Arizona freshman center Henri Veesaar likes to think of his home country of Estonia as a basketball-crazed nation even if the rest of the world is just discovering the talent there.
“I would like to think it’s the main sport,” he said.
The northern Baltic country of 1.3 million people isn’t known for its hoops exploits. In the latest FIBA World Rankings, Estonia comes in at No. 48, well behind European powers like Slovenia, Serbia and Lithuania.
At the age of 15, Veesaar took a leap of faith and left his family back home so he could pursue a professional basketball career.