Bojan Bogdanovic to honor Drazen Petrovic but not play at event in Croatia
Photo by Jurij Kodrun/Getty Images
Bogdanovic, acquired in the Mikal Bridges trade, had wrist and foot surgeries in April. Four months after he needed wrist and foot surgery at the end of April, Bojan Bogdanovic will be back on the court early next month in Croatia as part of a celebration of Drazen Petrovic’s life, a Croatian magazine reports.
But a league source says that while the 35-year-old Bogdanovic will honor Petrovic, he will not play in the game.
There’s no word on whether the 35-year-old will be ready for Brooklyn Nets training camp. At the time of his injury and surgery while with the Knicks at the end of April, it was reported that he’d be re-evaluated in three months, which would mean July. There have been no reports on that re-evaluation.
The exhibition game in the Croatian capital on September 5 will mark the 60th anniversary of Petrovic’s birth. Bogdanovic and Petrovic both played for the Croatian national team and the Brooklyn Nets.
Bogdanovic was part of the Mikal Bridges trade, his $19 million contract used to help match Bridges deal. The Nets of course received five first rounders, a first round swap and a second rounder in the deal.
According to CroatiaWeek, an online English language news magazine, Bogdanovic will be part of a team made up of Croatian national league members. That team will match up with a “selection” of other European players. Bogdanovic has played 15 times for Croatia’s national team.
In addition of Bogdanovic, the Croatian team will feature two other NBA players, Dario Šarić of the Denver Nuggets and Ivica Zubac of the Los Angeles Clippers. Petrovic, who died in a car crash on the German Autobahn in 1993, is revered as a national hero in Croatia. He was the first European basketball player to prove he could play at an All-NBA level. While with the New Jersey Nets, he was named All-NBA third team. He was posthumously selected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.
The Zagreb sports event will be held at Zagreb’s Arena sports hall under the auspices of the Croatian government.
Once Bogdanovic’s commitment to the Petrovic commemoration is complete, the 6’7” wing is expected to travel to New York. Training camp opens on October 1 in Brooklyn, then moves to San Diego where Joe and Clara Wu Tsai have a home.
Bogdanovic has been quiet since word of the trade was first reported on June 25 with some pundits suggesting he might want a buyout after spending two seasons with the rebuilding Detroit Pistons and now facing another rebuild in Brooklyn, but that speculation was never confirmed by either side. Over his 10-year, 719-game career, Bogdanovic has averaged 15.6 points on shooting splits of 46/39/86. He averaged 20 points a game for the woeful Pistons in both of the past two seasons. He was averaging 10.4 for the Knicks when he got hurt. New York had acquired him at the deadline to improve their bench scoring.
According to ESPN, Bogdanovic had already been dealing with a wrist issue before he injured his foot in Game 4 of the Knicks-76ers series. He got tied up with Nicolas Batum when both were going for a loose ball. Bogdanovic immediately went to the floor in a lot of pain. Two days later, the Knicks announced he was done for the post-season.
Croatian NBA stars to play match in memory of Dražen Petrović - CroatiaWeek
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