Davis Bertans, the player of Dubai Basketball and Latvia national team, spoke for Basketball Sphere about the ambitions of Dubai Basketball, his days spent at Partizan, anecdotes from Dusko Vujosevic’s practices, his time in the NBA, and many other topics.
When you have the nickname “Latvian Laser,” there’s not much else to add. One of the deadliest shooters the ABA League has ever seen returned to it after exactly 10 years of absence.
Davis Bertans is, starting this season, a new member of Dubai Basketball, a club that is expected to become a part of the EuroLeague in the coming years. They showed they meant business right from the first round when they defeated Crvena Zvezda in their “Coca-Cola Arena.”
Dubai aims for the ABA league title
To begin the conversation, we touched upon the ambitions of his new club, as well as his own.
“We always play to win. The main goal is always to win the title. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter whether we play or not, and that’s why I came to Dubai Basketball. It’s a new club with the goal of playing in the EuroLeague in a few years, I don’t know if that’ll happen next season or a bit later. Either way, I’m here to help in any way I can.
I think the team is really good. We are Top 4 in the ABA League, which is very strong. I’m talking about Partizan, Crvena Zvezda, and Buducnost, which are very good teams, and we’re right there with them. As for the organization, it’s a new club, so it took some time for things to get running smoothly. I arrived a month and a half after they had already started everything.
They certainly made some mistakes along the way, but they’ve corrected them. When I arrived, everything was fine. I expected they would have some issues since it’s a new club, but everything was really good. I also think that the arena in Dubai is really good for basketball, but also for Dubai as a city, and with that, the ABA League is gaining in popularity,” Davis Bertans begins this conversation for Basketball Sphere.
Working with Dusko Vujosevic from the perspective of Davis Bertans
Although this season he is a sports rival to his beloved Partizan, we wanted to recall the period when the Latvian began his basketball career.
These were the years when Partizan was carried by young and upcoming players, and the maestro of that orchestra was the legendary head coach Dusko Vujosevic. Over three seasons at Partizan, Bertans won the ABA League, three Serbian league titles, and one Serbian cup. Bertans tells us firsthand how much working with Vujosevic meant to him as a young player.
“Everyone knows that it was tough with him. We trained a lot, twice a day for three hours, and sometimes when we lost some games, practice would be at six in the morning. In the end, when I look at the direction my career has gone, if I could go back 15 years and get the chance to come to Partizan, I would do everything the same way!
I feel the same way about all the players from Partizan at that time. Our careers all went upwards, we all became better, we played in the NBA and the EuroLeague, and some are still playing today,” says Davis Bertans with great emotion in his voice.
Davis Bertans shared the locker room with roster full of stars, as it would later prove
Speaking about the players, the roster was truly full, as it would later prove, of stars. Bogdan Bogdanovic, Nikola Milutinov, Miroslav Raduljica, Nikola Pekovic, Vladimir Lucic, Joffrey Lauvergne, Milan Macvan—these are just some of the names Bertans shared the locker room with at the time.
“As you mentioned, we were a young team, and because of that, we didn’t have a clear leader that everyone would follow. We played as a team. I think that was very good team basketball. At times, Bogdan was the main player, the one scoring the most, but we all knew what the main goal was: winning games. If the goal is to beat EuroLeague teams, we knew we had to play as a team. If you win games, the head coach will see you as a player who plays for the win, not for yourself.”
Vujosevic “sensed blood”…
Since Bertans was already known as a deadly shooter, Vujosevic “sensed blood” and knew how to draw out his main quality. There were stories about how Bertans had to stay after team practice and shoot until he made 10 consecutive three-pointers. Before one derby against Crvena Zvezda, he was struggling, only to then score 23 points, including 6-of-9 from three-point range, against their biggest rival.
“Yes, yes, that’s true. I think I didn’t manage to make those 10 consecutive three-pointers that day. The practice started around 9:30 AM, we had the gym session, then a shooting practice for the whole team. Bogdan and I would always stay after practice to shoot extra, and he quickly made those 10 consecutive threes, but I just couldn’t. I would make eight or nine, then miss.
I stayed until around 2:30 PM, I think, and still didn’t finish. Vujosevic told me to go home, rest, and continue after the evening practice. So, I went home, slept for a few hours, and went back for the second practice. After that practice, I had to stay and finish it,” Bertans says now with a smile, though we imagine there wasn’t much laughing that evening.
“Well, I always did that against Crvena Zvezda…”
When asked how he managed to make six three-pointers against Crvena Zvezda after such a struggle, he gave a very short, but clear answer:
“Well, I always did that against them,” Davis Bertans says with a smile.
Over the years, Dusko Vujosevic’s training methods have become well-known, and Bertans recalls some of them.
“We used to shoot with gloves, then there were practices with brooms. He would sometimes put a blindfold over our eyes. He would look at which eye was dominant, and then he’d close that eye with the blindfold so we had to shoot without a perfect view of the basket. I’ve never had such training before or after, only with Vujosevic!”
A return to Partizan?
Of course, the question about a potential return to Partizan was inevitable. Bertans has never denied his love for the “black-and-whites,” but at this stage in his career, he has other priorities.
“Of course, I would love to return to Partizan, but it’s not the same as it was 10 years ago. We were a young team, we had more local talent, and the foreigners were also young players.
This summer, I really wanted to join a team where I could sign for three seasons, so I wouldn’t have to move to a new city every year, because that’s really tough for the family. If Partizan offered me a three-season contract, there would be a big chance I would play in the ‘black-and-white’ jersey!”
“This is the beauty of the San Antonio Spurs…”
The “black-and-white” jersey was his destiny. Although Davis Bertans was selected with the 42nd pick in the 2011 NBA Draft by the Indiana Pacers, he didn’t join the NBA until 2016. By then, he was greeted by a familiar face, someone with whom he had already shared a locker room at Union Olimpija – Danny Green.
Green is an NCAA champion and a three-time NBA champion. What makes him special is the fact that he won all three of his NBA titles with three different teams (San Antonio Spurs, Toronto Raptors, Los Angeles Lakers). However, Bertans did not expect such a career from his former teammate.
“In Olimpija, I certainly didn’t know he would become such a player. That’s the beauty of the San Antonio Spurs. They see players who might not be the ones to score 20 points per game. When you have Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, and Manu Ginóbili, all you need are players who can play defense and hit threes when they are open. Green was perfect for that role in the Spurs. He played that position like a superstar.”
San Antonio Spurs – a team
By the time Bertans joined the Spurs, five years had passed since his draft selection, and the moment he realized he would be playing for one of the greatest dynasties in basketball history, led by the winningest head coach in NBA history, Gregg Popovich, marked a turning point in his life.
“It was a phenomenal feeling. Twice I tore my ACLs, twice I went through rehab for 9-10 months. After all that, I joined the team, and everyone considered me part of the squad. I didn’t feel like a newcomer there.
I knew what the club expected from me to earn minutes. I didn’t expect to play much in my first season. Rookie players don’t get many minutes under Popovich, but due to some injuries, I got a bigger opportunity, played pretty well, and earned more minutes than I had expected.”
The elite mentality of Gregg Popovich
The Dubai player reflected on working with Gregg Popovich, giving a small insight into the genius of one of the greatest basketball minds ever.
“He’s really a man who cares about family. He always asks about your family. That’s very important to him. He doesn’t demand too much practice. If you’re playing about 20 minutes per game, you don’t practice much. For him, it’s all about the team. It doesn’t matter if you score 25 or 10 points per game.
Every game was played to win, as if it were the most important game in the playoffs, even though we were still in the regular season. It didn’t matter if we were playing against the last team in the NBA. If we didn’t play well, he would immediately say that you can’t win a title that way. From day one, Gregg only talked about winning a title.”
Vujosevic and Popovich shared a common trait in their coaching
Although their styles of basketball were different—European and American, with varying levels of players available—Dusko Vujosevic and Gregg Popovich shared one common trait in their coaching philosophy.
“Both Dusko and Gregg put the emphasis on what kind of person you are. That’s the most important thing. If you are a good person, you’ll also be a good teammate, which automatically means you help the team. Neither of them would bring in a good player if they didn’t fit into the team. That’s the biggest similarity between the two of them.”
Manu Ginobili’s golden rule
What about the Spurs’ locker room when Bertans arrived? Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge, Pau Gasol, and FIBA legend Patty Mills were all part of the squad.
“My favorite teammate will always be Manu Ginobili. An incredible man. Whenever we traveled, he would organize team dinners. It would always be Patty Mills, him, and me. I learned a lot from them. The first rule was that when we went out to dinner, we didn’t talk about basketball at all. One time, he got upset with me because I was talking about a game from another team. He said we were there to rest, not to think about basketball, and we should talk about life instead.
He had a habit of taking a picture every time after those dinners on the road, and the next day on the plane, he would write about what we had talked about under the pictures. He was making a book for himself for when he retired,” Davis Bertans recalls a phenomenal anecdote with the legendary Argentine.
And the stories didn’t end there.
“It was funny when I went out with Ginobili for dinner on Valentine’s Day in Orlando. I still have a picture from that day somewhere. Some players brought their wives or girlfriends, and we were the only ones who didn’t. He said, ‘Let’s go to dinner,’ and so the two of us spent Valentine’s Day together.”
Career-best season with the Washington Wizards
After his time with the Spurs, Bertans moved on to the Washington Wizards, where he played the best season of his career. He averaged 15.5 points and 5 rebounds per game, with an impressive 42% shooting from three-point range. He showcased all his talent and proved he belonged in the NBA.
“At that moment, I wasn’t even thinking about it. I was just playing. I loved playing a lot of minutes where I could shoot as much as I wanted, and no one was telling me it was too much. I really felt that I could play at a high level if I was trusted.
That trust came from the head coach, Scott Brooks, with the Wizards. It shows how important the opportunity is, especially in the NBA. As soon as a coach changes, everything changes immediately.
In the NBA, there are around 450 players. Everyone knows how to play basketball. It all depends on whether you get a chance or not, how many minutes you get, how many shots. If the Denver Nuggets hadn’t recognized Jokic, he might not be what he is today. They recognized him at the right time and gave him the opportunity.”
Luka Doncic as a teammate
After the Wizards, Dsvis Bertans continued his American journey with the Dallas Mavericks. There, he probably had the most space in his career, considering he played alongside the magician Luka Doncic. We were curious about how that collaboration went.
“Luka is a good teammate for me. Since he speaks Serbian, we could communicate, and we knew each other from before because we played against each other in Europe, and later in the NBA.
At first, I had good minutes, and I think that suited him. Later, I wasn’t as good on defense, so I didn’t get as many minutes, and that’s when things started to go poorly for me.”
“With or without Porzingis, we have the talent to win it all”
The focus then shifted to the Latvian national team, which was the absolute sensation at the 2022 FIBA World Cup. Under the guidance of Luca Banchi, Davis Bertans and his teammates reached the quarterfinals, where they were narrowly defeated by the eventual champions, Germany, by 81:79.
Before that, Latvia had defeated teams that, just a year later, would qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics (France, Spain, Brazil). Later, in the classification for fifth place, they beat the strong teams of Italy and Lithuania—all of this without their injured star Kristaps Porzingis.
“With Porzingis or without him, we have the talent to win it all. We can beat any team, and I believe that. We have good shooters, which means that on any given night, the shots can fall for us, and no one can stop us. Our style of play ensures that we will always get open shots. The ball moves from side to side, pass, pass, drive, another pass, and someone will always be open.
Luca Banchi played had a key role
That shooting was the reason why, at the World Cup, we had a different player leading in points every game. Luca Banchi played a key role here. When he arrived, he really helped with the team’s mentality—making all players believe we could beat anyone.
In the qualifiers, we beat Turkey, which had almost everything available, and we also beat Serbia, even though they were missing a few players. But even without them, they are a Top 5 team in the world. After those two games, our confidence went through the roof, and we believed we could win the World Cup. Whenever Latvia plays its basketball, even if we are losing, I believe we can win.”
FIBA system as a global good
As Latvia is a host for the EuroBasket next year, we asked Bertans about his view on the fact that all four host countries still participate in qualification groups, despite being automatically qualified. This “mini-chaos” is especially evident in a group with France, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Cyprus, where one of these great teams will miss out on EuroBasket.
“It’s not that bad, because a team that has never participated in that competition now has a chance. And if a team plays in a big tournament like that, basketball will improve in that country, more kids will start playing, so globally it’s a good thing,” says Davis Bertans.
Partizan’s chances in the EuroLeague
Finally, an inevitable question was about how Bertans sees Partizan’s chances in this year’s EuroLeague. After a tough 2-8 start, Partizan has stabilized with two hard-earned consecutive wins (against Crvena zvezda and Olympiacos). Despite criticism regarding the large number of foreign players this season, Bertans, who himself was once a foreigner in the “black-and-white” jersey and later became a fan favorite, shared his thoughts.
“I believe that in the EuroLeague, every team has the potential to have a great season, make it to the Final Four, and win the title. With 18 teams, every one of them has a chance. That’s the beauty of basketball because every game is so important.
If Partizan gets into a good rhythm in the EuroLeague, they have a chance for the playoffs, and after that, anything can happen. They have a good team. When you have quality players and a head coach like Zeljko Obradovic, you always have a chance,” concluded Davis Bertans in this interview for Basketball Sphere.
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