Nikola Vujcic, a game-changing center whose feats on a basketball court still stand alone more than a decade after he played his last Turkish Airlines EuroLeague game, will be inducted as an official Euroleague Basketball Legend on Thursday, December 8, at Menorah Mivtachim Arena shortly before Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv’s game against Valencia Basket.
Vujcic was the most decorated big man of his generation in the EuroLeague. He was chosen to the All-EuroLeague Teams on five occasions, which is the most of any center in competition history and fifth-most of any player. He rose to continental prominence as a central part of the Maccabi team that won back-to-back championships in 2004 and 2005 and then experienced the glory of winning again as the sporting director when Maccabi captured its next championship in 2014.
He becomes the ninth player to receive Euroleague Basketball's highest distinction, after Theo Papaloukas, Juan Carlos Navarro, Ramunas Siskauskas, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Dimitris Diamantidis, Mirsad Turkcan, Felipe Reyes and Vassilis Spanoulis. The late Dusan Ivkovic and Maccabi president Shimon Mizrahi, were both honored as Euroleague Basketball Legends, too, for their work as a head coach and in management, respectively.
