ORLANDO – When you’ve played before angry Lithuanian fans throwing firecrackers down onto the court, as Arinze Onuaku has done during his circuitous basketball odyssey around the globe, you don’t dare take the comforts of the NBA for granted.
When you’ve taken 12-hour bus rides for basketball games only to have to turn around and make that same 12-hour ride back home later in the night, as Damjan Rudez did in the Adriatic League, you deeply cherish the opportunity to stick with a NBA roster.
When Onuaku and Rudez got word on Saturday that they had made the Orlando Magic’s roster – news delivered to them by GM Rob Hennigan and head coach Frank Vogel – their emotion was raw and real.