Years pass, and Nikola Vučević remains part of the strongest league, with numbers that do not drop, so our basketball ace will turn the 15th page in the NBA league in a little over twenty days.
Traditionally, a "Media Day" is organized before the new season, and the Chicago Bulls center also socialized with the American media.
He spoke about many topics, and journalists were also interested in his decision to say goodbye to the Montenegro jersey this summer.
"I've been playing officially since 2009, so that's a lot of time. But I've always enjoyed it, it's always been fun - competing with the national team is great, just like representing your country, and everyone at home is cheering for you. So it was a really great experience. I'm glad I was a part of it. And, yes - I'm glad I finished at a high level," said Vučević.
He emphasized that he does not associate saying goodbye to the national team with his club career.
"The biggest influence for me to make such a decision was my family. We have three children, and preparations take a lot of time during the summer - they last more than a month, and then there is the competition. So I just felt that it was the right time to do it."
Montenegro, with a weakened squad, did not impress at the European Championship, but that cannot diminish everything that Vučević gave in the red jersey, even at that tournament where he had excellent numbers.
"It was Eurobasket, a big competition, and the next big one is in two years, so I wanted to end my career with the national team on a high level, which is exactly what Eurobasket is. I felt it was a good opportunity for this generation to make a good result at the end, because many will no longer play for the national team, but unfortunately some of them could not play due to injuries," explained our ace.
He says he now wants to spend his summers with his family.
"I want to be with them. Because during the season we travel so much, we're away a lot. And as my children grow up, it's more and more important to them that I be there and that we spend time together."
I still feel very young.
There was a lot of speculation about his future in Chicago this summer, with a trade being mentioned again, but in the end nothing came of it.
"I didn't think much about it, honestly. I had good communication with the club during the summer. Yes, there were a lot of rumors, various ones, but that's part of this job. I'm saying, I didn't pay much attention, if a trade had happened, it would have happened. I focused on things I could control," Vučević explained.
When reporters pointed out that he was one of the veterans on the Chicago team, the Montenegrin center had a ready answer.
"I actually still feel very young," Vučević joked.
Chicago opens the new NBA season on October 23 against Detroit, and a day later Vučević will turn 35. Regardless of them, he had a lot of minutes last year - 31,2 per game. Does he think he will be on the floor a little less now?
"Not in a playful way. I feel like I can still play and compete at that level, and from all the conversations I've had with Billy (Donovan, the coach) he's never mentioned to me that my role is going to change or anything like that. So I don't expect that to happen. But again, we'll see when the season starts and how Billy thinks. I understand that at some point in my career it's going to have to happen, and that's completely normal, and when that moment comes I'll have to accept everything."
We learned our lessons from the play-in, we will be better.
Chicago has failed to make a breakthrough in the playoffs in previous years and has mostly been eliminated from the playoffs at the start of the season. That was the case last time, when they had to congratulate Miami in the playoff game.
"I think it's a mentality thing, and it was a good experience for this team, to play against Miami, a team that has players with a lot of playoff experience, a team that is known to play physical and tough. Sometimes you have to go through those experiences to learn, to see what's needed. Sometimes you have to adjust your mentality," he explained.
He also says that they now understand what they need to do.
"Especially on defense, to have a chance to be a good team. So I think it's mostly a mentality thing. It's not something that you work on or that you can train. We just have to have that approach and I hope we got it. We learned from that game with Miami and we're going to be better this year."
The numbers from last season showed that he is still at a high level, regardless of his age - in the aforementioned minutes, he averaged 18,5 points, 10,1 rebounds and 3,5 assists.
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