There's just as much chance of getting injured in a pickup game as there is playing in the European championships for your national team. Ideally, I think every team would love it if they could just lock all their players up in a gym and keep them under close supervision throughout the summer. But that's not the reality of it. Most European players go play for their national team.
By the way there was an interview of Bogi by Sportklub that goes into his adjustment to the Kings, his injury, and the differences between playing in Europe and the NBA. It's in a translated form on a different King's foum whose name is supposed to be unmentionable. It will answer some of the questions being posed. I'm sure most of you can find it. The translator admits that there's a little lost in the translation. Here's a short excerpt from it.
Q: Yes that's something i wanted to ask you, your role in the team. You was a starter, entering game from the bench, play on your SG position, quite often put in PG role, shifted to SF. How was that? How hard is to adopt when someone is constantly asking new things from you?
BB: I think i played adequately in every role coach asked from me. I even played 4 (PF), few times. I was always capable to cover more positions, and coach wanted to use that. Maybe it did influenced my game a bit, but i think on overal, i did adequate job.
In general playing in NBA, is harder to play than in Europe, because there's focus on individual stats- i mean i was okay statistically, probably would be better (stats), if there wasn't minutes limits at the beginning. System is set that way, stats matter a lot for salary, that's why there's big focus on it.
But my mentality is a bit different, to me, wins come first- and when i came back (from injury) , team was winning, i was afraid that i'm gonna ruin something, or turn it to other side (destroy team chemistry on the court). So i blamed myself sometimes. Especially when i came back we lost three games in a row. But those were Raptors, Lakers, and GSW, three really hard matches, at some point tho, i found my fit in the team.\
And a bit more:
Q: So saying that what are main differences between European and American game (okay i'm gonna shorten this one)
A: -Players are better in NBA - Different rules - faster pace than in Europe - low quality games can happen in NBA toodue to tiredness - referees also can get struck by fatigue in NBA than in Europe, due to lot more of travel, flights and all- more 1 on 1, in Europe you can way more easily get a star out of proper rythm- defensive 3 seconds is a drastic change, he said a small hyperbole that in Europe games would finish with 400 points if there was such rule.
Q: You went trough shooting crisis at one point, people had impression that you lost confidence a bit. How do you fight those circumstances?
BB: I didn't lose confidence, than i would pass the ball instead of shooting, i lost it once in my first season under Dule Vujošević. I'm in Pionir (famous Belgrade's basketball arena) have an open shot, totally alone as a ghost but i pass the ball.
Now it was more complex, at the beginning of season i needed to change way i train in the gym. I had surgery on my knee for the second time, and i started to ask myself, is this "that" (like literally am i screwed). This affected me, i constantly asked myself, will i be able to get on my old level- i injured my ankles many times, but i never run into this type of injury- so i decided to have a surgery. Then during recovery, after everything went smooth first 6 weeks, i started to feel pain. My nerve got inflamed and started to hurt. I report it, but they can't find an issue. I talked with everyone, and doctor told me, that's just probably due to surgery,my body had a trauma and that it will just pass on its own. So i continued, still felt pain, and then i gave my body a two day rest. Pain stopped after it, we did some practices to strengthen the leg a whole week before coming back to regular recovery process.
Why i'm telling you this? First they told me that i must shorten my trainings, which was hard for me. I changed way i train, which influenced my game rhythm- i always knew when ball is going in, or out, so i didn't lost my confidence. But due to fear of pain, it would happen that i shoot out of balance, which automatically disturb whole shooting release. I would need to shoot with delay or faster.
After first surgery i didn't had that fear, but after second one, nerve inflammation showed up , and i waited to see is coming back. So it took me a while about month and half to drop off the fear. Same with contact game. It was valuable experience tho, but i didn't started my season healthy and at some point i couldn't physically follow it (season) trough the end.