By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Tomislav Mijatovic has been with Anadolu Efes since 2010 and assumed the role of head coach this season. During over a decade with the Istanbul club, he collaborated with various coaches and players, including Charlotte Hornets point guard Vasilije Micic.
Together, they achieved numerous accolades with Anadolu Efes, including back-to-back EuroLeague titles, where the Serbian point guard earned Finals MVP honors on both occasions.
“One and only, Vasa! That kind of dedication, commitment to basketball, fanatical approach, and self-criticism have brought him to these heights. He sent me a video a few days ago, where the two of us were after one training session. One of many where he repeated, it seems, 550,000 shots, crossovers… How young we were. Vasa is simply a complete basketball package. Everything he has achieved, he has done by the old rules. Talent until the age of 18, hard work, fanaticism, struggle, improvement… The perfection of a basketball player. He has indebted all of us who were with him. We lived house to house and socialized even outside of basketball. Nothing was handed to him on a silver platter. He deserved everything,” Mijatovic said in an interview with Meridian Sport.
Mijatovic does not doubt that despite a rough start, Micic will thrive in the NBA.
“There is not a gram, not a grain of doubt in me that he won’t do the same in the NBA. If he has set that goal, he will be a top playmaker. There is no team where I wouldn’t want to have Vasa, even if it were the Lakers, Efes…”
Micic didn’t have many chances with the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first part of the season but has excelled since joining the Hornets.
Charlotte head coach Steve Clifford praised the Serbian player after his team won five out of six games played since the arrival of the former Anadolu Efes star. Wearing the Hornets jersey, Micic is averaging 9.7 points and six assists per game.