Former Portland Trail Blazers player Mario Hezonja has announced his desire to return to the NBA from the EuroLeague. Past connections to Scott Perry immediately got the rumor mill rolling about the Sacramento Kings being his landing spot. Hopefully, that's not the case because he's a bad fit.
Mario Hezonja is reportedly leaving Real Madrid and aiming to return to the NBA, per @Eurohoopsnet pic.twitter.com/SDrCbNDt43
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) July 21, 2026
Born in Dubrovnik, Croatia, Hezjona started his professional basketball career in 2012 with FC Barcelona. He made the leap to the NBA in 2015, playing five seasons with the Magic, Knicks, and Blazers. After 2020, Hezonja headed back to Europe, where he's played since.
The combo forward is a great floor-spacer with elite shooting from deep and great shot creation. His defense is competent, but still needs work. Given that he's been a professional player for 14 years, his defense is probably as good as it is going to get at this point.
Hezonja recently declared that he is ready to return to the NBA after being named the Spanish League MVP for 2025-2026. He has exercised the opt-out clause in his contract and is now looking into potential landing spots in the league. As usual, the rumor mill put the Kings on that list.
Kings and Hezonja needs to not happen in the biggest way
At the core of rumors of Hezonja heading to Sacramento is Scott Perry. He was part of the Magic front office that brought Hezonja to Orlando. Perry was also the general manager of the Knicks when Hezjona made his way to New York. It's not hard to see why people think history might repeat itself.
"I poked around about this, and from what I can gather, the Sacramento Kings don't necessarily have Mario Hezonja on their radar at this point."@MattGeorgeSAC shares his intel on the Mario Hezonja-Kings rumors ⬇️https://t.co/X2dd3w88v2 pic.twitter.com/oW2mZGEOIO
— Sactown Sports 1140 (@Sactown1140) July 22, 2026
Keeping that in mind, most recent reports suggest that the Kings have shown little to no interest in Hezonja, which makes sense. They're looking for younger players with a defensive focus. Hezonja is on the wrong side of 30 and is not exactly known for being a dominant defender.
Sure, the Kings have space on their roster to work with, but they have three solid players on two-way contracts. Any one of them should be getting a bump up to the main roster over adding Hezonja. Jonathan Mogbo is definitely on the front office's radar after a strong Summer League performance.
While Hezonja definitely wants to return to the NBA, any interesting from the Kings is a rumor at absolute best. Anything can happen in the league, but this feels incredibly unlikely. He's just not the right fit for what the Kings are trying to put together as part of this rebuild process.
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