Nemanja Bjelica

Nemanja Bjelica
Player information
birthday	May 9, 1988 (32 years 114 days)
place of birth	Belgrade , SFR Yugoslavia
size	209 cm
position	Small forward / power forward
NBA draft	2010 , 35th Pick, Washington Wizards
Club information
society	Sacramento Kings
league	NBA
Jersey number	88
Clubs as active
2007–2008 Traiskirchen Lions 2008–2010 Red Star Belgrade 2010–2013 Saski Baskonia 2013–2015 Fenerbahçe Ülker 2015–2018 Minnesota Timberwolves Since 2018 Sacramento Kings 0
National team
Since 02009	Serbia

Nemanja Bjelica ( Serbian - Cyrillic Немања Бјелица ; born May 9, 1988 in Belgrade ) is a Serbian basketball player. With a height of 2.09 m, he can play in both forward positions, but also manage the structure of the game like a point guard . He has been under contract with the Sacramento Kings in the NBA since 2018 .

Career

After playing for Partizan Belgrade in his youth , Bjelica was not accepted into the club's professional team. He then moved to Austria to the Traiskirchen Lions . Due to problems with his visa, he was initially not eligible to play, so he was only used for the 2007/08 season. With his performances there he was able to draw Svetislav Pešić's attention to himself, which is why his club at the time, Red Star Belgrade, signed Bjelica. In the 2010 NBA Draft , he was selected by the Washington Wizards in 35th place. They did not take him under contract immediately, after which Bjelica moved to Saski Baskonia in the ACB league . There he played a total of three years before he was signed by the Turkish club Fenerbahçe Ülker . With this he became Turkish champion in 2014 and reached the Final Four of the ULEB Euroleague in 2015 , where he himself was appointed MVP of the main round of the competition. Then Bjelica moved to the NBA for the Minnesota Timberwolves . After three years as a backup with the Timberwolves, he moved to the Sacramento Kings as a free agent in the summer of 2018 .

As part of the young Serbian selection , Bjelica reached the final at the 2009 European Championships . He also took part in the 2010 World Cup and the 2011 European Championship . At the 2014 World Cup , he won the silver medal with the Serbian team.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 2014-15 bwin MVP: Nemanja Bjelica, Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul. In: euroleague.net. May 14, 2015, accessed September 18, 2015 . 

Web links

Commons : Nemanja Bjelica  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Nemanja Bjelica - player profile on NBA.com
• Nemanja Bjelica - player profile on basketball-reference.com
• Nemanja BJELICA (SRB) - Overview of participation in international FIBA tournaments on archive.fiba.com (English)
• Euro League profile (English)
• Portrait (English)