Serbian guard Nemanja Nedovic spoke about the events at Monaco last season, a club that, as is already known, suffered a financial collapse midway through the season, after which numerous other problems arose.
As Nemanja Nedovic himself explained, his agent Misko Raznatovic warned him that the financial situation at Monaco was not great, but he did not take it that seriously. Everything started well, but then the first delays in salary payments began.
“When I got the offer from Monaco, I was overjoyed and just wanted to get there as fast as possible because I was late starting pre-season. When I was signing, Misko (Raznatovic) told me: ‘Just so you know, they are in a bit of a tough financial situation.’ Who? Monaco in a tough financial situation? Give me that paper so I can sign it. I got there, and everything was great until December.
Money on time, flying private. We flew private the entire year – I don’t even know how. Playing well, the team was great. Tied for first place. However, that’s when salaries started being delayed by a month, a month and a half. I was fine with that; it’s completely normal. We weren’t going to make a fuss about it because we were protected in every possible way – both by ELPA and the French players’ association”, 35-year-old said in 6.75 Range podcast, and continued explaining everything that happened behind the scenes:
Financial troubles
“However, rumors started circulating, and that’s when the losses began. The losses started with Crvena Zvezda, and then we were going to Madrid. We lost to Crvena Zvezda, and a 0-2 week was very likely. We were heading to Madrid, and everyone was completely relaxed, as if nothing had happened. I don’t know if I was a bit more stressed or if I had more experience, but I knew things could easily spiral. Two double-week rounds, and suddenly you’re 0-4, dropping down to the play-in line.
As the losses piled up, there was more and more talk among us about the delays. It was already heavily reported in the media. Winning had masked the problems, but once we started losing, a seed of doubt was planted. That’s when we players started talking—should we go on strike, refuse to play a game, or skip practice? Even though it was only a one-month delay, which is nothing extraordinary.
We hit a slump, and things got very turbulent. So many situations happened that I thought could never occur in a professional club. On the other hand, you’re first in the French league, you won the Supercup, and then the Cup in February. That masks things a bit. In the EuroLeague, you’re right there. It was extremely turbulent, interesting – enough for a book.
In the end, four trophies – a historic season for the club. No one in France had ever won four trophies. That definitely stays in the history books.”
“I sacrificed a lot”
The Serbian guard spoke about his role on the team and what was expected of him by head coach Vassilis Spanoulis.
“Under Spanoulis, it was 13 to 14 minutes, and when I was having a really good day, he’d give me 15, 16, 17. When I signed, he told me he was bringing me in for the Jaycee Carroll role – come in, shoot everything you can, be aggressive, and bring a change of energy. You have Mike (James), Elie (Okobo), (Matthew) Strazel, Alpha (Diallo) -who took on more and more offensive responsibility every year. You have Mirotic (Nikola Mirotic), Daniel Theis at the five. I sacrificed a lot because I thought I had a great chance to win. The team had the quality to win, but off-court situations disrupted us.”
“It’s a success we made it to the game”
He also touched upon the EuroLeague playoff series against Olympiacos, in which the red-and-whites were completely dominant, ultimately securing a Final Four berth with a 3-0 sweep, where they once again proved their dominance and lifted the trophy.
“Those guys went completely berserk… How Olympiacos played against us… If we had played 17 series, we wouldn’t have won a single game. They ran like clockwork. They hit their peak form right when they played us. If I told you what happened on the plane… It’s a success that we even made it to the game”, he said while laughing and then explained after the question about what happened:
“We have a 30-seat plane. EuroLeague playoffs, and on board is this podcast host, this journalist from Monaco – the only one who actually followed us – friends of the club, the GM was there, and a few other people. When it’s just us, there’s enough room for everyone. From the start, I always sat in the last row, Mike was in front of me, then Alpha, Elie, and so on.
Because everyone crammed into the front, the back got filled up. We like having two seats each, but there were fewer rows available. I was sitting at the back, Mike was supposed to be in front of me, but Alpha took that seat because Elie took Alpha’s seat. Mike comes in, looks around, and says: ‘What is this, what’s going on?’ We didn’t know how to solve it right then either, but we just needed two minutes to push the podcasters forward so they could all sit together, and then we’d shift around. That didn’t happen in the next 15-20 seconds, and Mike got mad.
Granted, that was probably the most trivial thing that happened this season. By breakfast, everything was fine again. Are we ready? Yes… Defeated by 30 points.”
“I was the only one shocked”
He touched on the situation against Olympiacos in the EuroLeague regular season game back in March, when Mike James showed up just 30 minutes before tip-off, despite prior reports stating he wouldn’t play.
“In my world, given how I was raised and taught, and based on everything I experienced throughout my career, I thought that was a recipe for disaster. For someone to show up 30 minutes before a game – warm-ups, concentration, all of that. But it had happened before, so they knew he could pull it off. He can just switch it on, show up to the game, dominate, we win, and everything is great. I was the only one who was shocked by it”, Nemanja Nedovic concluded.
