Sports Poets Society

Nikola Vučević (October 24, 1990) is a Montenegrin professional basketball player who currently plays for Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the University of Southern California before being drafted 16th overall in the 2011 NBA draft by the Philadelphia 76ers . Early life Vučević was born in Morges , Switzerland and then raised primarily in Belgium where his father, Borislav, played professional basketball. Borislav played professionally for 24 years and was a member of the Yugoslavia national team , as well as of the KK Bosna team which won the European Champions Cup in 1979. Nikola’s mother, Ljiljana, was a 6-foot-2 forward for the Sarajevo club Željezničar as well as for the Yugoslavia national team. His family moved to Montenegro when he was a teenager. He was named Montenegro’s Best Young Player in 2007. He speaks Serbian , English and French. He supports Red Star Belgrade. High sch...

http://www.mercurynews.com/warriors/ci_28183085/festus-ezeli-and-long-strange-trip-nba By Jeff Faraudo  twitter.com/Jeff Faraudo jfaraudo@bayareanewsgroup.com Updated: 05/25/2015 10:00:42 AM PDT MercuryNews.com HOUSTON -- Festus Ezeli's parents sent him to the United States when he was 14 years old so he could begin work toward becoming a doctor. No one back home in Nigeria was excited when he made a career detour to the NBA. "My parents are very academically oriented and they weren't very happy about that," Ezeli said. "They thought I was throwing my life away." Far from it, the Warriors are now one victory away from the franchise's first berth in the NBA Finals in 40 years and Ezeli's recent contributions have been significant. A win Monday night against the Houston Rockets would close out a sweep of the Western Conference finals. "My mom's actually warming up to the idea," Ezeli said of his career p...

Spurs forward Boris Diaw explains the work he’s doing to help educate and teach basketball to young players in Senegal. As told to Peter Walsh, Slam magazine , September 2015 I traveled back to my father’s homeland, Senegal , for the first time in a few years to visit my family and also to host a clinic at the SEED Academy. I’ve been working with SEED for years but realized that not much was being done for young women basketball players in Senegal , so I partnered with SEED to help launch the girls school. I’m really dedicated to helping the girls in the classroom and on the court and leading the clinic was an amazing experience. It has been great being able to support the program and help run the women’s academy. When I arrived, the girls were really happy to see me, and they were smiling a lot and wanted to show that they can do great things on the court and in the classroom. It was a short clinic but we were able to go through a lot of drills and the older girls ...