Cavs’ Mario Hezonja returns to NBA with something to prove, different outlook

October 26, 2026

Mario Hezonja has unfinished business in the NBA. There was a time, though, when he wasn’t sure he wanted anything to do with basketball.

Now he’s with the Cavs, getting another shot. This time, he says, he understands a few things he didn’t before.

“It’s like a brand new, better version of myself,” Hezonja told Ethan Sands of cleveland.com. “It just sums up the improvement and the progress of everything that I’ve been through.”

That includes nearly walking away after his stint with Portland ended in 2020. A birthday call from Greek club Panathinaikos helped bring him back.

“All that passion and all the love came back,” he said.

Stops with UNICS Kazan and Real Madrid followed, along with Spanish Liga MVP honors in 2026. Hezonja learned how to lead an offense, accept a smaller role and stop expecting everything to happen immediately.

Being the fifth overall pick can make that last part difficult.

“You kind of want to eat the whole world,” he said. “You want to be this version of a player that you have in your head, but sometimes it doesn’t go the route that you imagine that it’s gonna go.”

The Cavs stayed interested for more than a year and a half before signing Hezonja to a one-year, $2.8 million deal in July.

For Cleveland, it’s a relatively inexpensive addition. For Hezonja, it means considerably more.

“I didn’t do what I wanted to do the first time,” he said.

Well, here’s another chance.