NBA legends inspire cross-border basketball court

Instead of fencesa and wires, the border between Slovenia's Nova Gorica and Italy's Gorizia now features basketball nets, as a brand-new court has opened to celebrate the European Capital of Culture project jointly run by the two cities.

Two half-courts placed parallel to each other right on the border line now symbolically connect Slovenia and Italy, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.

This is a project that has brought together not only the two countries but also two basketball legends, Slovenia's Goran Dragić, nicknamed Gogi, and Italy's Luigi "Gigi" Datome, two former NBA players and long-time captains of their countries' national teams.

The Gogi&Gigi court is a unique venue. It consists of two half-courts placed in such a way that players, when shooting hoops, shoot towards Italy in one court and towards Slovenia in the other.

It has been built in an existing park in the vicinity of Europe Square and the Nova Gorica Train Station right on the border. The ground was lowered by around two metres, creating a few rows of seats around the court.

The wider area of the 570 aquare metre venue is open to locals and visitors and accessible to persons with disabilities.

There are QR codes on the court that take visitors to an online platform with a collection of basketball training drills, while a dedicated app also helps them find other players and schedule a game.

The project cost just over €400,000, with the Nova Gorica municipality contributing two-thirds of the money, the state one-third, and the Goran Dragić Foundation chipping in €15,000.

Dragić, who has renovated several basketball courts around the country as part of his humanitarian project, said he was very happy this unique court has come into being. "I think this is a very special court. It brings together two countries," he told TV Slovenija.

He invited Gigi to this project because "he shares the values that I have. I'm very happy with what we have achieved."