Bogdan Bogdanovic is the basketball equivalent of an old Western gunslinger and it makes every minute he plays must-see television.
For most people, the “ABC’s” is a childhood song featuring the 26 letters of the alphabet that they learn in preschool or kindergarten. Others remember it from the 1992 film, “Glengarry Glen Ross” that featured Alec Baldwin’s classic “ABC” sales strategy, “always be closing”. However, for the Sacramento Kings’ third-year guard, Bogdan Bogdanovic, “ABC” stands for one thing, always be confident.
Bogdanovic was a little known Serbian guard when he was drafted late in the first round of the 2014 NBA Draft by the Phoenix Suns. While there had been some European success stories in the league by then, Bogdanovic floated under the radar unless you were truly dedicated to overseas basketball.
Before he ever got a chance to play in the desert, Vlade Divac swiped away his draft rights in one of the more one-sided deals in draft night history and it wasn’t until 2017 that he played his first NBA game.
In the past three years, it has been clear that his game is not lacking in one area — confidence. The 27-year-old truly believes that regardless of the arena he’s in, he is the best player on the court every time he steps on the floor.
Stuck behind a glut of wings in Sacramento, the Serbian has managed to average about 27 minutes a game in each season. This makes it easy to track his progression from year-to-year.
As I mentioned before, he isn’t shy — even as a rookie his 9.9 field goal attempts per game ranked fifth on the team. The following year it climbed to 12.3 and he was only behind Hield and De’Aaron Fox. Under first-year Kings coach, Luke Walton, he’s at 12.4 this season which places him fourth behind Hield, Fox and Marvin Bagley.
He’s an equal opportunist when it comes to launching shots. No moment is too big for him and he’ll often look to make the late-clock shot more often than not. At 6-foot-6 with a tight handle and a smooth jumper, Bogdanovic is tailor-made for today’s NBA game. He can create a shot for his own when necessary but is also a threat to knock down perimeter looks off screens (he’s attempting a career-high seven 3-pointers a game this season).
Irrational confidence is a polarizing thing to watch. In sports, especially basketball, it can take a player from irrelevant to cultural icon. Before Bogdanovic, there were players like Nick Young and J.R. Smith who refused to let the limits of their game stop them from believing that they were the walking embodiment of greatness.
It’s his belief that he can go toe-to-toe with LeBron James and his willingness to launch from 28-plus feet when he feels he’s open that makes watching him truly entertaining.
The thing is, we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg here. Watch some old highlights of him playing in the EuroLeague with Fenerbahce or him competing with the Serbian National Team. In those settings, he puts Brett Farve to shame as a gunslinger.
His contract is up at the end of the season and after watching Sacramento squabble over what to pay Hield, it seems like they are in for another negotiation fight when Bogdanovic and his reps are at the table. Who knows what happens then, will a lesser team toss money his way and unleash his true volume scorer? Would he stay in Sacramento and help develop one of the more interesting young cores in the league? Does he return to Europe and go back to being a superstar?
These questions will all be answered at a later date but there’s one thing that is never in doubt; if the ball is in Bogdanovic’s hands, it won’t be there for long — and usually, that means it finds the bottom of the net