By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
The Dario Saric soap opera ended on Wednesday with the 18 years old player signing his four years contract with Croatian club Cibona Zagreb – the team in which late Drazen Petrovic played back in the eighties – and being presented officially to the media.
As he said: “I am happy to be here. Cibona is team that’s always in my heart. The most important thing after the agony I went through is that I will finally play again, hopefully this weekend against Olimpija. I almost lost my mind after the last two months of waiting my situation to be resolved”.
He implied that Croatian champions Cedevita tried to sign him, but he preferred Cibona, which is the team with the biggest tradition in the country, and he added that he is not eager to leave Europe in order to play in the NBA: “I will stay in Cibona for the next two or three years. I will not insist on leaving the team this summer, I will not rush myself in the NBA. I think that I could get a deal that in the end will satisfy everybody involved”. Saric is considered a lock for the first round for the NBA draft, whenever he wants to enter it.
Saric was born in the city of Sibenik, which was also the hometown of Drazen Petrovic and Cibona presented young Dario as his heir. As for his 550.000 euros buy out to his former team KK Zagreb, it was paid by the company Klemm security.