Plenty of Croatian interest in the NBA.
The first evening of this year's NBA "All-Star" Weekend which is being held in Toronto featured a match between young players from the United States and a team of young NBA players from the rest of the world, which included two Croatian national team members, Bojan Bogdanović and Mario Hezonja. After 40 minutes of the exhibition game, the American team won 157-154. Hezonja scored 19 points and had 10 rebounds and 7 assists for the Rest of the World team, while Bogdanović scored 6 points and had 2 rebounds and 2 assists, reports Index.hr on February 13, 2016.
The match between the players who are in their first or second seasons in the NBA was full of attractive moves and many shots from a distance. Zach LaVine from Minnesota Timberwolves was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP). He scored 30 points, with 7 rebounds and 4 assists for the United States team. The winning team also included Jordan Clarkson with 25 points, while the Rest of the World team was led by Kristaps Porzingis from Latvia and Emmanuel Mudiay from Congo with 30 points, followed by Andrew Wiggins from Canada with 29 points.
Although Bogdanović was included in the starting line-up for the Rest of the World team and Hezonja started the game from the bench, Hezonja played for far longer periods. The young player from Dubrovnik played in total for 23:31 minutes, scoring 19 points (5-10 for two-pointers and 3-9 for three-pointers), while Bogdanović played for 15:51 minutes, scoring 6 points (2-6 for three-pointers).
The All-Star Weekend continues on Saturday with three-pointers and dunks competition, while the main event of the weekend, the "All-Star" contest between East and West teams, will be held on Sunday.
