Bojan Bogdanović already has a successful NBA career behind him, and he is still performing at a high level
Perhaps too much time has passed since we wrote about Bojan Bogdanović, and we certainly don’t want to forget about this great basketball player who had another great NBA season thus justifying the trust he receives in the form of a contract which currently makes him the highest paid Croatian athlete!
For those who don’t know, Bojan’s story is quite unique. When he first fell in love with sports, it was football/soccer that he cared about. It was like that until the age of 12, when he made the best decision and switched over to basketball. This is what he said about this:
“I thought I would play football all my life, but my friends dragged me into basketball.”
Real Madrid
His career began in Zrinjski, and very quickly he ended up on the radar of Real Madrid, and he signed a five-year contract with them. During the first year he stayed on loan at his original club in hometown Mostar, and for the next two he was with the Real Madrid B team. Then he went to CB Murcia and again returned to Real Madrid B. After those transfers, he said goodbye to the Kings and moved to Cibona.
Cibona
He immediately started playing well in Zagreb and declared for the NBA draft. He stayed in Croatia until 2011, when he went to Fenerbahçe. That summer, he was also selected as the 31st pick of the NBA draft by Miami Heat, who immediately traded him to Minnesota, while he finally ended up in New Jersey (today’s Brooklyn) via another trade.
Fenerbahçe brought a new shift in Bojan’s game, and at that stage of his career he showed that he would become one of the more important players of the Croatian national team, so, for example, he was selected among the best five players of Eurobasket 2013. It should also be added that he also became almost a standard candidate for the best player awards and leading scorers of all the competitions in which he played.
Brooklyn Nets
Once again, it was time for a change, or for a big decision. “Babo Beretta” crossed the Atlantic in the summer of 2014 and joined the Nets, for which Dražen Petrović and Zoran Planinić played previously. The team didn’t play well then (although they barely made it to the Playoffs during his first season), but Bojan had enough space and freedom to show his offensive skills.
In that period, Bojan also reached another great milestone with the national team that somewhat sensationally qualified for the Olympic Games in Brazil, where he was the leading scorer of the entire tournament with an average of 25.3 points per game, which was the second highest average since 1996, when Oscar Schmidt averaged 27.4 points.
Washington Wizards
February of 2017 came around and a trade happened that took him to Washington where Babo was a good fit, but due to fluctuations in performance he became a bench player. All in all, this part of his career with the Wizards can still be considered successful.
Indiana Pacers
However, after only 26 games in the capital of USA, Bogdanović found a new home in Indiana. An added bonus of this transfer was that Bojan became a regular starter for the Pacers, and a lot of things simply came together – especially in the Playoffs.
Specifically, in one of the more exciting playoff series in 2018, Indiana and Cleveland played 7 games, and the final winner was practically decided in the last minutes of the last game. More importantly, Bogdanović had several notable defensive performances while guarding LeBron, and in one game he had a spectacular 7/9 three-point shooting clip and scored 30 points.
Among the many great performances for the Pacers, “Babangida” will certainly remember February of 2019 when he received the NBA Player of the Week award. However, after that season it was time for a new change and he moved to Salt Lake City.
Utah Jazz
While playing for the Utah Jazz, he once again proved his value and after three seasons there he had an average of 18.4 points, 4.1 rebounds per game and 39.7% for three-point shots. From this part of his career, the game against the Denver Nuggets in which he scored a career high 48 points stands out, and he also had several very successful games in the playoffs.
Detroit Pistons
Before the start of the ’22/’23 season, Jazz management decided to blow up the team and trade their key players, so Bojan was among them. He was traded to the Detroit Pistons. He did very well here too, averaging 21.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 41.1% on three-point attempts. Unfortunately, he suffered an injury in February that may force him miss the rest of the season.
We hope that Bojan will recover quickly and continue to play great! While we wait for his return, you can also check the interview (in Croatian) that we had the pleasure of doing with him during his visit to Grosbasket in Zagreb in 2018: