Brooklyn’s Bojan Bogdanovic was just trying to get in a little R&R. He had helped his native Croatia qualify for the Rio Olympics, so he and his girlfriend went on a little vacation before he had to report to camp and get ready for playing in Brazil.
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That translates as “A few days of rest before continuing the mission to Rio.”
The couple went to the Turkish coastal resort area of the Bodrum Peninsula. Just so happens that’s where Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan was staying at the same time.
Then the attempted coup in Turkey came.
We will let Nets Daily recap what happened next, translating a report Greek sports talk radio station sport-fm.gr.Turkish air force planes flew low overhead and Erdogan claims dropped bombs on the hotel where plotters believed he was staying.
Time to leave. Eurohoops and sportfm.gr report Bogdanovic got out via boat, crossing the Aegan to the Greek Island of Rhodes with the help of his agent and Greek team officials on the Rhodes end.
The “escape” was arranged via his agent in collaboration with the team manager of the Greek team Colossus, George Gkotzogiannis and a member of the club board. The trip between Bodrum Peninsula and Rhodes takes an hour. The 27-year-old Croatian arrived safe, spend a few hours in Rhodes and then left for Zagreb, the Croatian capital. He heads to South America this week for the Olympics.
Good news that he got out of what is clearly a dangerous situation.
As an aside: Turkey has one of the stronger, better paying professional basketball leagues in Europe, but if you’re an American player would you take less right now to play in a safer location in Europe?