After a several-month break caused by the Coronavirus pandemic and the state of emergency in Belgrade, the business league teams Rivers BC and Couch Coach BC played a game of basketball on Ada Ciganlija.
Also, wheelchair basketball players played an exhibition game.
These two games differed from all previous ones as they involved the implementation of the recommendations of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the players had their temperature measured, all players wore protective Green Mask face masks, specially designed for athletes, gloves and the distance between players at any given time was a minimum of 1.5m.
Slobodan Žikić a representative of Šabac YBC was in charge of strict application of the rules. The referees, the delegate and the table official did their job flawlessly.
Even though the match was not publicly announced, it attracted a lot of attention from everyone who happened to be on Ada, and some moves were accompanied by loud applause.
This first Post-Covid19 basketball game played in Belgrade and Serbia, and possibly in the region and Europe, was attended by Bratislav Bata Đorđević, a basketball coach who made an interesting statement: “Kudos to the organizers of this game and basketball players who once again stood ready to adapt to all circumstances, as this match, which was played with full protective equipment with green protective masks, gloves and with maintaining distance, has shown. I hope that the regular basketball competitions will continue soon, and that this game is the forerunner of new basketball games.”
Predrag Pešović, owner and director of RPC Pešović, President of the Serbian Association of Inventors, who deserves the most credit for the design and manufacture of green masks, did not hide his satisfaction after the match: “The design and manufacture of protective masks for athletes is one of the most interesting projects that I’ve implemented in my 50 year long career. Together with our partners Nenad Nikolin and Bojan Milićević, we made special masks for athletes and fans. As you could see, the mask did not fall off anyone’s face, although the basketball players did not spare themselves at all, they ran, jumped, and sweated, all with masks with filters on their faces. In addition to the masks for the players and fans of the Red Star and Partizan, we also made masks for Barcelona, which will be delivered to our celebrated coach Svetislav Pešić next week.”
The idea of playing the first Post-Covid19 game originated with Marko Radović, President of Rivers BC, and Nenad Nikolin, Director of Green Mask. The preparation and organization of the match was the responsibility of Prof. Dr.Petar Kočović, Director of Digital Dreams and Vladimir Kuzmanović, President of the Wheelchair Basketball Association of Serbia.
This four-member team wanted to send a message to the world that Belgrade and Serbia are ready to accept the organization of new basketball events, by applying whatever rules necessary to preserve the health of all participants, athletes, coaches, judges and audiences, and have successfully done so.
