‘His passion was to be the best’ | Relevo

If it had to be summed up in one sentence Mario Hezonja (Croatia, 1995), This can easily be done as follows: a player of “incredible talent”, an unparalleled “reader of basketball” and a very “special” person “obsessed with improving and being the best”. Perhaps this is why it is perfectly clear what could well be called the two sides of the Croatian forward. This A-side is full of explosive power and quality that can drive a track crazy; and that side B, where a more “peculiar” side emerges, which sometimes makes fun of him, as in the second game of the Euroleague playoffs against Baskonia, when he was disqualified for a double technical violation. At least that is how he is defined by those who know him, players who shared a dressing room with the current Real Madrid striker, whose name continues to be heard due to the uncertainty of what fate the future holds for him.

The truth is that if Hesonja has made anything clear in the two years he has been at Real Madrid, it is that for him, basketball is the axis that guides him in absolutely everything. “Mario was and is very funny person but at the same time special and very professional. He always had his own daily routine and goals, which everyday life could not influence him,” explains Relevo, a current player of BC Lietkabelis. Stefan Penaud

, who shared a dressing room with the Croatian in Barcelona. The city Hezonja moved to when he was just 17 years old after training in his native Dubrovnik and at KK Zagreb.

“I played a couple of games with him in the juniors and then quite a bit in the first team, but he was very easy to play with. understands basketball at a very high level and at the same time he was stronger than all the opposing teams, so Almost anything you wanted to do with it, you could try, and most of the time it worked out well.“, admits Peno. And Hezonja’s talent prevailed from a very early age. So when Juan Carlos Navarro’s injury forced him to take a step forward with Barça, he did so without feeling a pulse.

That’s when he met the former player Bostian Nachbar, now the director of the EuroLeague Players Association (ELPA) and a friend of the Croatian to this day, who remembers how “thorough” the current Real Madrid striker was (and is) when it came to the game. “When I played with him… ten years ago! Mario was a young player, he was just starting to play professionally, but At this age, it was already clear what he was: incredibly talented, very determined to succeed.. A player with a great desire to play well and win,” he admits. And that’s what he’s made clear since he’s been at Real Madrid.

It is enough to remember those words after the game of Estrella Roja on WiZink or, more precisely, against Baskonia, in which the Vitoria team won, in which he said that it was “pity” the way the team played and that it was something of this Real Madrid couldn’t allow it. Because if the Croatian has made one thing clear, it’s that this is about “The guy is extremely focused on basketball, very professional, very meticulous about basketball.

And, as I said, with a great desire to succeed,” says Nakhbar.

So it wasn’t strange that his path led him to the NBA. At Barça, he has already achieved good results, enough to take fifth place in the 2015 draft, where he was selected by the Orlando Magic. “He was lottery pickI came from university, maybe we didn’t have that much in common because straight out of university I was completely new to everything, but yeah We, as foreigners, had such a connection that we knew a little more about the FIBA ​​game.“recalls the current Fuenlabrada player, Garino Duck. And although both had only been in Orlando for a few months, it was already clear that Hezonja’s ambitions were palpable.

“You could see his passion, energy and desire to train.. Not because it is where it is. This work ethic his obsession to improve and be the besta little bit with that ego that helped him so much during this time, on and off the field,” recalls Garino. And it is precisely this ego of desire to be the best that sometimes plays a cruel joke on him with these outbursts. sometimes he did, it was also one of the challenges that shaped him as a player. And, as Nachbar explained, Hezonja has “a gift: he is extremely physical, but at the same time. very strong mentalityas he continues to demonstrate today.

If there’s one thing you can see from the striker, it’s that the relationship with his teammates at Real Madrid is good. Something that was demonstrated when captain Sergio Lull came to his defense, for example, after that tribute at the Bernabeu, in which the Croatian did not participate. Although the truth is that everyone agrees that it is a very special person

, especially with his personal life. So much so that there were certain sources consulted by Relevaux who chose not to speak about him for precisely this reason.

Although, as Nachbar comments, the following happens to Hezonja:Mario is the type of person who is a little reserved.. Of course, he was with everyone on the team, but off the court. He liked to keep his privacy“. And, in fact, this is verified in his social networks, where he does not follow anyone, but only shows basketball stuff. Because, as Nachbar himself explains, what is visible in his networks shows what he is: ” A tough worker and a boy” who gives everything on the court.