Vincent Polakovic

University of San Francisco

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 INTERVIEW FOR Sport Magazine

“50 POINTS IS ALWAYS A GREAT FEELING”
Author: Michal Burza
Published: 28 October 2008

Inter Bratislava basketball player Vincent Polakovic accomplished the season scoring record.

Special! Inter player Vincent Polakovic scored 50 points against Handlova and lead the team to 98:91 victory in Sunday’s extraliga action.

Before he started to talk with us about his special individual accomplishment, emphasized the importance of second season victory for Inter: “I’m very happy, that we were able to win this game. It was very hard game, but we played as a team pretty well.” Polakovic hopes that the confidence of the team will finally go up: “I hope that this win will help everybody and our game will elevate. After first couple of rounds were we played away games in strong Pezinok and Levice, there are more winnable games coming up. But we can’t underestimate nobody!”

Then Vince commented the season scoring record that he accomplished by shooting 68% (25/17) from the field and 94% (17/16) from the free throw line: “This type of effort helps every player; it might happen just very few times during a career so I will remember it for a long time. But I have to thank to my teammates who gave me great passes throughout the whole game.” But we try to correct Vincent Polakovic little bit, because many players can’t experience this type of scoring night ever in their lives. Even the last season high from Richard Misinsky from Slavia TU Kosice was “just” 45 points. 43 points by Dominitrix Johnson from Handlova was the season high for this season until yesterday. For Polakovic the 50 point mark was not something completely unusual: “I’m sure I had couple of games like that when I played in youth categories.”

Vincent Polakovic, who is currently leading the scoring race in the slovak league after 6 rounds with 176 points total , sometimes seems not even to belong into this league. But he doesn’t regret his decision of coming back to Slovakia: “I don’t regret any decision. I had my reasons why I wanted to come back home. In addition to it, I think it helps me as player to be a leader from who is expected to score. At this point of time I am not thinking about future too much. As of right now I concentrate on my efforts in order to help my club Inter.” Bratislava’s team sees in Poprad native the follower of great Daniel Novak, who returned to holland’s Groningen team after playing for Inter last season. Polakovic even reaches better statistics in several categories than Novak. The truth is that he is not such a respected person as he was yet, and he has some deficits that he needs to improve mainly in defense.

If Polakovic is capable to outshoot the opponents, there is a question, what will he able to do after he gets more game experience with slovak national point guard Martin Micka. Polakovic believes, that he could build a strong duo on the court similar than it was last season with Micka and Novak: “There is definitely a chance there. Martin is a very good point guard. He is capable to find his teammates in great positions. He spent the whole pre season with the national team so we hadn’t chance to play together way to much. But with coming games it will get just better and better.” 

Maticky about Polakovic

“We know that is capable of making a lot of points. He showed it several times since he arrived. He is born scorer, capable of making shots from all positions around the basket. Handlova played aggressive pressing throughout the game, but we were able to beat it every time. Vincent Polakovic was many times free under the basket. In addition to it, he was able to make 16 out of 17 free throw tries what shows his qualities. I can just congratulate him to this effort”, said after the game Oto Maticky, sport director of Inter.

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INTERVIEW FOR ebasket.sk

POLAKOVIC: I HAVE STILL NOT APPLIED FOR A GERMAN CITIZENSHIP
Author: Martin Galajda
Published: 23 April 2008

He can be simply described as the lost son of Slovak basketball. The twenty-four year old forward Vincent Polakovič packed up and left his native Poprad and incubator of talent at Svit when he was only 16. Polakovič said in the introduction to his interview for eBasket.sk: “I could say that I was predestined from birth for basketball. I come from a basketball family. My granddad Rudolf Vraniak and uncle Igor Vraniak both reached the Czechoslovakian national team”. He added: “My beginnings are connected especially with my granddad, who was my coach in the youth categories. He took care of my basketball growth and he always was and will be my role model, not only in sport.”

Four years ago he exchanged Germany for the American NCAA. Only a few days ago he completed his university studies and is preparing for his professional life. The following lines are about his relationship to Slovakia as well as about basketball matters.

Let us begin sharply. Apart from your Slovak citizenship, there are information that you have also German citizenship, where you lived for a long time. Could you shed some more light on this?
“I really don’t know how this information began to spread that I also have German citizenship. The truth is that I only have a Slovak passport. I have still not applied for a German one. During my time in Germany, there was interest in me joining the reserve team designated A2, but I did not play in any match.”

How do you feel about it personally? Do you feel a hundred percent Slovak or more cosmopolitan, or are you not very concerned about this question?

“I am definetely Slovak, in spite of the fact that I have lived abroad for eight years. I will always be proud of where I come from, and no matter where I play I will always do my best to prove that Slovakia can also produce good basketball player.”

For a time, you and Anton Gavel were the two most talented players in Germany aged under 20. You played in the second Bundesliga as one of its stars. How do you remember that period?
“Those were really wonderful years. I was able to attend excellent basketball academy, the Ursprinschule, which had one of the best youth teams in Germany for many years. They offered me outstanding conditions; I was coached by great trainer Ralph Junge and received a lot of playing time. Apart from this, I also played in the 2. Bundesliga. I played about 35 minutes a game. I built up the position of leader of the team and gained a lot of experience. During my four years in Germany, I had the chance to play in various tournaments in Italy, Austria, France or USA. I was able to gain experience in playing against players from the whole world. I made great progress in basketball, which culminated in the Rookie All-Star game in Cologne, where I became the best player. Unfortunately during the whole period I did not get the chance to play against Tono. It would certainly have been a pleasant memory of old times at Svit, where we parted with the champion’s title in the cadets.”

You were a star in Germany, but you had difficult years after going to university in USA. Do you regret coming to the USA for this reason?
“As far as basketball is concerned, I have regretted my decision to come to America couple of times. I could have stayed and play professionally in Europe and so I often considered whether it would not be better to stay. However, my initial failures in the USA were largely caused by injuries. That cannot influence the matter. Almost every sportsman must survive them. But in the end, I made it and I am pleased that my patience has paid off.”

How do you see it from the non-sporting point of view?
“I am extremely happy that I had the chance to come to the USA. For almost four years, I have lived and studied in the wonderful city of San Francisco. Whatever I do, I make an effort to think about the future. I know that basketball is only a temporary thing. There are other things in life and I am putting equal emphasis on them. I got the chance to study free at a high quality university. During my career I learned to speak fluent German and now also English. I had a lot of experiences and these are really the things I value the most.”

What happened at University of Northern Iowa? You left already in December and headed for USF.
“I went to Iowa rather blindly. I did not like the location of the university too much. The university has a lot of great fans and good basketball program, but I need a place where I enjoy living apart from basketball. The life style did not suit me. It was very different than the life back home. But life in San Francisco very soon made me forget my short time in Iowa.”

But for two of your three years at the USF you experienced difficult times. You achieved outstanding results only in the recently finished season (17.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game). But you only played in eight matches…
“The NCAA has a rule that a player who changes teams must sit out a yea. So by changing team I lost a year of game experience. In the last season I had small injury problems that affected my season. In my last year, I also paid for the fact that the NCAA began to investigate players, who had formerly been active in other countries. According to their rules, which began to be more strictly observed this year, players had to pause for the same number of matches as they had played in professional teams. Since I had played in 24 matches in the German Bundesliga, I was banned from playing in the same number of matches. It had the same effect on numerous players from Europe. It was only an irony of fate that after the preceding bad luck I was also one of the first to suffer from this. Fortunately, I was able to make up for everything in the final matches of the season. I can thank the new coach Eddie Sutton for this. His arrival also changed my position in the team. I am pleased that I was able to end my career in the USA in a distinguished way and achieve statistics, which should help me in finding of a new team.”

How would you describe the WCC conference, where San Francisco played?
“It is a very interesting and competitive league. You cannot compare the number of spectators with the strongest conferences in the USA, but attendance is often around 5 000 and this is great experience for a player, who grew up in Slovakia and was used to something entirely different. In the WCC I had the chance to play against a lot of great players. They included Adam Morrison from Charlotte Bobcats or Ronny Turiaf from LA Lakers.”

What direction will your career take?
“I am staying in America until the end of May, when I have my graduation. Then I am planning to come back to Slovakia. I will expect some offers from several European leagues, but it is still too early to say anything. The season is still in progress in Europe and so I will not know anything for a few weeks. In any case, I hope that a team in a high quality league will select me and I will be able to make further progress there.”

Further qualification awaits the Slovak team. Can you imagine yourself in Milan Černický’s team?
“It is difficult for me to say anything on the subject of the Slovakian National team. The fact is that during my time in Germany or the USA nobody from the team contacted me personally. It is a little ironic that they had and still have more interest in me in Germany, where basketball is on a higher level. But my priority is still the club in which I will play, so I am not very concerned with the question of representing Slovakia or Germany at the moment.”

In summer we could see you on several streetball tournaments in Slovakia. How do you see this offshoot of basketball? Do you expect to participate somewhere this year?
“I regard streetball as a very pleasant variation of summer preparation. After last year, I was very pleased to participate in various tournaments and if time allows, I will certainly do it again. In any case, I am pleased that more such events are being organized on more regular basis.”

On your personal web page vincentpolakovic.com you have the Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum as a partner. What is your relationship to art?
“My father is director of the Danubiana. He is also its co-founder. During the whole time of my career, he and the rest of my close family have supported me in every way, so I did this to show my gratitude. I also enjoy to work there during the summer. If all goes well, I will begin to work there after the end of my basketball career.”

For interview in slovak click here

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