He stood 6'11". He declined the NBA. He translated the Book of Mormon under Communist surveillance. Then he helped rebuild his country from a diplomat's desk while quietly dying of cancer — and never stopped smiling.
Krešimir Ćosić was the most complete basketball player Europe ever produced. He was also something rarer: a man whose faith, intellect, and warmth outgrew every arena he entered. The Smile is the story of how he became that man — and what it cost him.
Assembled from his unfinished memoirs, recorded recollections, and the memories of those who loved him, this literary memoir traces an extraordinary arc: from a hollow-chested teenager on the Zadar waterfront, to All-American at BYU, to gold medalist in Moscow, to Deputy Ambassador of Croatia in Washington — all while practicing a faith that made him a dissident in his own country, and a legend everywhere else.
"In all the years I have known him, including the last year when he was personally suffering a great deal, I never saw him without a smile." Senator Orrin G. Hatch, United States Senate, 2018
6× Gold
Olympic & World & European medals
1st
Foreign All-American in NCAA history
European at NBA Draft
All - round player, playing all 5 positions
FIBA Hall of Fame
Inducted 2007
Naismith Hall of Fame
Inducted 1996
What readers are saying
"A rare book — one that makes you feel you have lost someone you never had the chance to meet."
Alex Samuelson
"The basketball is extraordinary, but it is a microcosmos for a greater story. The man behind the game will stay with you long after the last page."
Tracy Dunn
By Ana Ćosić Pajurin · Foreword by Senator Orrin G. Hatch
Order the book
Available now at Dominović Book Store
knjizara-dominovic.hr
https://www.knjizara-dominovic.hr/en/the-smile-a-memoir-product-59090/?ignore_lang_detect=1
