Indiana Pacers forward Damjan Rudež as well as longtime assistant coach Dan Burke will be taking part in the NBA’s Basketball without Borders campaign next month. Those two, along with Washington, Indiana native and Charlotte Hornets big man Cody Zeller and his teammate, Gerald Henderson, will work with 50 campers from 25 European countries in Gran Canaria, Spain from June 2-5.
Basketball without Borders is a mission of the NBA to provide elite instruction from their leagues to the top players around the world. This year, they’ll be working with kids born in 1998, so roughly 17-year-olds.
At this event in Gran Canaria, there will be three players — Mate Kalajzic, Domagoj Proleta, Lovro Buljevic — from Croatia, Rudež’s home country. Rudež, who in April concluded up his rookie season in the NBA, plans to continue to play with the Croatia National Team in August as they try to earn a spot in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Almost two years ago in July, Luis Scola and Chris Copeland were working together Buenos Aires, Argentina when Scola found out he was traded from Phoenix to Indiana.
Other names involved in this BWB trip: NBA Legends Jorge Garbajosa (Spain), Vladimir Radmanovic (Serbia) and Hanno Mottola (Finland), as well as WNBA Legend Amaya Valdemoro (Spain). Coaches Bryan Gates (New Orleans Pelicans), Walter McCarty (Boston Celtics) and Jim Moran (Portland Trail Blazers) will serve as BWB Europe 2015 camp coaches. Marin Sedlacek (Philadelphia 76ers) will be the camp director and Jeff Tanaka (Chicago Bulls) will serve as the camp’s athletic trainer.