Danilo Gallinari, Juancho Hernangomez, Jusuf Nurkic, without forgetting Nikola Jokic… When the 2016/17 season started, the Nuggets squad already had a nice European accent. It could have been even more so. Sasha Vezenkov now reports having been approached by the Denver franchise.
At the time, the native of Cyprus was playing in Barcelona where he would gradually emerge after his debut with Aris Salonika. “ I wasn't playing well. My agent told me to sign up for the NBA Draft, but I thought not playing in Europe would keep me from playing there », remembers the current Olympiacos player whose comments are taken up by Eurohoops.
It was then that in 2016, he received a phone call: Nikola Jokic. A young Jokic who arrived only a year earlier in Colorado. Either ” long before he became a three-time MVP. At the time, he wasn't a superstar. He told me the Nuggets wanted me. They were signing European players. But I hesitated. I was twenty years old and unsure of myself. After playing in Europe, they lost interest in me. »
But the Great League has not forgotten him. In 2017, Sasha Vezenkov was well selected in the Draft by the Nets with the 57th pick. The years passed, his rights were transferred and six years after this call, he joined the Kings. In California last year, he played around forty games in a limited role.
And this summer, after being transferred to Toronto, the power forward finally preferred to return to the Old Continent.
“ I don't think about it much, but I often wonder what could have been “, he says again, thinking of this interest coming from the Nuggets at the time. Another story would undoubtedly have been written for him who, by remaining in Europe, rose to the level of Euroleague MVP in 2023.
