Igor Rakočević is a former Serbian professional basketball player who has played for major basketball teams including Red Star Belgrade, Real Madrid and for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA. He also won the World and European championship with Yugoslavia and Serbia. For the past 9 years, he has been training in BJJ at Zerjal Team in Belgrade and tonight he was promoted to black belt in Jiu-jitsu:
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Igor Rakocevic
In this past interview with BJJ Eastern Europe, the basketball legend talks about his new found love for BJJ, check it out:
“Its very funny how I got into jiujitsu. As a hardcore professional, I always trained like a madman, since I started my professional career at age of 15, until this last season with 35 years old… When I started to play for 1 foreign team(I won’t say its name because i don’t want to harm their reputation), I was preety much dissapointed and worried once playing there because they didn’t train hard enough… I had to have some extra sports activity outside training gym… I was in panic that I will be out of shape for games because of teams bad conditioning work..At that moment one of my teammates got me into watching UFC and Pride fights and I became a fan… It was very interesting to me, so I decided to try something like MMA, just without punching and kicking because of injuries…. We said “let’s try BJJ”so we can burn that extra fat…. So I went to some random guys amateur class and I really liked it. After 1st training I remember falling asleep in taxi because I was really pushing it to the limit not trying to get beat and submitted in my 1st class… So I continued to practise BJJ lightly and when I came back to Serbia, I looked on google for BJJ instructor and found legendary Jovan Zerjal… I called him and started doing classes…. That’s when I really learned something in BJJ and liked it a lot!”
You have played basketball at the highest level your whole life and accomplished so many titles. What attracts you to BJJ now?
“Bjj attracts me a lot because it has endless possibilities and techniques…it is evolving as we speak… And the most I like about it, is that you can beat someone without hurting him… That bjj aspect feels very honorouble and humble for me, it kinda develops your spirit and soul…
I try to train every day.. I feel very proud beeing one of 2 basketball players with blue belt…I belive Shaq is the only other one with blue belt.. Its kinda fun! There are great benefits for body and mind. For example BJJ is great for improving flexibility and fat burning, cardio…”
The post Euroleague & NBA Star Igor Rakocevic Promoted To Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu appeared first on Bjj Eastern Europe.