Croatian basketball player Bojan Bogdanović may have just become the highest paid athlete in Croatia.
US media has proclaimed that Bogdanović has reached an agreement with the Indiana Pacers and is leaving the Washington Wizards, reports Index.hr and Gol.hr on July 7, 2017.
According to unofficial information, Bogdanović has agreed to the terms of cooperation with the Pacers and a two-year contract worth $21 million.
Free agent Bojan Bogdanovic has agreed to a two-year, $21M deal with the Indiana Pacers, league source tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 7, 2017
It was previously announced that the Croat would surely leave the Wizards this summer as the team could not offer him more than $10 million. Bogdanović has been looking for a team that will, other than grant him the contract he desires, give him a fair amount of playing time.
With this agreement, Bogdanović would become the highest paid Croatian athlete, toppling over the current highest-paid Croat Luka Modrić who earns more than $7 million per season at Real Madrid.
Sources: Bogdanovic, Pacers reach 2-year deal #nba https://t.co/BKZhgVwqvE
— NBAScoreLive (@NBAScoreLive) July 7, 2017
Bogdanović averaged 12.7 points per game last season, and across his three NBA seasons, he has averaged 11.3 points per game.
Bogdanović was born in Mostar and began his career at Zrinski. In 2005 at only 17 years old, he was bought from Real Madrid but decided to stay another season in his hometown. After two seasons spent on the second team at Real Madrid, he took a one-month loan in Murcia.
In the summer of 2009, Bogdanović went to Zagreb and signed a four-year deal with Cibona, quickly becoming the best player of the Zagreb club. Just two years later in July 2011, the Croat signed a multi-year contract with Turkish Fenerbahce, and only four days later, the Miami Heat chose him as the 31st player in the draft that would then lead to the New York (later Brooklyn) Nets.
In July 2014, Bogdanović signed a three-year contract with the Nets for $10 million. He began modestly, but quickly upped his game and started scoring more points per game. In the second season, Bogdanović scored 44 points in the victory over the Philadephia 76ers, but his Nets finished the tragic season with only ten consecutive wins.
In February this year, the Nets sent Bogdanović to Washington as part of a package in exchange for two players. Playing for the Wizards certainly paid off for the Croat, and while he wowed basketball fans across the States, he also got to step up to the conference finals. If they had money, maybe the Wizards would manage to keep him, but Bogdanović has accepted a richer offer from weaker teams in which, hopefully, it will be easier for him to get regular playing time.
