DownToBuck presents himself as the ultimate collection of NBA knowledge, a veritable walking encyclopedia on all matters of the league. His expertise and wisdom are unimpeachable. His reputation of devotion to factual accuracy is widely-known and widely-respected.
So it may come as a disappointment to some of you out there, but I totally thought Bruno Fernando was Brazilian in origin. It seemed to clear to me that I never bothered to check if I was right. The first time I ever saw his name in a box-score, I was like, “Yep, totally 100% Brazilian” and that assumption, over time, became factual to me.
But Fernando is not from Brazil. He doesn’t even have Brazilian parents as far as I can tell. Nor is he from one of the countries that surrounds Brazil. He’s actually from Angola, which is in, I am told, an entirely different continent from Brazil. But can I really be blamed? Fernando is the first NBA’er from Angola, so the country wasn’t on my radar screen in terms of generating NBA-level talent. Also, Fernando shares a first name with Bruno Caboclo, who is actually Brazilian. That was probably the original source of my confusion.
Luckily I didn’t write this whole description talking about how Brazilian people have a new Nene to direct their nationalistic fervor towards. That privilege belongs to the people of Angola.