Dario Saric spent a decade in the NBA, but one of the most difficult moments came relatively early in his career when the Philadelphia 76ers unexpectedly traded him to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Saric had established himself in Philadelphia and admits he struggled to understand how quickly his situation changed.
“I was playing good in Philly, and then once you get traded to another team,” he reflected. “It was a new feeling for me. In the beginning of the season, I just ended up on a new team, in a new city, and it was really hard for me to process. I didn’t have the experience. I have it now after changing a couple of teams. I didn’t have that experience back then. Maybe I would have adapted to my role better. I wouldn’t have been so hard on myself, maybe. I would have just given myself time to adjust to the new system.”
The actual trade happened with little time for Saric to process what was happening. Within a matter of days, he went from playing for Philadelphia to trying to establish a new life and basketball role in Minnesota.
“I didn’t know the feeling, I didn’t know what to expect,” he told Eurohoops. “I was playing in Philly for two years. Every season I was going up and playing well. And one moment, after 6-7 games into the season, right after two good games, the coaches called me and told me, ‘You are traded to the Timberwolves.’ You go back to the room, look for flights, fly back to Philly to pack your things, and the next day you are in Minneapolis. I was 21, 22… You just don’t have time to feel anything. You just show up in another city, other people take you to the hotel, the next day you try to find an apartment, you go to practice with totally different people. For me, it was a bit of a shock, and it took me some time to really realize what was going on.”
Saric also had to deal with a different role after arriving in Minnesota. Having been a starter for Philadelphia, he initially expected his new circumstances to provide another significant opportunity.
“I was playing well in Philly,” he continued. “I never thought players who were playing well would get traded. And I had Tom Thibodeau as a coach, and he plays his starters a lot. I was starting in Philly, the 3rd team in the West, and I go to the 10th team in the Western Conference. I was expecting they were trying to go young, but he kept playing the older guys, which is fine. With all this shock, I didn’t really figure out how to manage my situation or how to approach the game. It took me like six months to do that. It was just a shock, but that’s life. I just didn’t know at the time how to react.”
