In this YouTube segment of the Draymond Green Show, Draymond Green delivers an emotional tribute to the late Warriors assistant coach Dejan "Deki" Milojevic, reflecting on his character, coaching style, and profound impact on the team. Green describes Deki as perpetually positive, smart, and energetic, noting his direct communication and lack of sugar‑coating, which earned the respect of players despite occasional language barriers. He recounts daily locker‑room life, the intense nine‑month NBA season, and how Deki’s consistent presence provided both highs and lows for teammates. Green shares a specific anecdote about playing dominoes with Klay Thompson in Utah, illustrating Deki’s steady demeanor even on difficult days. He explains how the recent cancellation of two games gave the team space to grieve, and how the basketball court, usually a refuge, felt empty without Deki. Green highlights Deki’s storied European career—three consecutive MVPs, EuroLeague stints with Partizan, and coaching Mega—emphasizing the humility with which he approached his NBA role. The segment also describes a massive tribute in Belgrade, with flares, a moment of silence, and a massive poster, underscoring Deki’s global impact. Interspersed is a DraftKings promotional break, which is unrelated to the tribute. Green concludes by sending love to Deki’s family, acknowledging the lasting pain of losing a legend, and offering prayers.
Chapters
Something I've been dreading since, I mean, not dreading have to speak of, but really just living in. The passing of our assistant coach, Dejan Milojevic, Deke, as he's known to most. Man, just honestly not many words. You know, just send love to Decky's family, his friends, players like myself that had the opportunity to play for him, all those that were touched and affected by him. There's not a way you didn't have a positive experience if you were, if you had any contact or connection or spent time with or played with or coached by, it's no chance you didn't have a positive experience. If your life had been touched or graced with the presence of Dechi. Always smiling, always had the same energy, like no matter what, just always had that, like just a good vibe and presence. And, you know, when you spend your life Like as an athlete, as a professional athlete in the NBA, like you spend so much time together, whether that's on the planes, games, practices, road trips, like you name it, you spend so much time with the people in that locker room. And because you spend so much time with those very people, you see the good, the bad, and the ugly, like of everybody. Like, because you're going to, like, we all have bad days. And so you're going to see the greatest days. Like, you're going to see the highest of highs. You're going to see the lowest lows throughout the course of 9 months. Like, if you imagine 9 months of your life, —like, and what goes on in your life over the course of 9 months. Like, that's the amount of time we spend together each year. Like, a lot of time within those 9 months. And so if you imagine the things that you see, like, you see the best and you see the worst when doing this job. And Klay said one of the most interesting things to me. We just sat down, we played dominoes on Wednesday in Utah. We were supposed to leave, we got stuck there. Miserable. It was like everything was just on a loop, you know? Like then you come down the next day, you see everybody in the same clothes as the day before at the hospital. And it's just like, you live in this nightmare and can't escape anything. It was miserable. But Klay said to me, he said, man, When have you ever walked into the facility and been like, man, what's Decky on today? Like, because we all have our days, right? Like, I'm sure there's some days Klay walk in and be like, Draymond on some bullshit today. And like, it's some days we all walk in and be like, man, what is coach on today? Like everybody, 'cause you see the best and the worst from everybody. Like that's just the life we live. I don't know what the worst of Decky was. Like, he was always the exact same.
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Always smart, super smart, smart as hell. Joyful, just bringing the best, like great energy. Stay out the way, but like you feel his presence. And he walk up to you, he shake your hand, hug you, smile. What's up, brother? Laugh. [LAUGHTER] And like, that's what you got from Decky. And you couple all of that with the most brilliant basketball mind. Just a special presence. And like, all that's great, right? But like, We lost such a great, incredible person. Great man. And being that close to someone, it hurts. Like, here we are Monday night. We haven't played a game since last Monday. And our first practice was today. And it's crazy how it all worked out. Like the two games were canceled and like, I'm thankful to the league for canceling those because I'm not sure how emotionally you could step out there on the basketball court. But yet there's another side where it's like, sometimes the basketball court is our safe haven. Like it is our escape. It is your way of losing yourself in the game. And so it's just been a weird space to be in. In the same token, in that same breath, on Thursday when we finally made it back, I went to the gym to get shots up. And like in a 40-minute workout, I stopped and started talking to Jacob and Lane like 6, 7 times, just talking about Dechi. And so then I realized right there, like, dang, this court is not ours. Offering the escape that it normally does, how most of us use it in times of need where you like, you hurt, you down. This court not really offering that escape. And I realize like every time I'm on the court, I'm stopping and saying something like, "Oh yo, Deccy." And it's just, it's tough. I saw one of the most incredible things today when we started our film. Deki, again, for those of you that don't know, Deki is a legend in European basketball, FIBA basketball. Played with Partizan in Serbia, big club, EuroLeague, legend, 3 MVPs in a row, legend. He comes over here and act like he's no one. Like, "Eh, I'm just here up, I'm here to coach." Like, no. Legend. I'm just here to coach. Do his thing, stay out, like act like he's none of that. So today we had the opportunity, but right before we started film or golden hour, what we call, ironically, Ducky's team club that he played for, Partizan in Belgrade, Serbia, Was playing against the team that he coached, Mega. Nikola Jokic, Timothy Luwawu-Kabirò, the list goes on and on. That's where he coached most of those guys, with Mega. And ironically, they're playing today, or they played earlier today, but we got to watch the tribute at the beginning of the game. And it was so powerful. It was incredible.
Draymond Green!
Draymond Green! Draymond Green! Draymond Green! We ride, we ride. The love that he had, the tears that would drop, the emotion, the chants, the amount of time they clapped, the amount of time they allowed the memorial to be. Then a moment of silence, then they cheered again. Alfred Deke, they had a huge poster of him. They start lighting their flares. It's incredible to watch because when it's all said and done, you can only hope that you had that impact on someone. There's 20,000 people in those stands. It's incredible to watch, but it hurts.
Yeah.
And so, he was a fun guy to play for. He's a straight shooter. You know, there was a little bit of a language barrier, so you getting it straight. Like, you know, sometimes people sugarcoat it or try to find a nice way to say it. Like, you getting it straight from Ducky. —like whatever he means, he's saying it. No, not pacifying anything. In the NBA, people are very careful on what, like, the things that they say—players, not Decky—say to players. Not Decky. He going straight to it. And don't understand why you won't say it. 'Cause he going to. And we lost a special, special person and it hurts. You know, I feel for Steve, like coaching staff, like every day you gotta walk in there and you gotta see that seat, like you know where he sits.— like I feel for them. Like Kevon Looney, all of a sudden you going on the court and you're working out with someone else, like Dario, Trace, like I feel for them.
Mm-hmm.
'Cause you'll be reminded of it every day. You know, like, we've lost people, friends, family that you don't necessarily interact with every day. And so there's an escape from it. But like, this is every day. His family gonna have to live that every day. And like, when legends go, the family don't necessarily ever get to live it down. Because the world never really let it go down, never really let it die down. And so I send my love to his family, everybody's lives he's touched. I know how special it was. To all his family and friends back in Serbia, fans, We all took a hit, big hit. It hurts. It hurts a lot. But I ultimately just praying and sending my love to his family. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
