de COLO Nando

General
CAREER
He was selected in the second round, 53rd overall, by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2009 NBA Draft. He made his first appearance for the Spurs in November 2012, having played for Spanish side Valencia between 2009 and 2012. He was traded to the Toronto Raptors in February 2014, and then relocated to the Russian Federation to join the CSKA Moscow club ahead of the 2014/15 season. In 2019 he joined Fenerbahce Istanbul. (fenerbahce.org, 21 Mar 2021; basketball-reference.com, 01 Jan 2020; news4sanantonio.com, 31 Oct 2017)

STAYING IN EUROPE
He began playing in Turkey with Fenerbahce after leaving Russian side CSKA Moscow in 2019. Although he had played in the NBA earlier in his career, he knew that returning to the United States of America was not really an option, and that he was committed to playing in Europe. "The NBA has never been an obsession for me. I immediately realised how it works. If my return to Europe [in 2014] hadn't worked out, I might have seen things differently. But now I enjoy playing and competing for trophies, which was the case with CSKA. I would rather stay in Europe to experience such moments instead of returning to the NBA without knowing what might happen. Besides, I will continue to live my life in Europe after sport. I do not have the American mentality. If things had gone differently in the NBA, maybe I would have acquired it. But it is complicated to have a successful career in both Europe and the United States of America. Only a few players have done that." (lavoixdunord.fr, 06 Jul 2019)

BASKETBALL CAMP
He runs NDC Basketball, a project that organises basketball camps in northern France. "When I was younger I also had the chance to take part in some basketball camps, and it became a wish to share all my experiences with [young players]." (ndcbasketball.fr, 01 Jan 2020)