Player who lost kidney helps Serbia to EuroBasket

MIAMI — The Serbian national team player who lost a kidney at last year’s Basketball World Cup is back on the floor with the team and helped it clinch a spot in next year’s EuroBasket tournament on Sunday.

Borisa Simanic — playing a home game in Belgrade with the national team for the first time since getting hurt in the Philippines last year — scored 12 points on Sunday in Serbia’s 98-51 win over Denmark.

The win made Serbia the sixth team to secure a spot in the European championships, along with Lithuania and four host nations — Latvia, Finland, Cyprus and Poland. There are 18 spots remaining in the 24-team field.

Simanic lost a kidney as the result of an injury suffered in a game Serbia played against South Sudan in Manila in September 2023. He began losing blood not long after the incident, underwent surgery and, after further complications were detected, the kidney was removed.

“I’m so happy to see him be back,” said Miami Heat forward Nikola Jovic, a Serbian national teamer and likely candidate to play in EuroBasket next summer. “He’s someone I grew up watching, and then I actually had a chance to play with him back home. We’re more like a family. To see what happened to him in that World Cup was really tough.”

Simanic scored three points in another qualifying win at Denmark last week. Sunday’s game was his first in Serbia for the national team since the injury.

“When the injury happened, I didn’t expect to return this quickly,” Simanic told FIBA after the first game with Denmark. “Actually, I didn’t even know if I would come back at all.”

Jovic worked out with Simanic over the summer and said he never doubted his national teammate would return. Simanic has been playing professionally in the Adriatic League this season as well.

“I’m so happy to see him back,” Jovic said. “I think that’s a heck of a journey, heck of a story. I don’t think a lot of people can do what he did.”