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Nikola Mirotic named EuroLeague MVP for month of February, 2020

Here’s an overseas basketball update on a name familiar to NBA fans, from Euroleaguebasketball.net:

After a perfect month that he began and ended with game-winning shots on the road, forward Nikola Mirotic of FC Barcelona is Euroleague Basketball’s choice as MVP for February in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. Few players have ever had a go-to month quite like Mirotic’s February, when his last-shot heroics ensured that Barca qualified early for this season’s playoffs. With four victories in February – three of them on the road, and all against teams positioned for the playoffs at tipoff time – Barca extended its current streak to seven wins total, the team’s longest in almost five years.

Mirotic played in the NBA between 2014-19, mostly for the Bulls, but also the Pelicans and Bucks, and averaged double-digit points each season. His NBA career average was 12.3 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.3 assists, shooting 42.3% FG and 35.9% from three-point range.

Nikola Mirotic accepts apology from Bobby Portis

Teammates often get into it with each other during practices, but rarely are serious punches thrown, and even rarer do those punches actually land. But that’s what went down in Bulls practice earlier this season. Here’s ESPN Chicago with an update:

Nikola Mirotic says he has accepted Bobby Portis’ apology and is hoping both he and the Bulls can move forward after a practice altercation between the pair last month. Speaking for the first time since an Oct. 17 fight with Portis that left Mirotic with multiple facial fractures and a concussion, the veteran forward made it clear that he feels he can coexist with Portis again in the future.

“We are teammates,” Mirotic said after Wednesday’s practice. “We are on the same team. Obviously we are fighting for this team. We both are going to do what we need to do to make it work. Yeah, I did accept his apology.”

Mirotic said he did not want to address events in the past and did not directly answer a question regarding whether the pair has actually sat down and spoken. When asked if Portis knew that he had accepted his apology, Mirotic responded that he would eventually.

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Bulls re-sign Nikola Mirotic

The Chicago Bulls re-signed forward Nikola Mirotic yesterday (Monday).

Mirotić enters his fourth season in the NBA and with the Bulls. In 2016-17, he appeared in 70 games (15 starts) and posted averages of 10.6 points and 5.5 rebounds per game, and shot .413 from the field and .342 from 3-point range. Mirotić’s 129 3-point field goals made led the team, and he became the first player in Bulls history to have consecutive games with six 3-pointers made on March 26 and March 30. In the postseason, he played in all six games (6 starts) in the series against Boston, and averaged 10.6 points and 5.5 rebounds in 24.0 minutes per game while shooting .413 from the field and .342 from three.

For his career, Mirotić has averaged 10.8 points and 5.3 rebounds while shooting .409 from the field and .350 from beyond the arc. He has also played in 17 playoff games (6 starts) with averages of 6.8 points and 3.5 rebounds in 14.9 minutes.

The Bulls originally acquired Mirotić on June 23, 2011, in a draft-night trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves. He was named Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month in December of 2014 and March of 2015, and was selected to the World Team of the 2015 All-Star Weekend Rising Stars Challenge. Mirotić was also a member of the 2016 Spain Men’s National Team that won the bronze medal in the Rio Olympics.