Jaka Blažič is a member of the Slovenian male basketball representative team. He is one of the heroes who spectacularly won both gold and Slovene hearts at the last European championship in Turkey. He is currently playing for the basketball club Barcelona. We present him as an ambassador of PGSi 2019 Slovenia with great pride and along we are publishing a short interview about his experiences with sports in his youth.
Jaka, which fun childhood experience in sports that you had stands out in your memory particularly?
When I was growing up I had most of my fun adventures while playing street basketball with friends. A day after the celebration at the end of the season in Slovan and after a long night I played 3on3 tournament in Idrija with Luka Rupnik and another friend, where we lost the finals. Luka’s father who was a local was so disappointed with our loss he did not speak with us for three whole days.
Can you tell us three values that you have received with sports?
Hard work, perseverance and humility.
Who do you look up to the most?
When I was younger my greatest basketball role model was Michael Jordan. But in the last couple of years I try to learn as much as I can from different people who surround me, from sportsmen, coaches and other alike.
Do you think it’s important to emphasize fair-play between young athletes?
Fair-play is important, because in sports not only results matter, but also interpersonal relations which are built with good fair-play moves in the field. Of course, competitiveness is also important 😉
Have you ever bore witness to a gesture of fair-play that made a special impact on you?
In a game a ball bounced off a co-player into out. The referee did not notice it and had despite that decided that the ball belongs to our team. The co-player who had touched the ball last admitted it and the referee corrected his decision.
