By Stefan Djordjevic/ info@eurohoops.net
Milos Teodosic joined the NBA as a 30-year-old when he signed with the LA Clippers back in the summer of 2017 and stayed until February 2019.
In his recent interview with RTS’s Slobodan Sarenac, he admitted that it might have been too late for him and shared his opinion on the ideal years to make the transition to the NBA, taking the Kings’ Bogdan Bogdanovic as a prime example: “I think it’s individual. In any case, not too late as I did. I think I came to the US too late. Years with which Bogdan came are ideal. Some 24, 25 when you already did something in Europe, when you’ve matured and arrived with self-confidence which is very important. I think those are the ideal years”, he said.
Nonetheless, Teodosic doesn’t regret anything. In fact, that was one of the reasons he decided on the NBA in the first place: “I didn’t want to end my career and regret later on, to feel sorry that I didn’t come and see how it is. How everything functions here, the way they worked and the way basketball is played. It is completely different than Europe, the way basketball is played. One great experience for me.”
Among other things, Teodosic and Sarenac spoke about the 2010 World Cup in Turkey when Milos nailed a game-winning triple over Spain’s Jorge Garbajosa from way downtown, sending Serbia to the semifinals. Why did he decide on taking the shot? Turns out he was just tired:
“It was a very exhausting game for me and I didn’t have the strength to get past him at that moment. Maybe to get past him but not to finish it the right way all the way. Then it was just simpler for me to stop and… Thank God it went in.”
He was also quite unsure if the shot will land: “No, I even moved forward thinking it would bounce back but when it went in… I remember everybody’s reactions, Novica’s (Velickovic) reaction”, Teodosic depicted.