Winning the European Young Player of the Year trophy for the second year running should only place a heavier burden on young shoulders. But attention and acclaim are things that Anadolu Efes's Dario Saric has gotten used to over the years.Hailed as the best young player in Europe, a lottery pick for the Philadelphia 76ers in 2014 and a veteran of international tournaments, moments the media spotlight has not fallen on the 20-year-old are rare. So much so that it would almost seem strange to be without it."I started to see my name in the media when I was about 13 or 14," Saric told Daily Sabah. "I was young and everybody in Croatia spoke about this story and after that I learned how to speak to the media, how to keep my basketball on one side and the media on the other. To keep them together isn't good for me, it isn't good for my brain, for my game, for my mental preparation, for practice. I keep the newspaper on one side and the other thing on the other."Those words speak of both a dedicated athlete and a well media-trained individual, both of which speak of someone in demand. The more he dedicates himself to his game, the better he gets. The better he gets, the more he has to speak to the media.Going into the last two NBA drafts, Saric was billed as the best young player in Europe outside of Nikola Mirotic, who was drafted in 2011 by the Chicago Bulls although he was yet to move stateside. With Mirotic now in the U.S. and a candidate for Rookie of the Year, the European spotlight has fallen totally onto Saric.The spotlight has an easy target. At 6-foot-10-inches tall, Saric is big even for a basketball player, but unlike most others his height, he has the court vision and technique of someone a foot smaller.Comparisons to his Croatian countryman Toni Kukoc have been somewhat obvious if a little lazy. Like the former Bulls forward who won three NBA titles with Michael Jordan in the '90s, Saric is a point guard in a power forward's body. Like Kukoc, his shooting is sound - although Kukoc was a better shooter at this stage of his career - his ball handling exemplary, his court vision prodigious and his attitude on the money. But Kukoc never had Saric's athleticism, bulk and electricity. What Kukoc had in technique, Saric has in athleticism. Luckily, you can coach technique, and Saric is a more than willing student."I do extra training for me, for me generally, to improve my basketball, my shooting," said the Croatian. "I always try to do more work on my body, my shooting, just trying to move to another level of basketball and to help the team. I can promise to everyone ... everyone in the world, that I practice hard to make myself better."European players in the NBA have often carried a stigma of being soft, even if a lot of the time the label has been ill-founded. The Turkish League doesn't allow for such a stereotype to appear, known as one of the toughest leagues in Europe, both in terms of quality and physicality."I think the Turkish League is hard to play in because it's not like Spain when everything is a foul. Here, the referees have a different system of calling the situation; they play with more fight and there is more substance in the game, more contact, but that is good."Playing the power forward position in the EuroLeague has helped Saric learn to leverage his size and strength while augmenting them with his playmaking skills. At the moment, Saric tends to play either out on the 3-point line or in the post, with teammate Thomas Heurtel generally doing the playmaking through the pick-and-roll. When Saric eventually arrives in Philadelphia, there are expectations that he will revert to a more point-forward - or power-guard according to taste - role. Either way, his unique basketball upbringing has meant he will be ready whatever is asked of him."I always liked [playing the four]," said Saric. "When I was younger when I was with my club, when I was with the national team, I always played the one, two, three, four positions. When I got into the first team in Croatia and Zagreb, they put me at power forward; so this is nothing new for me, but it is a little bit harder for me because of the EuroLeague basketball, playing less with the ball. When I was younger, I always had the ball, always worked the pick-and-roll; but now [that] I'm older, maybe not as much. When I was younger, I was always taller than everyone on the team, but I always played with the ball at point guard. I improved my passing skills, my court vision and I have become a player very much of my generation."That last point is key for the rise of Saric in the popular imagination. In the U.S., he already has a big profile among hoop heads who see him as the prototypical modern basketball player. For the last few years, thanks to analytics movements and increased athleticism, some in the basketball world dream of a team that can play five 6-foot-8-inch players that can all defend, shoot, dribble and pass. Saric was born in that mold, much as he was born into the spotlight.