Wondering what the Purdue Boilermakers might do tonight after polishing off Baylor? A few have very specific plans for supper. Included in each Boliermaker baller's profile in the team media guide is the always-entertaining "If I could have dinner with three people dead or alive they would be..." prompt.
As usual, Jesus gets the most dinner invites. Sophomore guard Chris Kramer lists Jesus, Michael Jordan and Adam Sandler. (Would Jesus know the words to "The Chanukah Song?"). Loquacious center JaJuan Johnson would like comedians Martin Lawrence and Chris Tucker to accompany Jesus at the table (Would God's son be able to get a word in?). Sophomore guard Geno Parker would like to break bread with his grandfather, Pete Maravich and Jesus, in that order (Would Pistol bother passing the mashed potatoes, or hog them all for himself?).
Nemanja Calasan, a junior forward from Bosnia and Herzegovina, lists Croation ballers Drazen Petrovic and Vlade Divac, and Grammy-winning babe Beyonce. Mmmm ... Bootylicious meets Bjelovar-Bilogora.
Chris Reid lists the Three Stooges, which may explain why every Boilermaker lists Reid as the "teammate that makes me laugh the most."
Robbie Hummel, by far the most entertaining Purdue player to watch, also has the most dynamic dining trio: Jordan, Denzel Washington and Will Ferrell.
But the oddest couple award definitely goes to junior guard Marcus Green, who would like to share a meal with Mahatma Gandhi and Jonnie Cochran. I had to ask -- why the pioneer of non-violent resistance and the man who got O.J. off?
"Just the enlightenment, with Gandhi and being in his presence," said Green, sipping a Powerade. "Jonnie Cochran is one of my heroes, so just to be able to sit down and be able to talk to him."
What would they have to eat? Would Gandhi eat at all?
"Me and Gandhi, I think we'd be eatin' rice, maybe some fish," said Green with a laugh, apparently amused by the idea that Gandhi might fast through his dream dinner. "Cochran would probably have some soul food."
While in the District, Green -- who claims meatballs are his favorite food -- plans on trying to make it to Ben's Chili Bowl, per Gilbert Arenas' request.
-- Harlan Goode
Comments (1)
"Nemanja Calasan, a junior forward from Bosnia and Herzegovina, lists Croation ballers Drazen Petrovic and Vlade Divac"
Nemanja Calasan is a Croatian Serb refugee and Vlade Divac is a Serb.
Here is a bit on Calasan's family's escape from Croatia to Montenegro where they lived as refugees from 1 1/2 years:
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008803020425
When the madness of civil war struck, Nemanja Calasan was an innocent 5-year-old, a Serb by birth, a Croat by geography. This was 1990...
…When the winds of war began to blow in 1990, Calasan's father, Dragan, told his mother, Milanka, it was time to move the family, which also included Nemanja's brother and sister. The mother refused. Soon, though, the family had to move into their basement, where they remained hidden for more than a month.
The war had turned old friends into murderous enemies. Serbs were killing Bosnians. Croats were killing Serbs. Outside that basement, an internecine war was raging, and the Calasans had no way to escape.
"One day, a Catholic Croatian priest from our local church -- he was a family friend -- he just came randomly to see how we were doing because he hadn't heard from us in so long, and he wondered if we were still alive,'' Calasan remembered. "I remember my dad opening the door in the ceiling. The priest was shocked to see we were still alive.''
For the Calasan family, the priest turned into one of those countless heroes who somehow rise above all the madness of wartime, putting humanity before ethnicity.
He soon put the entire family in his Mercedes Benz -- "the Mercedes, that's what I always remember,'' Calasan said -- and began the journey to the Bosnian city of Sarajevo, where the family would catch a train to another republic, Montenegro.
First, though, they had to get past the rifle-toting soldier on the Croatia-Bosnia border.
Calasan's father was in the front seat next to the priest. Calasan, his mother and his two siblings were in the back. He was 5 years old, completely unaware that a border guard held his future, even his life, in his hands.
Somehow, the priest and Dragan Calasan talked their way past the guard.
Calasan now says, "I believe God was with us.''
The Calasans went on to Sarajevo, a city that had not yet become ground zero in the war. Then it was on to Montenegro, where Calasan's mother had relatives. There, though, the Calasans got stuck in the wake of United Nations sanctions that kept the entire republic isolated and hungry.
After 1 1/2 years in Montenegro, the Calasans felt compelled to leave their broken country, moving to Hamburg, Germany, where they remained for six years.
Posted by Ida | March 20, 2008 9:20 PM