The NBA only has one Swedish player active in the league at the moment, and Jonas Jerebko is only the 2nd Swedish-born player to ever take an NBA court (following Miles Simon, who played five games for the Orlando Magic in 1999). While basketball may be growing in the country, Sweden is a nation fueled by hockey. Even the NBA’s only Swedish player is a huge hockey fan.
Jerebko is such a big hockey fan, in fact, that he is going to be paying tribute to Peter Forsberg on the court next year. Following his signing with the Golden State Warriors, Jerebko announced through Sweden’s Sport Bladet that he would be wearing Forsberg’s #21.
Jerebko elaborated, explaining that he's always wanted to use #21 in tribute to "his idol", but that it's always been either taken or retired. Pretty cool gesture from one Swedish athlete to another.
Forsberg is one of Sweden’s most loved athletes, but it’s funny to see that he was so impactful that he’s crossing over into professional basketball.
Jerebko can only hope that he’ll be as big of an impact as Forsberg, although he’s got a virtually impossible amount of ground to make up in the Swedish athlete power rankings.
(H/T Sport Bladet)
