Polish President Andrzej Duda delivers “Good Luck” message to the Wizards before Polish Heritage Night game

Andrzej Duda, the President of Poland delivered a video message on his official Wizards message on Saturday to say “Good Luck” to Marcin Gortat and the Washington Wizards before their match against the Brooklyn Nets.

You can watch President Duda’s message above. He only speaks in Polish except for his “Good Luck” blessing at the very end, but there are English subtitles as well. In his message, he highlights the long relationship the United States shared with Poland. In 1918, Poland declared independence as a sovereign state after World War I. The United States played a significant role helping them do just that. President Duda also mentioned that several Polish troops will be recognized tonight, like past Wizards Polish Heritage Nights.

Poland’s relationship with the United States goes back longer than 100 years. Tadeusz Kościuszko was a Polish military leader during the American Revolutionary War who planned the Battle of Saratoga and designing fortresses around West Point, New York. After the United States was recognized as an independent country, he returned to Poland and became a commander of their armed forces.

Duda will not be at the game himself. But I’d imagine that he’ll watch late at night at 1 a.m. Central European Time like many of our Polish and most of our readers from the European Union.

And finally, Gortat had a message himself for the fans here in the D.C. area:

We have a lot of content on Polish Heritage Night from this whole week. Click here to read our StoryStream.