By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Aleksa Avramović had another summer to remember with the Serbian national team, winning the bronze medal and the Defensive Player of the Tournament honors at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
After three years with Partizan and two medals with Serbia, as he was also a 2023 FIBA World Cup silver medalist, the 29-year-old guard signed with CSKA Moscow to play in the VTB League.
He joined his new teammates in the Russian capital, and the club’s President, Andrey Vatutin, spoke about his acquisition and the reported NBA interest.
“When there is even a theoretical possibility, you can’t avoid concerns. Who knows, if Aleksa had gotten more playing time in the last quarter of the game against the USA, Avramović’s signature might now be on an overseas contract. Of course, we had a list of candidates to replace Aleksa, but internally, throughout the entire NBA process, we believed in the best outcome for us. I’m sure the player himself won’t regret his choice,” Vatutin said to Sport-Express.
He discussed the process of signing Avramović in detail.
“I’m grateful to ‘our’ Serbs for their flattering comments about our club, especially Nikola Milutinov, who communicated a lot with Avramović during the pre-Olympic preparations. Regarding negotiations, at a certain point, Aleksa’s agent, Miško Ražnatović, informed us about the possibility of the player moving from Partizan. Settling all the details was quite simple.”
Vatutin confirmed there was an NBA-out clause in the Serbian player’s deal with CSKA.
“The only downside was the NBA option insisted upon by the agent, but we decided to agree to that condition. This was partly because if he moved to America, we would earn money and, consequently, could find a more expensive player as a replacement. Although, of course, we did not want to trade talent for finances,” Vatutin concluded.