Dragan Bender

Dragan Bender (born 17 November 1997) is a Croatian professional basketball player who last played for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He stands 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) and plays the power forward and center positions. He was selected by the Suns with the fourth overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft. Bender represents the Croatian national team, with experience in the FIBA Europe junior tournaments. Before playing in Israel, he competed with multiple teams in Croatia and in Nikola Vujčić\'s academy.\n', ' Bender was born on 17 November 1997, in Čapljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a city on the Croatian border, and he later moved to Split, Croatia. At 12 years of age, he started playing at Nikola Vujčić\'s basketball academy as a point guard. Vujčić was a former Maccabi Tel Aviv star and became Bender\'s guardian. At the academy, Bender became a more versatile player and he "learned how to play all the positions on the court." Bender played there along with his older brother, Ivan, with Bender also playing against guys that were Ivan\'s age when he first started playing. Bender also played with the KK Split youth teams at this time, and he appeared for the Croatian under-16 national basketball team. He idolized and modeled his game after Toni Kukoč, a former Croatian NBA player, while growing up and watched his old game tape. He mostly watched EuroLeague games but would sometimes tune into the NBA as well. One of his favorite EuroLeague players was Šarūnas Jasikevičius.\n', ' Bender made his professional debut at 15 years of age with KK Split. He played only a total of six minutes and added two points and one rebound. For the following season, Bender remained in Croatia and signed with KK Kaštela, who played in the country\'s second-best league. With his help, the team was promoted to the A-1 Liga, the top league in Croatia. Most notably, he made a game-winning shot with three seconds remaining against KK Gorica to help his team secure the promotion. Later, in February 2014, Bender joined the KK Cedevita junior team for the Euroleague Basketball Next Generation Tournament. He put up 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists vs the junior team of the Serbian club KK Mega Basket.\n', '