Warriors: Looney, Kerr speak about Dejan Milojević for first time since his death

SAN FRANCISCO — The basket closest to the double doors at the Warriors’ practice court used to be Dejan Milojević’s playground after practices. That’s where observers would see “Deki” bumping hips, battling for boards and preaching tactics to every Warriors big man who passed through over the last three years.

That basket by the doors was empty after the Warriors’ first team practice on Monday in the wake of Milojević’s sudden death last week in Salt Lake City.

That empty space served as a reminder of the transition the team and organization, must endure over the next few days as the Warriors prepare to jump back into basketball on Wednesday. How they’ll process the trauma of losing a mentor with the job itself.

“It’s been tough,” Kevon Looney said. “Just trying to be around my family and teammates as much as possible, remembering him, telling stories about him. Not trying to run away from it but trying to embrace it and talk about him and what I’m going through with the people close to me.”

Since the tragedy, the Warriors have taken time for themselves to mourn and the league postponed their games against the Utah Jazz and Dallas Mavericks. The entire team has access to counseling, especially those who were at the Salt Lake City restaurant for a team dinner when Milojević suffered the heart attack.

At practice, the Warriors wore black T-shirts with “brate,” the Serbian slang word for “brother” across their chests and a term Milojević called everyone — a term the team largely embraced since he came to Golden State in 2021.

Before practice, the team all watched the spectacular tribute to Milojević from Adriatic Basketball Association teams KK Partizan, where he played, and Mega Basket, where he coached in Serbia.

It would take an hour for the team to start practice so they could process what they had just seen: A record-setting crowd in Serbia wore matching shirts with his name and raised a banner of their coach’s face and chanted his name for three minutes straight before playing a video highlighting Deki’s decorated career as an MVP, champion and mentor to many — one of the most celebrated basketball players in the Balkans.

“Seeing that tribute they gave him in Serbia gave me chills,” Looney said. “He was a super humble guy. I knew that he was really good, but to see the way they celebrated him and honored him changed my perspective.”

Looney, Dario Sarić and Draymond Green were among the Warriors players closest to Milojević who have taken his death particularly hard. Sarić hails from Croatia, a neighbor of Milojević’s home of Serbia, and grew a close friendship with the coach during his first few months with the Warriors. Coach Steve Kerr said Sarić was a “superhero” during the ordeal in Salt Lake City and has helped take care of Milojević’s family — his wife, Natasa and two children, Nikola and Masa. Sarić still needed time to process the events before speaking about his friendship.

“He knew Deki better than any of us and he’s suffering right now,” Kerr said. “But also caring for Deki’s family. He and Deki were extremely close — everyone was close with Deki, it was impossible not to be.”

For Looney, Deki’s death gave him a moment to reflect on his mentorship. Milojević came to the Warriors in 2021, in part, as a big man expert to help mold a raw James Wiseman as a big man coach. Looney ended up blossoming the most under Milojevic’s tutelage, out-rebounding his longer and taller competitors en route to a 2022 title and averaging a career-high 9.3 rebounds per game in the 2022-23 season.

Most of all, Looney will remember how Milojević used tough love to make him better.

“His English wasn’t always the best so he didn’t know how to sugarcoat anything. Anytime I wasn’t being aggressive, I wasn’t rebounding or boxing out — it’s a cuss word, but he said ‘Don’t be soft.’ But he would say the explicit word. I would always tell him, ‘You’re the only person I let talk to me like that.’”

Looney added: “He was a nice guy but he wasn’t nice. He was always honest, truthful and someone I could always go to and say, ‘Hey, man, what do you think about this?’ — on and off the court.”

Milojević taught his players not to settle for anything average. To coaches, he taught the advantage of harsh realities.

“In coaches meeting, sometimes they get contentious, we all have different ideas and he always just had a gleam in his eye and a laugh even when he was challenging us — especially when he was challenging the rest of the group,” Kerr said. “And he had a lot of funny sayings that he would use, Serbian words, sometimes just his English version of things. He was a guy who constantly saw the good in people and the joy in life.”

The Warriors got through their first practice since Milojević’s passing. They’re set to play the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night, their first game since they lost to the Memphis Grizzlies last Monday. For now, everything is a baby step.

“Wednesday will be unbelievably emotional for our players, for our organization, for our fans,” Kerr said. “For Deki’s family. There’s no handbook for this. We will honor Deki the best way we know on Wednesday night.”