The Olympics Will be a Great Setup for Dario Saric’s Career

Dario Saric is now a member of the Philadelphia 76ers, and playing in the Rio Olympics is a good way to start his career.

Some of the best athletes around the world come together once every so often to show off their skills and to compete on a national level. The Olympics — the summer one, especially, which is just once every four years — is a highly anticipated event that is like no other sporting event. Politics and other worldwide events are really no match for it, as no political debate or issue really pulls in so many countries around the world for a common goal.

For Dario Saric, the Olympics are just as important individually. Of course, Saric has a ton of excitement and honor to be able to represent his homeland, Croatia, on a national level. But even more important (for Sixers fans, anyway) is the fact that Saric will be coming to play in America for the 76ers soon, and there is no better primer than playing against the world’s best competition.

A few months ago, I was skeptical about Saric coming over to play for the Sixers this year. Saric would have been able to make a lot more money in the long run had he waited a year and gotten off of the rookie pay scale, and I also thought the Olympics might be a reason he stayed and played with Turkey for another season.

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I thought this because it seemed difficult for Saric to get over to America in between his qualifying Olympic tournament and Croatia’s first Olympic game in Rio. Additionally, Saric would have to miss summer league because of his duties with the Croatian National team. Missing that time developing with his teammates seemed like a big deal at the time.

Still, Saric made time to come to America and sign his deal before he went to play in Rio, and made it more important to come and keep his word with the Sixers than to make more money. Would it have made more sense for Saric to stay in Turkey? Perhaps, if he were truly greedy. But with the Olympics this summer, and a pretty fantastic past season with the Anadolu Efes — his best one to date — it would be hard to halt that momentum and not cap it off with coming to America.

Saric has improved so much since the Sixers drafted him in 2014, and he’s gotten to the point where he’s at that level of competing with the best NBA players. That’s the reason he was the MVP of the tournament that he led Croatia to a win in, getting them into the Olympics.

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Saric has gone from being a basic forward who could possibly fill in a role-playing bench position, to being a sixth man, in just two years of overseas development. Pretty soon, we could see him take on a starting role with the Sixers, and I’m willing to bet he would flourish, given the right attention from the coaching staff.

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Although Saric did miss out on the opportunity to get to know his teammates and play against NBA players in summer league, the opportunity to compete — and thrive — on an international level at the Olympics against the world’s best basketball players is something that is an indication of how good Saric is, and how good his career is going to be. And it all starts in Philadelphia.