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Wizards host Polish Heritage Night in style

Dignitaries, celebrities, and Polish fans in D.C. had a chance to see Marcin Gortat and the Washington Wizards beat the Sacramento Kings on Saturday, March 14 at Verizon Center.

By Albert Lee
Rob Carr/Getty Images

The Wizards hosted Polish Heritage Night on Saturday, where Marcin Gortat scored 13 points in a 113-97 win over the Sacramento Kings. But there were also other notable events surrounding that day.

Polish dignitaries and soldiers were in attendance

On a night like this, I fully expected that Ryszard Shneff, the Polish Ambassador to the United States would be there. But seeing Polish soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan was a pleasant surprise. The soldiers certainly deserved their standing ovation.

Actress Izabella Miko was there

Okay, you probably knew that Miko was going to be there from the Kings GameThread. But she also did a live interview with Comcast SportsNet's Chris Miller.

I'll admit that the Vine I put out wasn't the best clip of her interview with Miller. But overall, she was proud to be Polish and to support Gortat, who is more popular there than he is here in D.C.

And by the way, if you don't know what role Miko played in the movie Coyote Ugly, she played Cammie, one of the Coyotes who catches the main character's (Piper Perabo played the lead character) eye. Here's a video clip (Rated PG-13ish so you know).

Cheerleaders Gdynia performed before, during, AND after the game!

This is a popular cheerleading group which actually performed at a couple Phoenix Suns games in the past. On Saturday, Cheerleaders Gdynia performed before the game (embed is above from Monumental Network or click here) and during timeouts:

They also took a picture with the Wizard Girls backstage,

AND they even had an encore performance for Polish fans who got to meet Gortat after the big win!

To learn more about Cheerleaders Gdynia, check out this feature from Truth About It's Bartosz Bielecki. This feature also includes an interview with Aleksandra Wójcik, who was an Olympian during the 2004 Athens Games and is a member of Cheerleaders Gdniya.

Gortat had a huge audience for his postgame Q&A with Polish fans

After the game, Gortat answered questions to a group of several hundred Polish fans. This was his toughest one:

Gortat signed autographs and took pictures with the fans -- along with Izabelle Miko based on what I saw in this tweet.

Finally, this is the best group photo ever!

All-in-all, Polish Heritage Night was a huge success, since fans saw the Wizards win and see Gortat contribute in a positive way as well.

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