Nika Barič (born 2 September 1992) is a Slovenian

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player who currently plays for Nika Syktyvkar. She was selected in the second round of the 2012 WNBA draft (20th overall) by the

Minnesota Lynx The Minnesota Lynx are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team won the WNBA title in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017. Founded pr ...

but was waived in May 2016 without ever having played for the team. She represented

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

at the

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2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, and

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Eurobasket EuroBasket, also commonly referred to as the European Basketball Championship, is the main international basketball competition that is contested quadrennially, by the senior men's national teams that are governed by FIBA Europe, which is the E ...

which was managed by coach Damir Grgić throughout this period. In April 2023, two months before the

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tournament which was to be co-hosted by her native

, Barič was kicked off the national team over her controversial remarks in social media in which she disparaged the leadership of the

Basketball Federation of Slovenia The Basketball Federation of Slovenia ( sl, Košarkarska zveza Slovenije) also known as KZS is the governing body of basketball in Slovenia. It was founded in 1950 as a member of the larger Yugoslav Basketball Federation (see also: Basketball in ...

for having retained services of Greek coach

George Dikeoulakos George Dikeoulakos (or Dikaioulakos, el, Γιώργος (Τζώρτζης) Δικαιουλάκος; born 26 January 1969) is a professional Greek basketball coach. As a professional player As a player, Dikeoulakos played for Papagou B.C., Pa ...

to manage the team at the next Eurobasket and stated there was 'no need to hire foreign coaches when Slovene coaches, such as Damir Grgić were available'. A few days later, Barič followed-up with a clarification of her earlier statement saying it was not a personal attack on Dikeoulakos but rather a repeated comment (which she had previously made in October 2021) on the work of the Basketball Federation which, she thought, had been unfair to Grgić by dismissing him after he had led the team successfully at three different Eurobasket competitions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baric, Nika 1992 births Living people Minnesota Lynx draft picks People from Trbovlje Point guards Slovenian expatriate basketball people in Russia Slovenian women's basketball players