Brooklyn Nets rookie Egor Demin says he insisted on having his surname spelled with the letter «ё» on his NBA jersey to ensure it was written correctly and to honor his roots.
Speaking to Championat, the 19-year-old guard said he wanted the detail from the very beginning. In early July, the team released a video showing Demin holding his No. 8 jersey with his name in Latin letters — but still featuring the Russian «ё.»
«The letter ‘ё’ was in my mind from the start. I think it could be an important and vivid representation of my country and our uniqueness,» Demin said.
The player added that the choice was also a tribute to his grandfather, who had long fought to keep the letter in the family name — even adding two dots over the «e» in official documents himself.
Demin, considered one of Russia’s most promising basketball talents, joined the Nets this summer and will make his NBA debut in the 2025–26 season.
Kursiv Uzbekistan highlights that In Russian, the two dots over Ё are not decoration — they change both the sound and sometimes the meaning of a word, making Demin’s choice a small but powerful act of linguistic precision.
