By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Jenkins who was honored by his former team explained his feelings: “Coming from the NBA, Zvezda was the only club that showed interested in me here. It is where I was able to grow as a player. And even leaving after my second season to AX Milan, and not having a successful season there, Zvezda was more than happy to have me back for a third season. I feel that I owe that club so much just based on the opportunities presented to me as a player and as a person. As far as the great relationships that I have with the kids in Belgrade, and management, and anyone that I ever met has always been very welcoming. There were a lot of different emotions going through my mind throughout the time we were there.
I kind of knew I would have a warm welcome. I’ve seen so many players come back to play against Zvezda in Belgrade, like Maik Zirbes or seeing Nikola Kalinic come back, so I had the expectations that fans would be excited to see me back. I have a deeper bond than basketball with a lot of fans through social media, ever since I got there the first time. Social media has the influence now for everything that you do, so from me learning Serbian to the sound-bites I posted in which I was saying things in Serbian, it kind of grew. People knew that I embraced the culture. So, I expected a nice welcome, but I did not know how it would feel.
I tried to put a game-face on because at the end of the day I still had a job to do as a member of Khimki, but on a different side, I was up and down. From the moment I stepped up for the warmups, I had so many good memories of being on that court. So it was mentally a little tough to try to be focused on the game as well as embrace everything. To be completely honest, I even started singing one of the Zvezda anthems before the game. It was a brief moment, but it’s no wonder. I played more than 200 games for Crvena Zvezda, more than a hundred of them in Hala Pionir, where we practiced every day. I just had a comfortable feeling being in that gym, and I kind of got caught up in there with the fans a little bit pre-game, but I quickly cut myself from singing”.
For the rest of his blog in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague official site, click here.