Four months after undergoing wrist and foot surgery in late April, Bojan Bogdanovic will return to the field early next month in Croatia as part of a celebration of Drazen Petrovic’s life, a Croatian magazine reports.
It is an indication that the 35-year-old will be ready for Brooklyn Nets He was admitted to training camp in early October. At the time of his injury and surgery while with the Knicks in late April, it was announced that he would be reevaluated in three months, which would mean July. There have been no reports of that reevaluation.
Bogdanovic will play an exhibition game in the Croatian capital on September 5 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Petrovic’s birth. It would be his first organized basketball game since he was injured in the second round of the NBA playoffs. Both Bogdanovic and Petrovic have played for the Croatian national team and the Brooklyn Nets.
According to CroatiaWeek, an English-language online news magazine, Bogdanovic will play for a team composed of members of the Croatian national league. They will face a “selection” of other European players. Bogdanovic has played 15 times for the Croatian national team.
In addition to 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 accident 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 the All-NBA level. While playing for the New Jersey Nets, he was named to the All-NBA Third Team. He was posthumously elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.
The Zagreb sporting event will take place at the Arena Zagreb under the auspices of the Croatian government.
Once Bogdanovic completes his commitment to Petrovic’s memorial, the 6-foot-1 winger is expected to head to New York. Training camp will begin Oct. 1 in Brooklyn, then move to San Diego, where Joe and Clara Wu Tsai have a home.
Bogdanovic has remained silent since news of the trade was first reported on June 25, with some experts suggesting he might want a buyout after spending two seasons with the rebuilding team. Detroit Pistons and now faces another rebuild in Brooklyn, but that speculation has never been confirmed by either camp. Over his 10-year, 719-game career, Bogdanovic averaged 15.6 points on 46/39/86 shooting percentages. He averaged 20 points per game for the pitiful Pistons over the last two seasons. He was averaging 10.4 points for the Knicks when he got injured. New York acquired him at the deadline to improve its backup rating.
According to ESPNBogdanovic was already dealing with a wrist issue before injuring his foot in Game 4 against the Knicks.76ers He got stuck with Nicolas Batum while they were both retrieving a loose ball. Bogdanovic immediately found himself on the ground in severe pain. Two days later, the Knicks announced that he was out of the playoffs.
