NIKOLA VUJCIC - 101 Greats of European Basketball

lot when I got to Maccabi because it coincided with the
time that many staple names on the club – like coach
Pini Gershon, or players like Parker, Baston and Jasikevicius
– had just left.”
Gone and back to Tel Aviv
Spahija confirms what anyone who experienced a
Maccabi game with Vujcic could see and feel: he is an
idol in Israel. His professionalism, combined with his
great qualities both as a player and as a person, made
him one of the most beloved players by the Maccabi
fans. Vujcic spoke perfect Hebrew, something not many
foreigners who played in Maccabi could do, and that
also generated even more respect.
In May of 2008, when Euroleague Basketball celebrated
50 Years of European Club Competitions at the
Final Four in Madrid, Maccabi played the championship
game once again, but just like two years earlier, CSKA
was better, 91-77. It was Vujcic’s most discreet performance
in a final: 2 points and 5 rebounds.
After winning two EuroLeague titles and losing two
finals, winning five Israeli Leagues and four Israeli Cups,
Vujcic left Israel and joined Olympiacos Piraeus. In his
first season, 2008-09, the Reds reached the Berlin Final
Four and fell to archrival Panathinaikos in the semis by a
single shot. The following season, Olympiacos won the
Greek Cup and reached the Final Four again in Paris, but
this time FC Barcelona won the 2010 title over the Reds
in the season’s last game. Vujcic was not a starter anymore,
he played about 14 minutes, and his averages
went down to 7.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists.
However, at 32 years old, he signed for Efes Pilsen, the
team where he would play his last EuroLeague games
with averages of 6.5 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists.
Despite his playing just 10 full seasons in the new
EuroLeague, Vujcic’s accumulated index rating of
3,047 was the highest career total for many years. His
competition highs are a 46 index rating against Union
Olimpija, 33 points against Roma in 2007, 15 rebounds
against KRKA Novo Mesto and those 11 assists against
Prokom in 2005. Of course, one could not imagine the
EuroLeague All-Decade team without Nikola Vujcic. He
will be remembered also as the best passing big man
of his generation, and perhaps many to come, with 524
lifetime assists. He is the only center in the EuroLeague
this century to average more than 2.5 assists per game.
At 33 years old, Vujcic went back home to Split, but
he didn’t want to stop playing just yet. Officially, he
was the club’s sports director, but the team needed
his points and rebounds, so he helped the youngsters
survive in the Adriatic League with decent numbers: 17
points and 6 rebounds and later 11.9 points and 4.7
rebounds in the 2012-13 season. He was 35 years old.
Seeing that Split wasn’t what it used to be and having
tried his best to change that, Vujcic decided to go back
to where he was loved the most, Tel Aviv, where he is
now the general manager of Maccabi, but also much
more. His authority, experience, character and vision
make Nikola Vujcic a man loved by everyone in Tel Aviv.
101 greats of european basketball
Nikola Vujcic
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