By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
“It was hard. It was really hard for me,” Mirotic said, according to ESPN. “Especially because he was my teammate. Especially the timing, the timing was basically two days before opening night and everything. After I put all the work [in] during the summer. So for a moment, I felt everything went down. But I had to be tough. I had the support of my family.”
Mirotic went through not only physical pain, but also emotional. “I usually don’t read what’s on the news but I was home a lot of the time,” he said. “And I saw something, people talking about teammates, that my teammates don’t get my back. They’re staying with Bobby. I don’t know the reason because I was [supposedly] not here during the summer practicing, I was doing my job, my own job, with my personal coach and with my strength coach, so that kind of thing I felt like gave me some energy to show back, to show the people that nothing can [mess] with me and I’m a good professional.”
The 26-year-old big man acknowledges that it was tough for Portis as well. “I know it was not easy for him too. It was different. I don’t like to talk about it, it’s all passed, but I’m just going to talk about myself. I had to, I had to be back. I just felt I had to be with my teammates.”