Mirza Teletovic's debt to Drazen Petrovic ... and Jason Kidd

If Drazen Petrovic was still alive, he would be 49 years old --and probably still capable of hitting a three in an NBA game. Like Mirza Teletovic, Petrovic's rookie season was a bust. So was his second year. The Trail Blazers coaches didn't think he could play at the NBA level and so Portland sent him to New Jersey.

Teletovic knows the feeling. Neither Avery Johnson nor P.J. Carlesimo thought he could play either. Those days are over. The King of Bosnia has become a critical player for the Nets this playoff season. He still finds Petrovic an inspiration, passing his portrait each time he enters the locker room.

"I say hi to him every time. I look at it every time,"  Teletovic told Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today.

Teletovic is a pure shooter like Petrovic and his talents are being noticed, by none other than LeBron James, who you may recall had a frank and candid exchange with Teletovic.

"He can just flat-out shoot the ball," James told Zillgitt. "There's only a few guys in our league who can do that, and we have a guy like that on our team in James Jones who just comes in and if he touches the ball and lets it go, you believe it's going in.

So, James and Erik Spoelstra think it's time the Heat figure him out.Teletovic will have none of that. He knows what Kidd wants him to do, unlike his previous coaches.

"The guys expect me to do my job, and my job is to spread the court and knock down those threes when they get double-teamed," Teletovic said.

• Basketball was refuge for Nets' Mirza Teletovic - Jeff Zillgitt - USA Today