Sport

Croats in NBA: Bogdanović Named Eastern Conference Player of the Week!

By 12 February 2019

A brilliant week for Bojan Bogdanović was crowned with a prestigious NBA honor. 

You’ve all probably heard about the stellar week 29-year-old Mostar native Bojan Bogdanović had, and if you didn’t read about it on TCN, then you probably couldn’t escape it featured on the pages of international sports media. 

Namely, Bojan Bogdanović was named the Eastern Conference ‘Player of the Week’ for the first time in his career after his excellent performances in the 17th week of the NBA season, reports Gol.hr on February 11, 2019. 

After the Pacers lost four consecutive games at the end of January and discovered that their star Victor Oladipo was out with injury for the rest of the season, it was Croatian representative Bojan Bogdanović to bear the burden and save the day for his Indiana team time and time again. 

Bogdanović led the Pacers to four victories in four games with 22.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, three assists and 1.3 steals per game in the 17th week of the NBA season. He even scored 20 or more points in three straight games to end the 17th week and scored at least 20 in five of the past six games overall, reports the NBA.com.

Best yet, this is the first time Bogdanović has ever won this award in his career, though he is the third Pacers’ player to do so after Oladipo won it in the 3rd week and Thaddeus Young won it in the 9th, which is the first time in the Pacers’ history that three different players were honored with the award in a single NBA season. 

The only Croatian basketballer before Bogdanović to win the ‘Player of the Week’ was the great Dražen Petrović who was awarded in 1992. 

Bogdanović shares the honour with Paul George who was named the ‘Player of the Week’ in the Western Conference Player for his outstanding performance for Oklahoma City.

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