вчера, 17:30 5 мин.

«The letter “Ë” shows where I’m from». Egor Dёmin talks his path

Автор

237

Hey, Sports!

Thanks to everyone for the support and all the comments under my first blog post – I read through them a few times and honestly couldn’t stop smiling. It’s a great feeling knowing that people back home are rooting for me before my debut.

To be honest, I wasn’t nervous at all. I knew what I was capable of and just tried to follow the coaches’ game plan. Yeah, we lost to Charlotte, but once we build better chemistry, the wins will come.

By the way, I played my first game wearing a special NBA DEBUT patch. It’s a cool new thing the league does – they give it only to players making their debut that night. After the game, they took the patch and said it’ll go into my official player card.

Today I want to talk a bit about how I prepared for my first NBA season and how we’re building team chemistry here in Brooklyn.

People often ask what I focused on during my offseason workouts. The short answer is: everything. I worked on every part of my game to make sure I could perform at this level – ball-handling, three-point shooting, defense, you name it. Hopefully you can see the progress.

Another big part of the summer was hitting the weight room and putting on muscle. Together with the team staff we adjusted my diet to help me gain healthy weight. Since there weren’t any games, I could train almost every day and still recover properly. I also had a minor injury for a bit, so during that stretch I focused mainly on lifting and strength work.

Once the whole team got together, that’s when real preseason work began. As a rookie, I’ve been getting a lot of help fitting in – the vibe in the locker room is really good. My locker is right between Nic Claxton and Cam Thomas. I think it was on purpose, so I could connect more with the main guys I share the court with.

Terrence Mann has also helped me a lot – it’s been great getting to know him both as a player and as a person.

As for the coaching staff – they’re true professionals. Everyone’s locked in and focused on helping every player reach his potential, especially the young ones. One person I really want to highlight is Kyle Hines – a CSKA Moscow legend and EuroLeague icon. He’s now an assistant GM here in Brooklyn, and he’s always around the team. It was awesome to talk to him about his career, including the years he lived and played in Russia. Funny to think I once watched him play as a fan :)

During this short time with the team, I’ve already met a lot of basketball legends – and many of them took the time to talk to me personally. Everyone’s been incredibly open and supportive. I’ll never forget chatting with Yao Ming in Macau – he shared stories about his early NBA years and the challenges he faced. I also spent time with Vince Carter, who’s now helping the team and doing TV work.

Most of their advice came down to one thing: “Be yourself. Everyone has their own path – never doubt what you’re capable of.”

Speaking of paths… I’ve already had a moment that’s going to stick with me – the “Ë” on my jersey. The idea came back when I was still at BYU. I wanted my last name written in Russian, but there wasn’t enough time to make it happen. I knew some international players were allowed to use their native scripts – one guy in college even had Chinese characters on his jersey.

When I made it to the NBA – where, for example, “Dončić” is spelled with the correct Slovenian marks – I knew I wanted that same respect for my name. That’s why I added the letter “Ë” – it shows where I’m from and how my last name is really pronounced. What do you think of that idea?