“I Will Take Your Children, Your Wife”: 2022 NBA Champion Threatened with Scissors at a Kids’ Playground

Former NBA athlete Nemanja Bjelica and his family were allegedly threatened, physically and verbally, in a kid’s playground in Belgrade. As per initial reports from Sportando,  in a “very serious incident”, a former footballer named Nikola Petkovic, who was armed with scissors, yelled at Bejlica,

“I[Petkovic] will take your[Bjelica’s] family, your children, your wife and you. I will take your money.”

While using his scissors, Petkovic also allegedly threatened, “Now I’m going to stab you bi****! I’m waiting for you in the parking lot!” Fortunately, the cops on the scene cleaned up the mess and prevented an unforeseen event. 

Nemanja Bjelica played seven seasons in the NBA, three with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and two and a half with the Sacramento Kings. He also played a few games with the Miami Heat and was part of the Warriors for a season as the 2021-22 champion. Bjelica was a dependable role player for the team and helped them stretch the floor off the bench while also bringing some solid footwork on the post.

After the 2021-22 season, Bjelica left for Europe and played a short and unsatisfactory stint for Fenerbahçe. Then he returned to his home in Belgrade and signed with the Serbian Basketball League squad Crvena Zvezda. However, he didn’t play a single official game with them and announced his retirement in October 2023. However, this was not the first time the former Warrior was involved in a violent incident.

Jeff Teague once slapped Nemanja Bjelica mid-game

On his official podcast, Club 520 Podcast, Jeff Teague narrated a story about how Nemanja Bjelica was “mad” at him after Teague had intentionally slapped him in the face after committing a turnover. This incident happened when Teague played for the Hawks and Bjelica played for the Timberwolves.

On his podcast, Teague admitted that during a game, he slapped Bjelica just to take out his frustration after committing an error. Bjelica had just collected the loose ball off Teague’s turnover and had given it to PG Ricky Rubio. 

However, he found that someone had slapped him behind for no reason. It was Jeff Teague, who revealed that since Bjelica was the “closest” person to him, he took out his frustration on him through a hard slap. The astonished forward was naturally fuming but the guard didn’t get any technical as all three referees missed a huge potential Flagrant 2 violation. A fact which the guard relished during his narration.

 

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When Teague signed a three-year, $57 million deal with the Timberwolves, he became teammates with the third-year Timberwolves forward Nemanja Bjelica. While the former Timberwolves forward came across the two-way guard, he disclosed the anger he felt in the aftermath of the slap.

As per Teague, when he walked into the locker room, Nemanja Bjelica cautioned, ”Hey, I[Bjelica]was going to f**k you[Teague] up, brother. I was going to kill your whole family. Don’t do that again.” At the time, Teague’s revelation was considered partly humorous and partly hard-hitting.