How Krejci navigated odd rookie year
In an arena normally packed with fans, Vit Krejci moved about unbothered, and largely unrecognized.
The Thunder draft pick's centercourt seat was halfway up in the suite level, where he often sat alone. In a sense, Krejci had season tickets to an exclusive event. The Thunder was the only team in the NBA to not allow fans for the entire 2020-21 season.
The concourses were deserted, save for the dozens who worked the Thunder's 36 home games during the COVIDshortened campaign.
They arrived to games through a small entrance on the east end of the arena, where boxed dinners and snacks waited on the other side of metal detectors and security guards who administered temperature checks.
After applying hand sanitizer, employees and media had to sign in before grabbing a hot meal and some combination of fruit, chips and candy.
Krejci's name (pronounced Veet Kray-chee) was typically near the top of the sheet, with him having arrived hours before tip-off. It became his routine, an unconventional one, especially for a player, made necessary by pandemic precautions.
Following that strange season, Krejci signed a different sheet earlier this month. He agreed to a long-term contract with the Thunder, and won't be using the employee entrance any longer.
“It was pretty weird, but yeah, I kind of got used to it,” Krejci said with a laugh.
The 21-year-old Czech guard moved
to Oklahoma City after the NBA Draft last November, but he wasn't allowed to use the players' entrance in the underground of Paycom Center.
After all, Krejci wasn't on the Thunder's roster. He was a 2020 secondround pick without a contract, and he was still rehabbing from an ACL tear he suffered in Spain a year ago this month.
Due to COVID-19 protocols, Krejci wasn't permitted to be with the Thunder for workouts, practices or games. Hence the employee entrance.
Krejci and the Thunder made it work. “Being from Europe you hardly see any full games,” Krejci said. “You mostly see highlights and stuff like that, so it was cool to see so many games, see how basketball is here.”
Krejci's upbringing in Czech Republic
Krejci grew up in Strakonice, Czech Republic — home of the International Bagpipe Festival and 23,000 residents.
“The historic center is nice,” said Adam Nenadal. “Otherwise, there is nothing much. But it's a basketball city, actually.”
Nenadal lives and works in Prague, a European jewel 70 miles northeast of Strakonice. Nenadal is the deputy editor-in-chief of Denik Sport, which provides daily coverage of sports in the Czech Republic.
Ice hockey and soccer are the country's most popular sports, but basketball is on the rise.
Pelicans guard Tomas Satoransky, the only other Czech player in the NBA, just led his nation to its first men's basketball Olympics bid in 41 years. Back in 1980, the country was still known as Czechoslovakia. It didn't split into two sovereign states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, until 1993.
Krejci was left off the national team due to his injury. The Czechs upset Lu Dort and the Canadians en route to qualifying for the Tokyo Games.
“This is huge for Czech basketball, and Tomas Satoransky is the main star and the man of this incredible generation,” Nenadal said. “Compared to his status, Vit Krejci is only known to hardcore basketball fans in the Czech Republic.
“If and when (Krejci) gets his first minutes it will be much, much more interesting for the people here. His past isn't linked to Czech basketball whatsoever so far.”
That's because Krejci, who shares an agent with Satoransky, left the Czech Republic for Zaragoza, Spain, when he was 14.
Krejci, even at that age, knew he wanted to play at the highest level, and Spain has some of the best basketball in the world outside of the U.S.
“In the Czech Republic, once you get older it's hard to get out,” Krejci said, “so we just made the decision that if I leave as soon as possible and I get accustomed to Spain, it would be easier for me to break through there.”
His mom moved with him for the first few months, but then he was on his own.
"After a couple years it became like a home for me,” said Krejci, who's fluent in English, Spanish and Czech.
Krejci advanced through Basket Zaragoza's junior programs and debuted with the club's B team when he was 16.
At 17, Krejci defended former Spurs guard Gary Neal every day in practice.
Krejci signed his first pro contract at 19, and he earned a full-time spot with the club's senior team in Spain's Liga ACB.
Poised to have a big role in the 202021 season, Krejci suffered a torn ACL in the second game of the season. He rose for a dunk against Real Madrid before landing awkwardly on his left knee. That was in late September, just two months before the 2020 NBA Draft, which had been pushed back because of COVID.
Krejci had surgery in October, and would need at least 11 months to rehab. Still, he kept his name in the NBA draft.
Krejci's confidence in being drafted dropped after the surgery, but he had encouraging talks with the Thunder, specifically Donnie Strack, the team's vice president of human and player performance, most known for his role in stopping the Thunder-Jazz game on March 11, 2020.
“I knew that if I'm gonna get drafted it was probably gonna be Thunder, just because of how they asked about the injury,” Krejci said. “They were interested not only in my future as a basketball player, but they really wanted to (learn) as much as they could about the injury.”
Only NBA front offices and the most dedicated of draftniks had ever heard of Krejci. He was a fringe candidate at best to be picked.
The Thunder not only drafted Krejci, but Sam Presti traded up to do so.
The Thunder acquired the 37th pick from the Wizards for the 53rd pick (Cassius Winston) and a future secondround pick.
Krejci seemed like a draft-and-stash candidate, but given his injury, the Thunder wanted to bring him to Oklahoma City as soon as possible.
“When I got here the only thing I was thinking about was to get back as strong as I can,” Krejci said, “and I knew that Oklahoma was gonna be the best place to rehab because of all the resources.
“I knew they would help me get back to the level that I was, and even better.”
Krejci 'brings the energy'
After nearly every game, Krejci and Thunder assistant Eric Maynor broke down what they saw.
Maynor, a former Thunder point guard who was recently promoted from the G League Blue staff, was Krejci's primary coaching contact. Krejci was on the Blue's roster last season, but he didn't travel with the team to the G League bubble in Orlando. He stayed behind to rehab.
Krejci processed the Thunder's games, but he was just as interested in players' pregame routines and what they did during timeouts — things you can't see on TV. Sometimes he showed up four hours before a game, he said. Early in the season he went by himself, and then with his girlfriend when she arrived in May.
Krejci said observing the organization from afar should help him as a rookie.
“Once the season starts, once training camp starts, I already know all the staff members,” he said, “I already know the team and the organization.”
Krejci's on-court workouts, with Maynor and athletic performance coach Christopher Hart, were scheduled around Thunder practices and shootarounds. COVID protocols prohibited Krejci from being at the practice facility with the Thunder.
Other than crossing paths coming and going from the gym and hanging out off the court, Krejci didn't become fully immersed with the Thunder until Summer League last month in Las Vegas.
Krejci wasn't on the Summer League roster, but he worked out with the team and cheered from the end of the bench. He was cleared to do everything except playing live five-on-five.
“After a year when I was practicing all by myself … It was nice to get out there and practice with some guys,” Krejci said.
Krejci has primarily played point guard, but at 6-foot-8 and 195 pounds, he has the frame to play on the wing in the NBA. Krejci is a smooth creator for his size, but descriptions and projections of his game are only guesses.
He played just 21 games with Zaragoza's top team, averaging 2.8 points in 7.1 minutes per game. Krejci described himself as “the guy that brings the energy.” Thunder fans seem drawn to him primarily due to the mystery surrounding his game.
“He's relatively unknown to me, also,” said Nenadal, the Czech sportswriter. “I only saw the potential.”
The Thunder saw enough potential to sign Krejci to a four-year deal worth $6.3 million. Krejci is guaranteed $925,000 this season, but the Thunder maintained flexibility in the final three years of Krejci's deal with either partial or non-guarantees.
“It was an amazing feeling,” Krejci said of signing his contract. “When I got here I wasn't focusing on what's gonna happen, where I'm gonna be next season. I was focusing only on rehabbing. I knew that if I'm gonna rehab well, that's gonna help me and determine where I'm gonna be playing next season.
“I'm so happy that it was all worth it.” Krejci will start playing five-on-five this week for the first time since tearing his left ACL.
He said he's put on muscle in the last year, and feels better than he did before the injury.
“The knee is not hurting at all,” Krejci said. “It's just the rhythm and speed of the game. Obviously if you don't play for a year you kind of fall out of it.”
Krejci is expected to spend a good chunk of the season with the Blue, but when he makes his Thunder debut, he'll walk onto a court he wasn't even allowed to access last season.
The food in the locker room will be a little different than the grab-and-go options at the employee entrance, and Krejci will have a seat on the bench rather than in a suite.
“I remember when I was 8 years old I did my first interview, and I said I wanted to play in the NBA,” Krejci said. “It was my dream since I was a little kid, and I just can't wait to run on the court and just be able to play basketball again.”