Eastern Europe
At the end of the 2010-11 regular season, there were 433 players in the NBA. 345 of these players are United States citizens, the other 88 represent 39 countries spread across 6 continents. Arranged by oversimplified regional groupings, the next few posts will examine tattoos geographically, continuing now with Eastern Europe. To view other regions, click HERE for Africa and HERE for Western Europe.
Half the reason I wanted to do this regional breakdown is so that I could link to this incredible Jason Johnson guest post from Free Darko about playing a pickup game in Bosnia against locals. It completely remodeled my perspective of Eastern European players (which was totally uninformed) and is worth quoting at length:
In the post, they possessed that wiry strength that, despite what we say, we don’t really believe exists. Every rebound was a struggle. They fought for the ball like it was something precious. None of them seemed to be able to dunk, yet all of them could jump high enough to block my attempts … on the rare occasions that they actually let me get into the lane. Their physical interior defense made low-post play seem like an inefficient use of energy and forced us to rely on out nonexistent outside shooting. For three games we were thoroughly outclassed, as the beatings got progressively worse. I had lost my share of basketball games in the past, but never had I left a court so defeated. Other losses had been disheartening and even humiliating, but none had ever shaken my beliefs.
Of the 18 players in the NBA who are Eastern European citizens, only four have tattoos. None of the four Serbian players have tattoos, and up until yesterday, none of the eight players from the former Soviet Union did either. Both of the players from Montenegro have tattoos, as does the sole player from Poland. I’m not willing to extend any of these observations to some kind of interpretation, but part of rethinking how these guys play means acknowledging regional differences instead of assuming all European players arrive in the US with the same game constructed from football flops and wily manipulations. If I’m thinking about regional difference, I can’t help but notice that players born in the Soviet Union don’t have tattoos, that the tattooed players hail from more contested zones.
I mentioned before that Pekovic’s medieval warrior tattoo made me uneasy, considering the actual violence and heaps of skulls that accumulated during his childhood, following the dissolution of Yugoslavia. Dan Gadzuric, whose mother is Serbian, has a tattoo involving a blood puddle that addresses this history. I’m not interested in claiming one tattoo is more significant or emotionally weighted than another, but as a kid hearing about war crimes on NPR I was terrified, speechless. I don’t have any idea how it would feel to grow up surrounded by such insanity. Following a list of violent, on-court actions by Eastern European players, and how such acts were dismissed by the media, Johnson concludes his post by directly addressing the psychic cost: “It’s unfathomable how much more easily we dismiss the aggression of young men raised in literal war zones than those born in figurative war zones.”
Georgia
Tattoo percentage: 0% (0 player with tattoos, 1 without)
Latvia
Tattoo percentage: 0% (0 player with tattoos, 1 without)
Lithuania
Tattoo percentage: 0% (0 players with tattoos, 3 without)
Montenegro
Tattoo percentage: 100% (2 players with tattoos, 0 without)
Poland
Tattoo percentage: 100% (1 player with tattoos, 0 without)
Russia
Tattoo percentage: 50% (1 players with tattoos, 1 without)
Serbia
Tattoo percentage: 0% (0 players with tattoos, 4 without)
Slovenia
Tattoo percentage: 0% (0 players with tattoos, 3 without)
Ukraine
Tattoo percentage: 0% (0 player with tattoos, 1 without)
New Jersey Nets, 2010-11
Tattoo percentage: 47% (7 players with tattoos, 8 without)
From panthers to blood puddles to pirates to vaguely Simpsons-related art, the Nets really showcase the diversity of tattoos present in the NBA.
—
Players with tattoos:
Jordan Farmar
Insted were a late 80s posicore band from Anaheim who formed the same year that Farmar was born just 20 miles away in Los Angeles. Farmar has a tattoo that looks suspiciously like the cover of Insted’s first LP, Bonds of Friendship, but according to an interview, has a totally different origin: “I got it after my freshman year of college. It’s a picture drawn by my first basketball coach, he’s an artist for the Simpsons.”
Dan Gadzuric
Gadzuric’s mother is from Serbia, his father from Saint Vincent. Although the two countries are separated by an ocean, and have never been in direct conflict, they both have violent histories, a story told in Gadzuric’s back tattoo: “The tattoo on my back are two countries joining together with praying hands, covered with blood creating a puddle on the bottom. The two countries represent my two ethnicities.”
Damion James
Among James’ many tattoos is the classic cross/basketball design on his right shoulder.
Anthony Morrow
Morrow has full sleeves on both his arms, and a tribute to his family across his chest.
Johan Petro
Petro has tattoos on both arms.
Mario West
On West’s left shoulder is a tattoo of a pirate.
Deron Williams
Williams famously got one panther tattoo covered by a different panther tattoo. Among his many tattoos, including tributes to his family, basketball, and the state of Texas, Williams said, “It’s a way to express yourself. I probably won’t like them when I’m 90. But right now I do.”
Players without tattoos:
Sundiata Gaines
Stephen Graham
Kris Humphries
Brook Lopez
Travis Outlaw
Ben Uzoh
Sasha Vujacic
Brandan Wright
Eastern Europe
At the end of the 2010-11 regular season, there were 433 players in the NBA. 345 of these players are United States citizens, the other 88 represent 39 countries spread across 6 continents. Arranged by oversimplified regional groupings, the next few posts will examine tattoos geographically, continuing now with Eastern Europe. To view other regions, click HERE for Africa and HERE for Western Europe.
Half the reason I wanted to do this regional breakdown is so that I could link to this incredible Jason Johnson guest post from Free Darko about playing a pickup game in Bosnia against locals. It completely remodeled my perspective of Eastern European players (which was totally uninformed) and is worth quoting at length:
In the post, they possessed that wiry strength that, despite what we say, we don’t really believe exists. Every rebound was a struggle. They fought for the ball like it was something precious. None of them seemed to be able to dunk, yet all of them could jump high enough to block my attempts … on the rare occasions that they actually let me get into the lane. Their physical interior defense made low-post play seem like an inefficient use of energy and forced us to rely on out nonexistent outside shooting. For three games we were thoroughly outclassed, as the beatings got progressively worse. I had lost my share of basketball games in the past, but never had I left a court so defeated. Other losses had been disheartening and even humiliating, but none had ever shaken my beliefs.
Of the 18 players in the NBA who are Eastern European citizens, only four have tattoos. None of the four Serbian players have tattoos, and up until yesterday, none of the eight players from the former Soviet Union did either. Both of the players from Montenegro have tattoos, as does the sole player from Poland. I’m not willing to extend any of these observations to some kind of interpretation, but part of rethinking how these guys play means acknowledging regional differences instead of assuming all European players arrive in the US with the same game constructed from football flops and wily manipulations. If I’m thinking about regional difference, I can’t help but notice that players born in the Soviet Union don’t have tattoos, that the tattooed players hail from more contested zones.
I mentioned before that Pekovic’s medieval warrior tattoo made me uneasy, considering the actual violence and heaps of skulls that accumulated during his childhood, following the dissolution of Yugoslavia. Dan Gadzuric, whose mother is Serbian, has a tattoo involving a blood puddle that addresses this history. I’m not interested in claiming one tattoo is more significant or emotionally weighted than another, but as a kid hearing about war crimes on NPR I was terrified, speechless. I don’t have any idea how it would feel to grow up surrounded by such insanity. Following a list of violent, on-court actions by Eastern European players, and how such acts were dismissed by the media, Johnson concludes his post by directly addressing the psychic cost: “It’s unfathomable how much more easily we dismiss the aggression of young men raised in literal war zones than those born in figurative war zones.”
Georgia
Tattoo percentage: 0% (0 player with tattoos, 1 without)
Latvia
Tattoo percentage: 0% (0 player with tattoos, 1 without)
Lithuania
Tattoo percentage: 0% (0 players with tattoos, 3 without)
Montenegro
Tattoo percentage: 100% (2 players with tattoos, 0 without)
Poland
Tattoo percentage: 100% (1 player with tattoos, 0 without)
Russia
Tattoo percentage: 50% (1 players with tattoos, 1 without)
Serbia
Tattoo percentage: 0% (0 players with tattoos, 4 without)
Slovenia
Tattoo percentage: 0% (0 players with tattoos, 3 without)
Ukraine
Tattoo percentage: 0% (0 player with tattoos, 1 without)
New Jersey Nets, 2010-11
Tattoo percentage: 47% (7 players with tattoos, 8 without)
From panthers to blood puddles to pirates to vaguely Simpsons-related art, the Nets really showcase the diversity of tattoos present in the NBA.
—
Players with tattoos:
Jordan Farmar
Insted were a late 80s posicore band from Anaheim who formed the same year that Farmar was born just 20 miles away in Los Angeles. Farmar has a tattoo that looks suspiciously like the cover of Insted’s first LP, Bonds of Friendship, but according to an interview, has a totally different origin: “I got it after my freshman year of college. It’s a picture drawn by my first basketball coach, he’s an artist for the Simpsons.”
Dan Gadzuric
Gadzuric’s mother is from Serbia, his father from Saint Vincent. Although the two countries are separated by an ocean, and have never been in direct conflict, they both have violent histories, a story told in Gadzuric’s back tattoo: “The tattoo on my back are two countries joining together with praying hands, covered with blood creating a puddle on the bottom. The two countries represent my two ethnicities.”
Damion James
Among James’ many tattoos is the classic cross/basketball design on his right shoulder.
Anthony Morrow
Morrow has full sleeves on both his arms, and a tribute to his family across his chest.
Johan Petro
Petro has tattoos on both arms.
Mario West
On West’s left shoulder is a tattoo of a pirate.
Deron Williams
Williams famously got one panther tattoo covered by a different panther tattoo. Among his many tattoos, including tributes to his family, basketball, and the state of Texas, Williams said, “It’s a way to express yourself. I probably won’t like them when I’m 90. But right now I do.”
Players without tattoos:
Sundiata Gaines
Stephen Graham
Kris Humphries
Brook Lopez
Travis Outlaw
Ben Uzoh
Sasha Vujacic
Brandan Wright
