'Novak Djokovic risked his health for Croatia' - Basketball star defends Adria Tour

Croatia's basketball star Dino Radja has defended Novak Djokovic's decision to conduct the Adria Tour in the Balkans. Radja feels that the World No. 1 risked his health just to entertain the locals of Croatia, and so should be cut some slack.

The 2018 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee admitted that there were mistakes during the organization of the tourney. However, in his view, Grigor Dimitrov was responsible for the spread of the infection.

Dino Radja wrote a special Facebook post to voice his support for Novak Djokovic's Adria Tour. He reminded everyone that the 2020 Australian Open winner had sacrificed a lot for the sake of the fans, and that he doesn't deserve all the criticism coming his way.

It is worth noting that the former Boston Celtics star hails from Split - the same city where a distasteful piece of graffiti had cropped up on a wall, wishing that Novak Djokovic dies from coronavirus.

“Da umreš od nje to nam je želja, pozdrav iz Splita da Bog da krepa. Đokoviću, umri”, gnusan je grafit koji je osvanuo na jednoj kući u središtu Splita pic.twitter.com/NWqlTxyiPE

— Акакије Акакијевич (@basxmacxkin) June 25, 2020

Novak Djokovic did everything to help Croats: Dino Radja

Dino Radja opined that Novak Djokovic's intentions were not wrong

Dino Radja addressed the situation surrounding Novak Djokovic's Adria Tour and said:

"It's an incredible amount of criticism towards Novak these days. A competition to see who can do it more. The man did everything to help us Croats to promote ourselves and try to save at least part of the season."

Radja believes that the ones criticizing Novak Djokovic for his unique idea were wrong because the 2016 French Open winner is not solely responsible for the tourney's failure.

"Were there any mistakes, of course there were. But first of all, Dimitrov and the organization, and only then the other participants (should be blamed)," he continued.

Novak Djokovic and Grigor Dimitrov

The legendary Croatian basketball star defended Novak Djokovic even further by pointing out that by allowing fans at the venues, he had risked his own health.

"Everything is full of people and no one wears a mask or keeps a distance... the man risked his health to do something to us."

It is unknown whether Novak Djokovic or Grigor Dimitrov was the primary carrier of the virus at the Adria Tour. Dominic Thiem's manager recently opined that the 17-time Grand Slam champion was at fault, but on the other hand, Novak Djokovic's father slammed the Bulgarian player and said that he had damaged the Djokovic family's image.