The 76er nicknamed "The Homie" might actually reminds some Philadelphians of some of their friends from the neighborhood.
Dario Saric is from the historic city of Sibenik, Croatia, which has a population of around 46,000. Yet the reserve power forward has been the right match for the City of Brotherly Love.
"They respect him," coach Brett Brown said of the fans. "How can you not? He's so blue-collar. And I think the plays that he makes, the effort-based plays, the physical (ones), just count for everything."
Saric made several of those plays Wednesday in the fourth quarter of a 94-89 victory over the Toronto Raptors at the Wells Fargo Center. That's when the 6-foot-10, 248-pounder scored five of his eight points. He also grabbed three of his nine rebounds and blocked two shots while playing 8 minutes, 24 seconds of the final quarter.
His highlight came when he blocked Jared Sullinger's dunk attempt with 7:55 left. That came five seconds after it appeared that Saric blocked Norman Powell's dunk attempt. However, he didn't get credit for that one.
"Sometimes you have great opportunities to give a team its energy," Saric said. "(Wednesday) I did that well, and I wanted to be in the game."
His season is being overshadowed by fellow Sixers rookie Joel Embiid, who leads all rookies in scoring (19.9 points per game), rebounds (7.8), and blocked shots (2.4).
Saric, however, ranks second in scoring (9.7) and rebounds (5.9).
"If Joel Embiid weren't in the league, you'd have to talk about him in consideration for rookie of the year," Brown said. "Like we should really look at what he's doing as a rookie."
The 22-year-old should be selected to participate in the NBA All-Star Rising Stars Challenge game on Feb. 17 in New Orleans. The event pits the top foreign rookie and sophomore players against their American counterparts.
For the time being, Saric is recognized as do-everything reserve. He backs up Ersan Ilyasova at power forward and also sees time at small forward.
Even though he would prefer to start, the team player has not complained about his role. Saric just wants to give his best no matter where he plays in the lineup.
But his donning a Sixers uniform this season was initially a shocker to some.
Saric was drafted by the Orlando Magic with the 12th pick in 2014 and immediately was traded to the Sixers. However, he signed a three-year contract with Anadolu Efes of the Turkish Basketball League in the week leading up to the NBA draft. He opted out of that contract and joined the Sixers this summer with another year left on the deal.
It would have made more sense financially for him to stay in Turkey for the last season. That's because Saric is tied to his rookie-scale deal. But he would have been able to negotiate a restricted free-agent deal for a much richer salary with the Sixers had he waited until the summer of 2017.
But he said that honoring a promise to Brown about coming over after two seasons was more important than a lucrative contract.
"They said he was never coming back," Embiid said. "But now he's here and he is making big plays for us."
