NOVI SAD (FIBA U16 European Championship 2018) - There's a Perasovic here. Prkacin, too. And we also have Tarlac, Marciulionis, Tolias, Nikolaidis, Filippou, Helmanis, Sarica. Don't double-check your calendars, we're not in the 1990s.

The FIBA U16 European Championship 2018 in Novi Sad will go down as the tournament with a lot of famous dads in the stands. Basketball standouts from the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s infected their children with an affection towards the sport, and now find themselves in an unfamiliar position of sitting in the stands right next to all the other parents.

 
Velimir Perasovic is here, watching his son Ivan put up 19.7 points per game for Croatia. You won't get a lot out of Velimir, he likes to keep quiet, outside of the stage lights, but behind the scenes, he is the first one to have a talk with his son.

"Having a basketball great like himself for a father, having somebody who can give me advice from the top level, that means so much," Croatian standout Ivan Perasovic said.

And even though the kids' game usually looks nothing like their dads', there is no misplacing Ivan. In one moment he's pump-faking on a three-pointer, in the next he's taking a dribble to the right side, stopping, popping, hitting the midrange jumper in a move that has "Velimir" written all over it.

 
"He had just retired when I was born (in 2002), so I didn't get a chance to watch him play. But I saw a lot of his game videos, asked him a lot about his playing days, and learned everything," young Perasovic says about the triple European Cup winner with Jugoplastika and the five-time leading scorer of the Spanish ACB League.

He isn't the only one with a familiar last name on a Croat shirt.

"Roko (Prkacin) and I talked about it a bunch of times, had a good laugh," Perasovic says about sharing a basketball background with a teammate.

Roko Prkacin's dad is Niksa, long-time Croatian national team captain, a player who dominated domestic leagues in Croatia, Greece, Turkey and Russia in the early 2000s. But while the Perasovices are similar, the Prkacins couldn't be more different. Niksa was a lefty center, powerful, back-to-the-basket killer. Roko is all face first, extremely athletic, capable of going coast-to-coast in three dribbles, often dunking down with authority.

 
"But still, there are some similarities between us," Roko says. "In terms of personality on the court, in terms of character. I remember him playing when I was a kid, but that was at the end of his career. I watched everything from the old VHS tapes, so I know everything about his playing days."

Ivan is the third Perasovic coming through the youth ranks, following father Velimir and older brother Vicko, born in 1992, and there will be a third Prkacin soon, with 13-year-old Lovro following Niksa's and Roko's footsteps.

"Basketball is the only thing we talk about in the house of Prkacin," Roko laughed.

The Croatian one-two punch has been superb all tournament long, just as it was the case with Augustas Marciulionis and his 3-0 Lithuania squad. The point guard has such poise on the court, you could easily mistake him for a 20-year-old with the way his brain works.

"Dad always told me, 'Play with confidence, and that's all. Everything will be alright.' He gives me a lot of advice," righty Augustas said of his legendary lefty father Sarunas.

"I know a lot about his playing career, especially about the time in the USA."

Old man Marciulionis won gold in the 1988 Summer Olympics, silver in FIBA EuroBasket 1987 and 1995, bronze at FIBA EuroBasket 1989 and the Summer Olympics in 1992 and 1996, also being famous for breaking the borders and being one of the first European players in the NBA.

Olympiacos legend Dragan Tarlac also tried his luck there with the Chicago Bulls, and now he's in the stands of SPENS, cheering on his son Luka and Serbia. Kriss Helmanis of Latvia struggled with an injury in Novi Sad, so we didn't get to see how much Uvis is there in his game, and Ufuk Sarica saw his son Efe guide Turkey towards first place in Group C.

Luka Tarlac starting his own basketball journey

With the Greek trio of Vasilis Tolias, son of Nikos; Alexandros Nikolaidis, son of Sotiris; and Antonis Filippou, son of FIBA EuroBasket 1987 champion Nikos, also contributing to their team, and Jayson Tchicamboud, Steed's boy, helping out France, the entire championship got a familiar feeling to it.

Carrying such big names on the backs of their jerseys often becomes an unbearable weight on the shoulders. But these youngsters in Novi Sad...they really aren't afraid of it.

"Maybe it is a little bit of a burden. But, not really. I'm trying to do it my own way," young Marciulionis offered.

In Novi Sad, they are setting the starting landmark of their own paths. A medal at the FIBA U16 European Championship would be a perfect one, to mark 2018 as the year when the talk became about the sons, rather than about their fathers.

FIBA