ORLANDO – Because Mario Hezonja has spent almost half of his life chasing the dream of playing in the NBA and living in various cities all over the world, home has basically become the basketball court.
Hezonja, the Orlando Magic’s prized rookie from Croatia, incredibly started playing with professional basketball players at the impressionable age of 11 years old. By 14, he moved from the tourist town of Dubrovnik (population 43,000) along the Mediterranean Sea to Croatia’s capital city of Zagreb (population 800,000) for basketball and high school.
Following a stellar juniors career, he inked a contract with a powerhouse team in Spain that forced him to move away from family and friends and live on his own in Barcelona.