In the eighties, the WWF (now the WWE) featured a villain wrestler named "Nickolai Volkoff" whose schtick consisted of waving a USSR flag and doing goony things in order to turn the crowd against him. Volkoff was actually born in Croatia, and I think I know of at least one kid from his homeland who idolized him.
Last week, in preparation for the upcoming World Basketball Championship in Turkey, the Croatian national team played a "Friendly" against the Greek national team. The game was played in Greece. So, when Oklahoma City Thunder center Nenad Krstic started acting like a professional wrestler for the Croatian team, it made sense.