In a recent appearance on “The Wrestling Classic Casual Conversations” podcast, Karmen Petrovic disclosed the origin of her ring name, revealing its connection to the NBA.

The WWE NXT Superstar stated that her surname is derived from NBA alumnus Drazen Petrovic.

Karmen said, “I came up with Karmen, I really liked the name Karmen. But I didn’t want it to be Carmen with a C, I wanted it to be Karmen with a K because Monika is spelled with a K and I wanted my parents to be able to pronounce it. I really liked Karmen with a K. I had a few other names, but Karmen felt like the most me. The writing team loved it a lot as well. They give us full creative freedom and then they pick and choose what they think is right or what they want to run with.”

She continued, “I originally didn’t know if they would allow me to have an ethnic last name. I am a white girl with blonde hair. I understood coming into WWE how the fanbase works in that it needs to be digestible and understandable. People need to be able to say it. Some people have one name. I suggested just being Karmen and I didn’t need a last name, but I said, ‘If I do have a last name, I would love to keep my roots.’ I wanted to keep my Eastern European background because I know I’m one of the only people in WWE that is Eastern European. I also want to represent Canada, which I do as much as I can, because I am billed from Toronto, people don’t know I have an Eastern European background. I wanted to keep it in my last name. Petrovic, I came up with because there was a popular and legendary basketball player, Dražen Petrović, who was a national hero in Yugoslavia and someone who everyone had good things to say. It was something I thought American fans have heard of and announcers have said before. I wanted to try to follow his footing.”

Drazen Petrovic was part of the Portland Trailblazers and the New Jersey Nets during his career in the NBA. He passed away in 1993 at the age of 28 in a car accident in Germany.