By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Worrying scenes coming from Belgrade, where on Friday – as reported by various Serbian outlets including Sport Klub and Mondo – Nemanja Bjelica was threatened by Nikola Petkovic, a former football player, in a children’s playroom with his family.
The 35-year-old was confronted with harsh insults by the attacker. “I will take your family, your children, your wife, and you. I will take your money”, he apparently said to the 35-year-old basketball player, affirming that he also “would stab him with scissors”.
Nikola Petkovic, who played with Crvena Zvezda‘s football side and other European clubs like Eintracht Frankfurt, was immediately arrested and detained for 48 hours before the court could express his sentence. Further decisions will be made, it was announced.
Winning the 2022 NBA Championship with the Golden State Warriors, Nemanja Bjelica made his return to Europe to sign with Fenerbahce. However, things didn’t work and he eventually moved to Crvena Zvezda, where his status is currently unknown after not playing one single official game.
Establishing himself as one of the best European forwards with Crvena Zvezda, Baskonia, and Fenerbahce, he then moved to the NBA in 2015, where he also played for the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Sacramento Kings, and the Miami Heat. With Serbia, he won two silver medals at the 2014 FIBA World Cup and at the 2009 FIBA EuroBasket.
PHOTO CREDIT: Turkish Airlines EuroLeague