[Harris Stavrou] Sasha Vezenkov while visiting a sports camp in Bulgaria: “Right now I’m a Toronto Raptor. I have to see what they want from me, what their intentions are, but the only thing I really need is to focus on myself and get 100% healthy for the next season”.
by DrunkLad
13 Comments
His full statement, [according to this article](https://www.sport24.gr/basket/vezenkov-pros-to-paron-eimai-paiktis-ton-raptors-omorfo-na-se-theloyn-alles-omades.10343289.html) (again by Stavrou)
> Right now all I can say is that I’m a Raptors player. We haven’t talked yet. You know that last season wasn’t the easiest for me, but I’m working hard, I feel good. I don’t know how long I’ll be staying in Bulgaria, this summer is a bit more particular. I’m spending more time in Greece because of my injury, I’m doing treatments there and we’ll see what happens. I’m trying to focus on myself as much as I can.
> At the moment, I’m a Raptors player, we’ll have to see what they want from me, what their intentions are. It’s going to be a long summer and the only thing I’m interested in is staying healthy. As far as teams being interested in me, it’s always nice to be wanted. There are good dilemmas in life. However, I’ll say it again, right now all I care about is staying healthy. I’ve been focusing a lot on myself so that at the beginning of the season I’m at 100%.
> My injury was the icing on the cake and yes, it obviously affected my season. But it was obvious early on that the style the coach wanted to play didn’t include me. It’s okay though, that’s life. It’s just kind of sad when you’re told something and something different happens.
> I don’t have bad feelings towards Sacramento and the people who welcomed me there. I made a lot of friends on the team. Everything was professional, they helped me and I will be forever grateful for giving me the opportunity for my first NBA experience.
> It’s all different there, it’s a different country. At 28, it was a lot harder to adjust than what I experienced at 17 and 18. New style of play, you go from the top of Europe to being just another player. You have to prove things from scratch and that affects you.
> I did the best I could. A lot of factors played a role, but I’m definitely happy about the decision I made a year ago. It was the right decision. Who can turn down the NBA? It doesn’t happen.
> This past season showed me who I respect, who I love, taught me to be confident and to never give up. The NBA is a new lesson that shows you how quickly things can change.
> You have to always be ready, you have to not give up and you have to believe in yourself. Whenever I’m able, I want to come to Bulgaria so that the children can have an example to follow. A lot of kids got interested in the NBA because of me, that was a goal. Kids are the future and we have to show them the right way.
Translation via DeepL, with one or two miniscule edits by me for clarity. Like a word or two. I know Greek, so I can confirm it’s accurate to original the article.
Our new aron baynes
just be better than Ochai at PF. Surely that’s manageable
Really interested in his offensive potential in darkos system, I hope he stays around to play back up 4 , and hopefully he’s happy with that role in a new system
I hope he gets healthy and does well under the Darko system to warrant him wanting to stay.
Way better attitude than Mr “higher ambitions” from a few seasons ago…
Goran is that you
Darko is the perfect coach for this guy; super welcoming and open personality eager to learn from his players and share knowledge as well. Sasha will get his shot, if he truly wants it
I’m gonna guess he wants regular and meaningful minutes this season, which he knows he’ll get in Europe, but wasn’t completely sure about on the Kings and now the Raps.
My guess is if Darko guarantees him meaningful minutes as either a starter or 6th man, he plays on the Raps, otherwise he probably does another season in Europe, then signs as a FA with a team willing to give him the minutes.
Eitherway, the chance of him playing is just a bonus like with Davion, considering the true prize was the 2nd for McDaniels
He can actually get lots of playing time with us I think. We need shooting bigs.
HE STAY
If we don’t make another move we have a huge position need for him, so I think he will be pretty happy with the role
This guy was Euroleague MVP for the 2023 season! I’m hype for him