Warriors, fight for him
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Edit | Aunt Wang, Xin Yu
On January 25, the Warriors faced off against the Hawks, and on the big indoor and outdoor screens at the Chase Center, a photo was shown of a man smiling, but the background of the photo was black and white.
On the floor of the court, the word "DM" is printed, and this logo also appears on the jerseys of the Warriors and the T-shirts of the Hawks.
On one of the chairs in the Warriors' dugout, there is a commemorative shirt with the words "Brate" written on it, a word from the Serbian word meaning "brother". In the same game, the Rockets' Boban and the Mavericks' Doncic also wore the same commemorative shirt.
When the Warriors players entered, everyone had the same name on the back of their jerseys — Dejan Milojević, Dejan Milojević, and friends preferred to call him Deki.
The collapse of the "safe haven".
On the evening of Jan. 16, the Warriors will have a private dinner at the Italian restaurant Walter Osteria on Broadway in Salt Lake City as they face off against the Jazz on Jan. 17. This is the final game of the Warriors' four-game losing streak to the Bucks and Grizzlies, and they are 1-4 in their last five games, so they need to relax and adjust.
More than 40 of the Warriors' team of more than 50 people came to Salt Lake City that night to witness the tragedy, when Warriors assistant coach Milojevic suffered a heart attack and was rushed to the University of Utah Hospital.
On the morning of January 17, Milojevic's wife Natasha rushed to Salt Lake City with her son Nikola and daughter Martha, and the Warriors players waited for news at the hotel where they lived, and everyone hoped that Milojevic would survive the hurdle, but the bad news still came, and the 46-year-old Milojevic left.
Announcing the news to the players and their families was Warriors coach Kerr, who spent the night in the hospital with his assistant coaches. Coronavirus has vivid memories of the loss of a loved one, January 18 marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Cole's father, Malcolm, a professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles and an expert on the Middle East, who was shot and killed by terrorists on January 18, 1984, when he was 19 years old.
NBA coaches and players, many of whom have experienced some misfortunes in the process of growing up, basketball is a safe haven for them, they can forget their troubles for a while, put aside those negative emotions, but this time, they saw Milojevic, the coach who got along day and night, full of love for basketball, fell and never woke up, and the huge psychological impact is indescribable.
The NBA postponed the Warriors' games against the Jazz and the Mavericks, the team returned to San Francisco, Kerr gave the players three days off, and the Warriors arranged psychological counseling services, especially for the coach and players who witnessed Milojevic's heart attack.
"We're thankful for the league and the team, because it was emotionally difficult for us to play," Dream said.
The greatest warriors will also leave
On Monday, in Belgrade, Milojevic's hometown, Partizan played against Mega Basket, where Milojevic played for two years as a player and eight years as a coach.
A video tribute to Milojevic was shown at the game, recalling the highlights of his career, with a huge portrait of Milojevic in the audience, more than 19,000 spectators chanting Milojevic's name in unison, and players and fans wearing T-shirts with a photo of Milojevic playing and the Serbian inscription "The greatest fighters will leave, too".
Milojevic is Serbia's basketball warrior, and basketball fans in this country will not forget that 25 years ago, Milojevic and his teammates risked the risk to keep the Yugoslav Cup semifinals going. On the day of the final, the stadium was filled with a blaring air raid siren and cheering on the 3,000-seat stadium, which was supposed to accommodate more than 7,000 spectators, who saw Milojevic score a game-high 22 points, and although he failed to win the match, he won the respect and love of the fans of his homeland.
Milojevic became a basketball player by accident, when he was 13 years old, he attended a friend's birthday party, and learned that this friend was training with the youth team of the basketball club Tašmajdan.
Less than a year after receiving regular basketball training, Milojevic played a shocking game against Belgrade's Beograd in the first half against Beograd, a team in Belgrade, and during halftime, the coach gave an order: "Give the ball to Deki and let's see how many points he can score."
At the end of the game, Milojevic scored 141 points, 83 of which came in the second half.
Milojevic is 2.01 meters tall, a height that was usually used as a shooting guard or small forward in those days, but Milojevic played as a power forward, and was nicknamed "Serbian Barkley", both because of his fierce style of play and because of his cheerful personality. Friends, family and colleagues recall Milojevic's smile with only two expressions, grinning and grinning.
He loves to laugh because Milojevic loves life, loves basketball, and he always tells the players, don't treat basketball as a job, you have to love the sport from the heart, otherwise you can't keep working hard for more than ten years or more.
When Milojevic, who became head coach of Mega, met 17-year-old Jokic in 2012, he passed on his love for basketball. At that time, Jokic was a cola maniac, a deep lover of cream cakes, barbecue, and sausages, he couldn't do any standard push-ups, he was out of breath after two warm-up runs, and his eating habits and athletic talent were too spicy.
However, Jokic plays very smart, and all technical moves can be taught as soon as they are taught, and Milojevic firmly believes that this is a good seedling, taking Jokic to lose weight, practice physical fitness, and design various fun training methods to improve his technical level.
Jokic won the Adriatic League MVP in 2015, and he happily celebrated with Milojevic, who smiled and said: "I also have this thing, you should have higher pursuits, do you dare to go to the NBA to win an MVP?"
The Adriatic League is the most important basketball tournament in the Balkans, and Milojevic won the league's MVP three times in a row from 2004 to 2006, winning three league records, but in Milojevic's opinion, Jokic deserves a bigger basketball stage.
As it turned out, Milojevic did not look away.
No player has ever been drafted by the NBA before Milojevic coached Mega, and in the eight years that Milojevic has been in charge, Mega has 11 players in the NBA draft, and Zubac and Bitadze, the big men who have started in the NBA, are all disciples of Milojevic, who is the "director" of the basketball arsenal.
'It's a joy to help the players improve. Milojevic always said that.
Victory is the best nostalgia
The Warriors played against the Hawks, and when Curry hit his first three-pointer, he pointed to the dome as a tribute to Milojevic.
Nothing makes Milojevic happier than a victory.
Milojevic was invited to become an assistant coach to the Warriors in 2021 and helped the team win a championship in his first year on the job. In that championship journey, Looney became the interior pillar of the Warriors, especially his rebounding played an important role, and it was Milojevic who propelled Looney to become a rebounding beast.
The Warriors initially arranged for Milojevic to train Wiseman, but at that time, Wiseman had a knee injury and his basketball IQ was a little out of sync, so Looney, who was originally Wiseman's sparring partner, learned well, and Milojevic began to focus on Looney's development plan.
Milojevic passed on his years of rebounding experience to Looney, telling Looney that skill and ball intelligence are important, but the core of rebounding is attitude, and you have to fight every ball like crazy and have to be full of enthusiasm.
"He's always kind and smiling, but when he taught me to grab rebounds, he changed into a different person, he would hit you hard, compete with you for position, and he would trash talk at you, telling you how to be a good rebounder with practical actions. He's my coach and my brother, and it's my luck to be able to learn from him. Looney said.
This season, the Warriors have experienced too many difficulties, injuries, suspensions, and various controversies caused by rotation roster adjustments, and their results have plummeted, ranking outside the Western Conference play-offs.
It's hard to stay positive in the face of adversity, and that's another reason why the Warriors coach and players miss Milojevic, who can always be seen smiling in the locker room and on the bus, and he encourages everyone: "Brothers, look ahead, don't be discouraged." ”
The game against the Hawks was a game for the Warriors to look forward, Curry and Klay combined to shoot 10 three-pointers, Kuminga delivered a perfect shot of 11 of 11, Dream and Wiggins built the team's defense, and the Warriors won by 22 points to remember Milojevic.
"It's been a long and tough week for everybody on the team," Curry said, "and we want to pay tribute to Degi, who loves nothing more than seeing us get out there and play hard and have fun." ”
Back in the morning that heartbroke the Warriors, when Kerr received the news of Milojevic's death from a doctor, he didn't know what to do next and turned to assistant coach Ron Adams.
Adams thought about it and asked Cole a question.
"What do you think Deji will say to us?"
"I can imagine him smiling and telling us, 'You guys are going to win the game!'"
That's exactly what the Warriors are doing right now, and at least on this night, they didn't let Milojevic down.