Bricklayer said:
Yep. It's actually a lot more simple and inocous then it sounds. Schools simple cannot devote resources to a full program. At least most of them cannot. Under old comunist system, every last city, town and village had at least one Sports Society. Each sport society would have at least Soccer and Basketball clubs, in most cases also Handball, Volleyball, Track and Field, Gymmnastycs, Shooting, Water Polo (in Coastal towns) etc. Every year, each of those basketball clubs (some are giants of Euro ball like Partizan and Crvena Zvezda, some like this kid is playing for a minor leaguers) will put up notices in local schools inviting second/third graders (8 years and up). You get free basketball lessons 2-3 times a week. Club gets "grassroots" and something for their aprentice coaches to do. When you're 15 you register. That's a first cut. Up to that point, "grassroots" are wittled down through attrition (kids giving up or changing sports, etc.). From the age 15 on, you're a "player" according to FIBA and national association rules. Kind of like a rookie league baseball player. In most cases, your pay will consist of free sports gear, meal/travel allowance and maybe stipend. If you're Darko good, you can get signed to pro contract.
In most cases though, pro contract and a second major cut occures at the age of 18, when you cannot be a "junior" any more and you either:
- Sign a pro deal and join senior squad
- Sign a part time deal and play on practice squad
- Get cut.
If you get cut, there are still smaller clubs that will have you, or going abroad to a less competitive league. I don't know if they synched the system by now, but one problem I found was that if you were offered basketball scholarship by a US college, you could not sign up if you were registered player with a Div 1A (top basketball league in old YU), even if you were not under full-time contract and your pay consusted of loaned equipment. But, if you go to (old-YU) college, as a practice squad player, the club will pay you a stipend while you're in school. That was cool. Then there is always England, Sweden or Finland, where they have pro leagues and minor league (by ex- YU standards) players.
(communist party renamed itself so socialist) and political orgranization was kind of allowed through an orgranization other then the Party. Private enterprise was allowed (and taxed to the bone), so we were kind of a mongrel system. Like China today, but with much less success in economy and much more freedom in society.
