Stars

OGNJEN ASKRABIĆ

His name translated means »A man with fire in his hand«. It suits him perfectly, because Ognjen Aksrabic is a menace to every defence. Just ask anyone who played against Reflex this season. Born in Sarajevo 1979 he was spoted by the scouts from Zeleznik while playing for Beovuk, small Belgrade club famous for it`s youngsters. He came quietly to Reflex, but pretty soon a storm became rising. Although not so phisicaly strong for a power forward position at that point, Askrabic imedeiately showed great skill and potential. Now he is a leader of Reflex and last year almost became a Denver Nugget. NBA is a near future, although some big european clubs want him as well. He made a big play against Cibona in Goodyear league this year. He shot a winnig buzzer beater from halfcourt. Final four brings him to the place of the success. Recently he scored 32 points against Red Star, made 12 from 13 field goals.

KIMANI FRIEND

Foreign players took Belgrade by storm last year. With flashy plays, good attitude, dunking... They even made an impact on the night clubs in downtown. Suddenly it became trandy to organize a hip-hop party with Reggie Freeman, Scoonie Penn or Fred Haus as the special guest star. Strong Jamaican center Kimani Friend doesn`t fit in this story by many counts. He prefered soccer to basketball till he was 19, and his idol was never Michael Jordan or Charles Barkley. Always Bob Marley, the legendary countryman and fellow Kingstonian. Friend also definately prefers reggae to hip-hop.

He went to his first basketball practice at the age of 19, after he finally became too tall (209 cm) to be a striker or central defender. American scouts brought him to the States where he played for two colleges, than university of Nebraska. Almost made it to the NBA, but instead firmly decided to try get there by making a mark in Europe. After a bad episode with Dinamo Moscow, he found his peace and quality playing time in Reflex.

He didn`t forget the loss to Red Star in the Radivoj Korać Cup final last december.

Kimani Friend wants revenge, Goodyear league final four is a great oportunity.

He believes Reflex is capable of going all the way.

IVAN ZOROSKI

Reflex coach Vlade Djurovic took over the team from Zeleznik last april. One of the first inovations he introduced was making Ivan Zoroski, a standard starting point guard into a best sixth man of the team. Many were amased but he simply explained that he wants a player who will make a positive change when coming on the pitch. He wasn`t mistaken. Next year he brought Zoroski back to starting point guard and again Zore livet up to the challenge. He is not just a playmayker but a good scorer and classy defender, good outside shooter and never fears to drive to the basket.

'I like to think of myself as a team player. That sounds good – team player.'

He was brought to the first team from the youth categories of Reflex. Made his debut for the seniors in 2000. It was obvious back than that Reflex got a reliable first team player for the years to come, a hard worker and loyal to the club. In summer 2001 he was invited to play for Yugoslavia at the University games in China and won the gold medal in front of 40000 supporters of China in the final. Recently Željko Obradović put him among 40 candidates for the national team at thus year Olimpic games in Athens.