(Photo: LetsGoWarriors.com Instagram account)
WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — Golden State Warriors backup point guard Nemanja Nedovic (pronounced “nay-MON-yah ned-OH-vitch”) didn’t make the recent 6-1 roadtrip to the East Coast, as he was assigned to the Santa Cruz Warriors D-League affiliate, but the Serbian has been enjoying a cultural exchange with his NBA teammates in his rookie year.
Assimilating onto the Warriors and settling into the Bay Area has been a smooth transition.
“It’s pretty easy to adapt here because the weather is nice, people are nice, my teammates help me a lot,” Nedovic said, “So it’s a lot easier for me.”
Having a pretty strong command of the English language also helps and he’s benefited from basketball being a global sport, with Americans playing abroad.
“I learned English mainly from my American teammates (on his Serbian and Lithuanian teams),” Nedovic said, “We learned in school but it’s not at a high level so I learned from my teammates.”
Warriors small forward Harrison Barnes has also been throwing in some American culture, introducing Nedovic to the TV series “Breaking Bad”, which Nedovic recently caught up on via Netflix.
The cultural exchange goes both ways. In the month of December while the Warriors were back home in the Bay Area, Nedovic was giving near-daily language lessons to his teammates.
Andrew Bogut posted some of the teachings on Twitter:
Evo, @nedovic1624 vodi cas. ( @nedovic1624 s daily teachings @ @warriors HQ) pic.twitter.com/PjnuGKxYvU
— Andrew Bogut (@andrewbogut) December 19, 2013
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“I’m writing in Latin so everybody can read it. If I were writing in Cyrillic, nobody could read it so it’s Serbian-Latin,” Nedovic explained, “I’m just trying to have fun, trying to teach the guys some new words and I can see a lot of guys walking around the locker room talking Serbian telling Serbian words.”
Andre Iguodala chimed in as well:
@nedovic1624 SIE fam!
— Andre Iguodala (@andre) January 1, 2014
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On December 25th, Christmas Day for Americans, Barnes tweeted Nedovic…
@nedovic1624 Hristos se rodi
— Harrison Barnes (@HBarnes) December 25, 2013
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…”Merry Christmas”, but actually Nedovic celebrates the holiday per the Julian calendar, on January 7th.
“I’m kind of used to it because last year I played in Lithuania and Lithuanians celebrate on the 24th-25th, and I grew up in Austria, Germany, Italy,” Nedovic said, “So my family and I, we were kind of used to that. Everybody celebrates different dates.”
While the NBA Warriors were out East on the near-historic roadtrip, Nedovic was with the Santa Cruz affiliate, albeit on the road as well, attending the D-League Showcase in Reno, but is now happy to be back home…
Good to be back home 🙂
— Nemanja Nedovic (@nedovic1624) January 10, 2014
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…although probably not as eager to resume his NBA rookie duties of wearing a One Direction backpack.
“I hope it will fall apart soon.”
[NOTE: This interview was conducted on 12/27/2013.]Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
