Latvians bond over Grizzlies basketball
Player helps ease orphan’s Memphis trek
Late last Thursday, Michael and Paula Sloan of Cordova were in Atlanta, awaiting a plane that would deliver 12-year-old Viktors, a Latvian orphan they would host for the next five weeks.
That’s when the Griz- zlies, with t he 60th and f i nal pick of the NBA Draft, selected Janis Timma of, yes, Latvia.
A friend of the Sloans who used to work for the Grizzlies made the connection, and then a phone call. The two should meet, the friend said. Great idea, the Griz and Timma thought.
So Wednesday, after Timma finished a workout, little Viktors (the Sloans can’t release his last name) and 6-foot-8 Timma met, just two Latvians shooting hoops on a summer afternoon in Memphis.
“It’s hard to find,” Timma said of his native land of about 2 million people, “if you don’t know where it is.”
When Timma first approached Viktors on the Grizzlies’ practice court Wednesday, Viktors was shy. Timma connected by making small talk in Russian. He found out their hometowns are 100 miles or so from each other, and that Viktors likes basketball.
Basketball, and pretty much any other sport. On the drive back from Atlanta, Viktors kept saying “Nike! Nike! Swoosh! Swoosh!” So on Monday, the Sloans took him for a haircut — and got the Nike logo buzzed into the sides of his head.
He’s good at hoops, too. Once Timma and the Sloans convinced him to get on the court, he didn’t miss many shots. Midway through, Timma whispered to Ross Wooden, the team’s coordinator of basketball media relations, to find a T-shirt to give Viktors. When it came time for him to leave, he gave Viktors that shirt and they posed for photos.
Viktors doesn’t know much English, but the Sloans expect that to pick up. They’ve heard to expect that in the five weeks he’ll be here, the immersion alone will be worth two or three years of English in school in his Latvian orphanage. Viktors has told the Sloans he has been at the orphanage since he was 5.
Timma’s days in Memphis are far from guaranteed; 60th overall picks are far from certain additions to the team’s roster. He’ll shuttle back and forth from Las Vegas, where the Grizzlies play in the NBA’s Summer League.
Viktors’ visit to the U.S. will end in a month or so too
ut in the meantime, there they were Wednesday afternoon, making whatever connection they could over their common country half a world away.
“I’m glad to see somebody else from Latvia in Memphis,” Timma said, smiling. “I hope it’s not the last one.”