<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">They went their separate ways a few weeks or so ago, basketball far from their minds. For several Jazz players, their 82-game season having ended with just 26 wins, serious competition is more than five months away. For a few others ? Turkey's Mehmet Okur, with virtual certainty; Russia's Andrei Kirilenko, so long as his broken wrist heals as expected; and Croatia's Gordan Giricek, assuming all goes as planned ? it will come even sooner. International play means all the world to Utah's Europeans in particular, and the European Championships that will be held Sept. 16-25 in Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro, offer a fitting stage. Giricek, for one, says the Euro meet is "the hardest" hoops tournament on the planet. Not everyone agrees, but the Croatian shooting guard is adamant. "It's harder than World Championships," the European Championships vet said, "and it's harder than Olympics."</div> <div align="center">Link</div>
