By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Nikola Mirotic opened up about his international career with Spain, specifying his relationship with the country.
“I never felt like a Spanish guy,” the 33-year-old power forward of EA7 Emporio Armani Milan in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague mentioned in an interview with SKWEEK, “I am a Montenegrin and Serbian orthodox guy even though I played with Spain. But I did feel Spain as my second home. Because Spain was very good. Spain gave me that opportunity. I am always going to be thankful to Spain.”
Following medals and individual accolades at the junior level through the 2010 and 2011 U20 European Championships, he captured gold in the 2015 EuroBasket and bronze in the 2016 Olympic Games. He has since downplayed potential options of suiting up once more with La Familia.
Nikola Mirotic also touched on his beginnings with the first team of Real Madrid.
“Ettore Messina was in Real Madrid. He was the one who gave me the chance to succeed, to play with the first team. We had an amazing team, especially in my position. Jorge Garbajosa was coming from the NBA, we had Novica Veličković, who was the best power forward in the EuroLeague at the time, coming from Partizan. We had Felipe Reyes, we had Ante Tomić—we had incredible big guys. And then there was me, Nikola Mirotić, one small, tiny kid coming there just to practice with them.”
He emphasized that Pablo Prigioni was of great help to him.
“I had to earn my opportunity, and somehow it happened. After a few months, in December, I got my chance, and I played well. I’m always going to be thankful to Pablo Prigioni. He said to me before one game, ‘Listen, if I pass you the ball, you have to shoot. If you don’t, I’m never going to pass to you again.’ So I was like, ‘Okay.’ That game, my first game, he started feeding me the ball, and thank God I was making my shots.”