The career of Anadolu Efes Istanbul guard Vasilije Micic will come full circle at the Final Four. The 2021 EuroLeague MVP and defending EuroLeague champion returns to play the Final Four in his hometown, Belgrade. It was there that he began his professional career more than a decade ago as a 16-year-old with Mega Basket and he now returns as a EuroLeague superstar.
Star turn: Vasilije Micic, Anadolu Efes Istanbul
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Micic was one of the most talented young point guards on the continent before an ACL injury sidelined him for almost a year and sidetracked his career. Nevertheless, he made his EuroLeague debut at age 20 and played in the competition with FC Bayern Munich and Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade before deciding on an unconventional path to reach his career goals and joining Tofas Bursa, which had just been promoted to the Turkish first division. There, Micic got the minutes he craved and took the one step back that allowed him to turn his career around and make a run at stardom.
A one-year stint with Zalgiris Kaunas, under the tutelage of current FC Barcelona head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius, gave Micic his first Final Four experience. More importantly, it jump-started Micic's career before he fully blossomed in his current surroundings at Efes under head coach Ergin Ataman. In just two years, Micic ended up going from not playing European competition to becoming an All-EuroLeague selection. And he never slowed down.
Micic orchestrated the Efes attack in reaching the 2019 EuroLeague Championship Game before winning it all a year ago. That spring of 2021 is also when Micic's career reached its pinnacle… for now. In Cologne, Germany, last May, he was first chosen as EuroLeague MVP and then led Efes to the club's first EuroLeague crown and was voted Final Four MVP.
Micic's scoring has increased in each of the four seasons since he joined Efes, culminating in him averaging 18.2 points and capturing the Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy for the 2021-22 season. Since joining Efes in the summer of 2018, Micic has averaged 15.5 points, 5.2 assists and 1.2 steals. He is the only EuroLeague player to accumulate more than 2,000 points, 600 assists and 150 steals over that time.
Such production has played a big part in helping Efes reach three consecutive Final Fours. Efes and Micic arrive at Stark Arena to chase history as they try to join the select company of back-to-back EuroLeague champions.