Before battling injury problems for the most part of his career, Nikola Pekovic was one of the most imposing big men the NBA had to offer for a short period of time.
After joining the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2010, the Montenegrin center quickly became one of the strongest and most physical players of his time. In 2014 Pekovic was averaging 17.5 points and 8.7 rebounds per game as Kevin Love’s front court partner.
In 2017, the Timberwolves waived Pekovic after seven seasons with the franchise. During his time with the team, he averaged 12.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game on 51.8 percent shooting from the field.
But the most interesting part came after Pekovic NBA’s career – a second career in drug lording.
A couple months after his NBA exit, Belgrade police found drugs and guns in an Audi with American plates that was registered to Pekovic, who was Partizan Belgrade’s president at the time.
While Pekovic wasn’t in the car, Radojko Tomasevic and Ivan Golocevaa, who are closely linked to Darko and Dusko Saric, were. The Saric brothers reportedly are two of the biggest drug traffickers in the entire world, who allegedly smuggled tons of cocaine from South America to Europe.
When asked in the aftermath of the incident, Pekovic never denied being friends with Dusko Saric, even revealing that he’s the godfather of his child.
You may remember that Pekovic’s nickname in the NBA was ‘Godfather’, it turns out that he actually became one. He apparently owns a hotel, and a nightclub, that also are linked to Saric, who currently serves a prison sentence.
According to a Serbian friend of mine, no one in the Serbian and Montenegrin region talks about Pekovic as a former NBA player, but as a mobster.
However, Pekovic has remained in the spotlight of the basketball world, and despite the allegations and rumors, currently serves as the president of the Basketball Federation of Montenegro.
Nonetheless, it’s funny how things sometimes turn out. While Caron Butler went from being a drug dealer to becoming an NBA player, Nikola Pekovic apparently went the other way round.
