“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.”
Michael Jordan, the iconic Chicago Bulls shooting guard widely considered the greatest basketball player in history, uttered the above quote which stands as just one of many lines used by many fans around the world to inspire them in any walk of life. For Vanja Cernivec, the six-time NBA champion helped her decide to forge a career in basketball, leaving a blazing trail in her wake for women in Europe and the United States alike.
Cernivec, a well-spoken basketball mind with an infectious enthusiasm for the game, is bored of the conversation surrounding women in sports. Of course, she recognises the importance of engaging in such discourse and she is certainly well-versed in it; before accepting her unprecedented role as the WBBL’s first-ever general manager, Cernivec was the first female international scout in NBA history after working for the league offices in both London and Madrid.
She left London to relocate in Spain and joked life improved with the notable increase in sunlight in mainland Europe, but Cernivec is ready to give the capital a second chance. Amid her beaming smile, energy and tremendous achievements, her tone naturally changes when discussing gender equality in sports where many women are barely awarded a first opportunity.
“To be honest, I won’t be happy if I’m the first and only woman in such a role for the next couple of years,” Cernivec exclusively told Mirror Sport . “I struggle to find the right words to say how I wish we had moved away from this conversation - I don’t want that to be the point of what’s going on, especially in 2022.
“We need to give women more opportunities at entry level. You can’t expect a woman to be a head coach or get a high-level position straightaway; they have to get the opportunity and grow organically. There’s loads of women who deserve great positions, but there’s no equal opportunity at the entry level as only a very small section of people fit the profile as these roles are usually underpaid or voluntary.
“I feel very privileged to be in this position; each step in my career was because of other people - I couldn’t do this on my own. From my friends and family supporting me when I was without work and homeless, people believed in me and gave me the opportunity.
“I just hope that looking back, I’ll be able to say I was the first but not the last one.”
Cernivec’s position as a revolutionary icon for women in sport can be traced to her self-proclaimed infatuation with Jordan and the Bulls. She would wake up for games where possible and cut out images of the five-time MVP from magazines released once a month, igniting a fascination for the team and sport Jordan helped give to the rest of the world thanks to his immense appeal.
“I actually played several sports when I was younger and I picked up basketball when I was around 12,” Cernivec recalled. “I joined a club and then I found out about Michael Jordan’s Bulls. That was it for me - I fell in love with basketball.
“All the notes in my old piano book have the number ’23’ written around them, and everything was coloured in red for the Bulls. It sounds corny, but I was obsessed. It was hard to watch games back then as there was no YouTube. It was a different world back then, but my career in basketball is definitely because of the Bulls.
“When I got an offer from the Bulls, I questioned whether I really wanted to do scouting as I loved my job with the NBA. But I considered it and thought, ‘Look, if someone told a 12-year-old girl you’re going to get this opportunity and you say no, you would hate yourself’. I had to go.
“I took a leap of faith and started from scratch with scouting, but it was an amazing experience. There was still a lot of people from the Michael Jordan era in the organisation, so listening to their stories about him and that time was one of the best parts of the job. It felt like I had gone full circle and it was not easy to leave.”
While the phrase ‘leap of faith’ is traditionally attributed to Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, Cernivec has taken it as her own as she used it once more to describe her return to London with the Lions. She is encouraged by British basketball as a whole, particularly after forward Jeremy Sochan was selected ninth overall in the 2022 NBA Draft by the San Antonio Spurs.
Cernivec believes individual British talent exists, and emphasised the importance of coaching in order to progress the game and unlock its ‘huge potential’ on these shores.
As she spoke about her ideas on how to improve British basketball - including through mini basketball - Cernivec said: “I want to put high emphasis on coaching as well; they need need to be supported, financed and educated. I get very passionate about this!
“I think the main goal is to produce multiple players at a high elite level, but building a basketball culture takes time and it requires a multi-faceted approach. It's not just building players, but you need to be able to play, have the right facilities, funding, coaching - it all needs to come together.
“I want to look into all the aspects of how we recruit kids - not in a hardcore way, but just inspiring them through basketball so they want to join a particular team or school. At that level, you need the right coaching in order to keep them engaged and make them love basketball. If there’s a bad coaching experience at that age, they're going to probably kick a ball and end up playing football.
“There should be a natural, organic pyramid where the kids have a pathway to play and go pro if they want to. At the end of the day, basketball is a great sport where kids can gain high hand-eye coordination, so they would benefit even if they go and play other sports down the line.
“I think there’s huge momentum behind British basketball right now, so that’s one of the reasons I decided to take this leap of faith. If we look at the big picture, the BBL is behind the major European leagues and even Australia but there is potential. It took 20 years to develop multiple high quality players in Canada, so it is a long-term project.”
As she finished her answer, Cernivec once again politely asked if her response was 'good'. Cernivec’s basketball mind leaves anyone who listens in awe, but her humility and personality suggests she is the right figure for the aspect of her Global Director of the Lions academy.
Her willingness to impress, even in a media interview conducted over Zoom, highlights the Slovenian’s attention to detail - a trait that will be needed as she takes over the reins of the WBBL’s premier side. The Lions are coming off an unbeaten WBBL season, winning each of their 34 domestic games with an average margin of 40 points, completing the domestic sweep by triumphing in the WBBL Play-Offs, Cup, Trophy and Championship.
It appears to be a match made in heaven, with the Slovenian history-maker joining the Lions, who have positioned themselves as one of the most successful female teams in all of British sport. She was originally concerned about the long-term commitment by the ownership group to the London Lions, but Cernivec revealed she was swayed by the equal commitment to both the women’s team and the academy.
“People have texted me good luck improving that!” Cernivec laughed after pointing the seemingly mammoth task before her given London’s success last season. “I don’t want to say we need to be without a loss again, that’s not the goal I want to have. There’s no point in us winning by 70 points.
“I want to use the domestic league to develop our players. Europe is our main focus, and - I’m putting everybody under pressure right now - our internal goal is to make the final eight of the Euro Cup. It’s a slow process; investing in staff, in practice facilities. Let’s see how reaching the last eight goes and then going forwards, I would love to see London become a hotbed or considered a great spot for players to want to come and play.
“Agents are currently very reluctant to send their players to London because they don’t think the BBL or WBBL is strong enough - and that’s what we want to change. There’s no reason why London shouldn’t be an attractive city to play in, especially for American players.
“We want to improve basketball for men and women and raise the standard across the UK, not just at the London Lions.”
Ultimately, Cernivec saw Jordan and wanted a career in basketball - so she made it happen. She had a dream of working for the Chicago Bulls and made it happen.
Cernivec has plenty of wonderfully ambitious, exciting and most certainly 'good' ideas for the London Lions and British basketball going forwards. It would be foolish to suggest she won’t make them happen, too.
