practice.

It was tough. I played some games, I played for the youth team, but he kept me right away; I trained with the first team practically from the moment I arrived at Partizan. And it meant a lot to me because you improve in practice. It meant a lot to be thrown into the fire immediately, with older, first-team players, where you have to fight, where you have to give your all. And through those practices, I improved, and Dule paid attention to me. He assessed that he could make a player out of me, and he truly gave his all during that period to help me progress as much as possible.

I think I probably trained the most out of everyone, even though everyone else trained a lot. At some points, it was really exhausting, and I wondered how much more I could train, I couldn't even sleep from fatigue, and there were all sorts of situations. But yes, looking back now, you realize that it's a path through hard work, where you have to mature both as a player and as a person, and that's essentially the right path for young players.

The psychological aspect, the hardest part for me was that I was still a kid, still craving certain things. I didn't even go to my own prom; I didn't go out anywhere during that period, I didn't have that social life outside of basketball, and that was tough for me at the time. As for the physical aspect, that was constantly difficult; I couldn't single out any particular period. Six-hour practices, after games, older players would have a free morning or sometimes a whole day off, but we kids didn't; we'd be back at practice the very next morning. Many times, I'd even arrive an hour early for morning practice to shoot 500-1000 shots, then practice would start, then I'd stay after practice, then a break, a little lunch, a little sleep, then practice again in the evening. It was truly exhausting to endure. You had to dedicate your entire day to it to keep up.

Imagine how exhausting it was for those rebounding the balls, let alone for me, but that's 100% accurate. Just recently, when I was talking to the kids at the Partizan camp, I told them that, in principle, persistence and hard work are the most important things. Many players who weren't overly talented succeeded because they were diligent, hardworking, and persistent, and they managed to build serious careers. So, hard work and persistence are definitely more important than talent. I mean, there were kids who were incredibly talented, but they simply cut corners, didn't focus as much on training and work, and didn't manage to build careers.

Regarding shooting, I think the most important thing, while you're still a kid, while the player is young, is to build good shooting technique, to practice it, and then to train it afterwards. Even when I was in Čačak, and when I wasn't training as much, I had an accurate shot, I had a good shot. So, I didn't come to Partizan and develop that shot during that period. Now, if someone asked me how many three-pointers I made throughout my career, even though I only played until 27, I believe it's in the millions, not thousands. There were truly practices where, I think, I made over 1,500 shots in a day. So, when you add that up, years and years, and I spent seven years at Partizan, the first five or six years I really trained too much, looking back now. When I say too much, of course, everyone, when they look back, would do some things differently, both in life and in any job, so now when I look back, I would train some things differently, simply. I wouldn't rely so much only on shooting; I would work on other things, because shooting was something that was, I can't say innate, but I had that good shot even as a kid. From the start, I developed a jump shot, a proper jump shot, and my father is most responsible for that. When I was a kid, when I went to the courts in Čačak with him, where we trained, he made me shoot not from the ground, but a proper jump shot, from, of course, some positions where I could shoot properly; I wasn't shooting threes at that time, but from three, four, five meters. Then slowly, as you get stronger, you move and extend that distance.

Of course, it's not just a fond memory, but a beautiful one. Not only did I mature as a player and a person at Partizan, but it was also a period where we truly bonded. There were many younger players – Novica, Tepić, Kosta Perović, not to list them all, I'll forget half the players, but we were a similar generation and we really stuck together. I'm still on good terms and in contact with all those players today. When you go to play somewhere else later, there's no such camaraderie, no such relationship anymore. We were there for each other. We'd finish practice, always go somewhere, have a drink, have coffee, socialize in the evenings and during the day. I spent more time with them than with anyone else – one practice, another practice, outside of practice, travels – it was literally like family. That period will remain a beautiful memory for my entire life.

No... there are some arenas that are also, let's say, good, with good atmospheres, but even the Arena now can't compare at all to Pionir from that era. I remember, we'd arrive at the game an hour and 45 minutes early, and it would already be full, we'd just be entering the locker room, and the cheering would already be audible, you'd hear everything, the vibrations would carry down, and that's instant adrenaline. We'd go out onto the court half an hour before for warm-ups... Man, you'd get the impression from that crowd, that atmosphere and energy, that you didn't need any warm-up, you could just start playing, literally. It was an art in those moments to control yourself and lower the tension so you wouldn't burn out before the game, literally. Because such an atmosphere and such energy existed that I never experienced it anywhere else afterwards, not even when I played against some teams that had, relatively speaking, a good atmosphere; it wasn't even close to that. In fact, the loudest noise I ever experienced, I think it was a game against Panathinaikos in 'Pionir,' we were up by half a basket, and Diamantidis was shooting two free throws, with like five or six seconds left in the game. I was in the game, standing behind him at the three-point line, and the noise was so immense that at one point I just felt my eardrums literally vibrating, and they were probably on the verge of bursting. That kind of noise, for example, I heard and experienced then, and never even close again... Not even in Pionir did I experience such noise a second time, let alone on any other court.

At first, when you step out, it's truly that adrenaline, that energy, but once the game starts, you're simply focused on it. That energy carries you, especially when you're building a lead. The fans were truly our sixth and seventh player, and they also affected the opposing team, making them lose confidence, making them scared. Truly, that atmosphere, I think it's impossible to find anywhere again.

The secret was our unity, desire, energy, and home court advantage, ultimately, with such fans, when all that comes together. When we talk about the budget during that period, I think our budget at Partizan wasn't a million or a million and a half, while other teams, like CSKA, had 20 million, 25 million; those are serious differences. But we were kids, those weren't big contracts; there were a couple of players with bigger, relatively speaking, contracts, the rest were players who were still developing. Of course, no one could expect them to have big contracts, but comparing then and now – it's incomparable. Generally, and Partizan now, looking at the budgets, it's not negligible at all, it's a serious budget.

My contract at Partizan was expiring. I had a chance even before that to go to Tau Ceramica, at 19, there was an offer, but Partizan didn't want to let me go yet. It was already time, I had spent seven years at Partizan. I already had the problem then that eventually made me stop playing, but I didn't know exactly what it was. I went to Joventut, where I played a decent, good season. After Joventut, I even had a chance to end up in the NBA, that's an interesting little story. Then, two years in Malaga, and that's where I had my first surgery, at 25 I had my first cartilage operation. I came back after the injury, a long recovery, six months. I felt great, it was strange to me that nothing hurt, because it had been hurting me for years before that, and I didn't know what was wrong, and the pain kept getting worse and worse until I couldn't even train normally or function anymore. I felt great for about six, seven, eight months, and then the same pain started again. Exactly two years later, I had a second surgery, where the doctors told me it would probably happen again in a year or two. I didn't see the point anymore. Recovery takes a long time; after such an injury, when you come back, you sometimes go two steps backward, you need to play one or two good seasons to get back to a certain level. And then after that, when I heard I'd have to operate again in a year or a year and a half, I just couldn't... I expected more from myself, that I would have a better story and a better career, after all, and it had already become a torment – one surgery, another surgery, one recovery, another recovery, a third potential surgery again in a year and a half, and simply – at that moment I decided it was better to stop.

It's tough, especially tough because I was 27. If I had been 33, 34, 35... nowadays they play until 40, then you've had a normal career and you retire when you should, that's one thing. This is a different matter, because those years when I retired are the best years for a player, and I had to then. I mean, it's enough to say that for five or six years after that, I didn't watch a single game. I created a mental block for myself; I can't say I was bitter, but everything just upset me so much that I didn't want to watch at all. Literally, for five or six years, I didn't watch a single game on TV. I only started watching a little after that. And even now, I don't follow it too much, I watch the EuroLeague, but during that period, nothing, absolutely zero.

That was the year I moved to Joventut, during the season my then-manager suggested we go to America for some training, training camps. I was reluctant at the time to go and do some training there, nothing concrete, but he convinced me for a few months and eventually I agreed. I was stationed somewhere in the suburbs of Los Angeles, I trained there, then I did some training in Phoenix, in New York, I won't lie, I think there was one more team, I'm not sure which one now. I was there for about 25 days in total, I returned to Serbia and a few days passed, I opened my email and read – literally a signed letter, whether it was the owner or president of New York, anyway, it wasn't a typed email, it was a scanned, stamped, signed letter that literally read: 'We are pleased that you will be a member of our team next year...' As if I had signed a contract and then they sent me that letter, that's what it was like. I read it, nothing made sense to me, I called my manager to see what was happening and told him I got an email, he said: 'I know, I didn't want to tell you anything, I wanted you to get it, to read it yourself.' And he tells me what it's about – LeBron James that year, his first period in Cleveland, was supposed to move to either New York or Miami, and he was announcing it in two days on one of their popular shows in America, where he decided to move. The manager told me: 'If LeBron decides to go to New York, you're there, it's already done, if he goes to Miami, nothing.' Back then, the salary cap was smaller, he would take most of the money, leaving less for other players, so a concept of a shooter next to him who would create and so on would suit them. Two days later, the show aired and he announced he decided to go to Miami. So, it was a matter of a little luck, it was 50-50.

I wasn't scared, but yes, definitely many athletes in general, not just basketball players, have that problem of ending their career and starting a new, so to speak, life and a new job, finding themselves in something. I thought for about a year or two about what I could do, I looked for something I would love to do, something that would fulfill me. I love nature, greenery, and during that period I thought about planting some fruit, something like that, to get into that, so I looked into various things and started with blueberries, I made plantations and I'm still doing that. It's okay for me, I like it, it's not a static job, it's not boring, it's dynamic. It's completely fine for me and I think I didn't make a mistake regarding the job, because if I had to do some job from eight to four, an office job and all that, that would probably kill me, it wouldn't suit me at all.

I never had ambitions to be a coach. Again, I didn't have the desire to leave Serbia and live abroad, and there aren't many serious options in Serbia to work for, let's say, major teams – there's Zvezda and Partizan, so – only Partizan (laughs). To be a coach, I never really considered it; I think it's an extremely stressful and demanding job. Maybe some other role, yes, but I've gone in this direction, and for now, it's fine.

Everyone who plays any sport dreams of playing for the national team, that's for sure. It's always a special feeling to play for the national team, every time, I remember, when we go out, when the anthem starts, you immediately get goosebumps, it's truly a special feeling. And that year when we won silver, Duda was the coach, we were a very young national team, was the average age 21 and something, just under 22, if I remember correctly. We lost to Spain in the final of the European Championship in 2009, and at that time, Spain was too strong and they were beating everyone by 40 points. We even beat them in the group stage that year, but then in the final they beat us relatively easily, they were even more determined because we had beaten them in the group. But it was good, and that result was also achieved because we already knew each other from our clubs, again that camaraderie and energy, it wasn't by chance.