Maryland legend Greivis Vazquez is working with Monumental Sports Network doing color commentary on select Spanish broadcasts of Wizards games, and his first will see him on the call for Wizards-Heat in Mexico City Sunday night – a definite high point for him after the last seven years of turmoil following what was deemed a career-ending ankle injury while with the Nets in 2016-17.
Since then, he’s gone through every stage of coming to terms with that injury, as well as a divorce, a pandemic, and unrest in his home country – but he’s always going to be proud of where it started.
“I’m proud of (being a Maryland legend); I can never thank the school and people around Maryland enough for the way they supported me,” Vazquez told the Junkies when he joined them in studio Friday. “Imagine a kid coming from Caracas all the way here to the DMV and you're playing in high school with Kevin Durant, and all of a sudden I go to Maryland, didn't take any other visits, and one day I was doing my homework in the living room and I'm watching Coach Williams just yelling at his assistant coaches like, ‘I wanna play for that dude.’”
Vazquez explained to the Junks how he got from Venezuela to the DMV and on to UMD, and what that meant to him coming from a third-world country, so struggle is nothing new to him.
And when he goes with the Nets to Mexico, hopefully his presence will be a positive message to the youth there, just like he tries to be for his home country.
“I made my biggest dream come true, which is playing in the NBA., and sending s powerful message to the youth in my country is what I do,” Vazquez said. “I love to incubate and help my culture, especially the youth, to present a platform that they can actually go through like I did, you know? That’s the reason I'm here, and you will always wanna go back to your community and help, and I’ll always be thankful.”
Vazquez’s visit was very powerful – you can listen to it all above, and listen to him on the Spanish alt-cast of Sunday night’s game in Mexico City!