SAN FRANCISCO – The tears have dried among the warriors, but the images are indelible and haunting. Death is rarely welcome, but it is absolutely terrifying to see it suddenly steal away a young man so energetic and popular.
The organization spent last Tuesday evening praying and pleading in vain for a miracle that could save Dejan Milojević.
The esteemed assistant coach died of cardiac arrest Wednesday at the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City. “Deki,” as everyone called him, was 46.
Five days passed with no activity from the Warriors. The NBA recognized the trauma inflicted on the team and postponed Golden State's next two games. There were no practices and no desire.
It wasn't until Monday morning that coach Steve Kerr tried to restore a sense of normalcy, and even then there was Deki. Before he took the court, the team watched a video of thousands of fans gathering to celebrate his life before a basketball game in Serbia, his native country, where he had been a star player.
“We got a better sense of what Deki meant to his countrymen,” Kerr said. “And of course how much he meant to us and (wife and children) Natasa, Masa and Nikola. It was just a devastating week.”
The Warriors needed an hour after the video to “process the emotions of what we saw,” Kerr said. Only then did it feel appropriate to start practicing.
Six days after Milojević lost consciousness and five days after he was declared dead, they remain in deep mourning. How can that not be?
“It’s pretty horrific to witness,” Kerr said.
Just 12 hours earlier, much of the team's traveling party was enjoying dinner when Deki suddenly found himself in distress. There was no defibrillator in either the restaurant or the shop next door. Life-saving measures could not bring him back.
“Everyone on our team and everyone in our organization is traumatized,” Kerr said. “It is part of life to experience loss. Everyone will experience loss at some point in their life. But it doesn't often happen before your eyes. And that doesn't happen often to someone with children. And it's not often that it's someone who is so popular around the world.
“Everything that has happened in the last five days has been simply shocking. Just incredibly emotional, powerful and most of all heartbreaking.”
Milojević was named Golden State's big men coach, so no one on the roster spent more time with him than Kevon Looney. From Deki's hiring in the summer of 2021 until last week, the two paused training for individual drills. Before games, they could be seen sitting next to each other on the bench and studying videos.
Although Looney wasn't at the dinner to see his trainer die, the last six days have been particularly difficult.
“The first few days it was more of a shock than anything,” Looney said. “You hear there was an emergency and you don’t know what’s going on. Then (Deki's death) was more of a shock. And then it comes with great pain.
“The last few days have been a bit strange, just reminiscing and trying to surround yourself with love and family. I tried that.”
Loon and Deki are usually the first warriors seen when the doors to the practice area at Chase Center open. They always – always – trained at the basket, which was a few meters from the entrance. However, on Monday there was no Loon without Deki.
For his post-training session, he chose a basket at the opposite end of the floor. Grief sent him to another place.
“It’s weird not having him here,” Looney said. “But it's also just nice to have the people you go to war with every day and who support you. We are always together. It's not like we're alone. That makes it a little easier.
“It is something we need to continue to deal with, something that is still fresh. But if we stay together, we can heal.”
Healing will take a while, and the warriors know that. The organization has offered counseling to its employees, most of whom have had at least a passing relationship with Deki. For the players, he was like a funny and open-hearted favorite uncle. To the coaches he was like a funny and smart brother.
Or, as Deki would say, braté. Which means “brother” in his native language.
Players and coaches wore black T-shirts Monday with “BRATE” printed on the chest. Directly above and to the left was a heart drawn around Milojević's initials: “DM.” His nickname was written on the back.
“Some of the guys came up with the idea for the T-shirt,” Kerr said. “He called everyone Braté. Brother. He called all of his coaching colleagues Braté. And we wanted the heart because he was so full of love and joy for all of us. And vice versa. And then his nickname on the back.
“We’re sending these jerseys out to the entire league so that all the people who knew and loved him have these jerseys too.”
There will come a time when all the things that seemed so important to the Warriors and their fans just a week ago will matter. The silly turnovers, the lousy defense, the strange rotations, the eternal formations will irritate the team again and activate the fiercest keyboard gangsters within the fan base.
We'll get our first look at the post-Deki Warriors on Wednesday night when they take the floor at Chase against the Atlanta Hawks. We'll get a sense of their general state of mind.
What is clear is that Deki is still with this team. His spirit, his humor and his presence exist within them. The effects of grief are real, but they know what he would want.
Kerr said, “I could literally imagine Deki smiling and laughing and saying you have to win the basketball game.”
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