Asking handball superstar Ivano Balic what his favorite sport is may seem like a stupid question.  After all Balic has an Olympic gold medal and a World Championship to his name, but if you do bother to ask you'll get an unexpected answer.

"I still think basketball is the best sport," says the 1.89m middle back.

Ivano Balic is one of the best handball players in the world.

"Handball is a very physical sport.  There's a lot of contact and hitting.  Basketball is more of a gentleman's game, at least compared to handball."

Balic came by his love of basketball honestly. He grew up in a city obsessed with sport, at a time when the local club was dominating the European scene.

"I started as a basketball player because at that time KK Jugoplatstica had won three straight European Championships so everyone was playing basketball."

As a youngster Balic trained with the legendary club until he reached 15 when he gave up the sport in favor of handball.

"Both my parents played handball so I think it was meant to be."

You can hardly say it was a bad decision.  Balic won a gold medal with Croatia at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, to go with a World Championship the year before.  His trophy case also includes three silver medals, two from the World Championships (2005 and 2009) and one from the European Championship (2008).

At 30 Balic is considered to be maybe the best handball player in the world, and one of the greatest of all time.

Though his professional sporting career took him away from basketball, he never stopped watching, and he now counts many of the players that will compete at EuroBasket 2009 as friends.

"I know just about everybody on the team," he says.

"I'm great friends with the captain Nikola Prkacin.  I play in Zagreb and he does too so we see each other almost every day."

How does he think the Croatians will do in Poland?

"I think they are a team.  They don't have great individuals, but I think for winning it is important to have a good team where everybody has a role and fills that role."

When asked what advice he would give to his fellow countrymen the two-time World Player of the Year keeps it simple.

"The only advice I can give them is to play every game like it's your last, and give 100%"

Good advice from someone who knows plenty about winning.