have a rookie on their roster<\/a> who won\u2019t turn 19 until December. But improvements in sports science, injury rehabilitation and player-recovery methods have afforded athletes longer careers.<\/p>\nVu\u010devi\u0107 has become an example of longevity. The center has missed only 160 games in 14 seasons \u2014 and only 24 in his Bulls tenure, which included playing all 82 games in 2022-23.<\/p>\n
Donovan credits this durability to the precise attention to detail in Vu\u010devi\u0107\u2019s daily routine, including turning down a slice of the birthday cake brought into the locker room by teammates last year because it didn\u2019t mesh with his in-season diet.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe keeps himself in great shape,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cHe takes care of his body. He\u2019s one of the first players here. He\u2019s in that weight room. He gets treatment. He gets everything. \u2026 I still think Vooch is a very productive player. He can continue to be a productive player for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Vu\u010devi\u0107 can\u2019t deny that his perspective has begun to shift in the later years of his career.<\/p>\n
Things changed this summer when the center announced his retirement from the Montenegrin national team following his final game in the EuroBasket tournament. The decision didn\u2019t just mark a chapter closing for Vu\u010devi\u0107 \u2014 it signaled a changing of the guard for the national team.<\/p>\n
Montenegro didn\u2019t join FIBA until 2006, the same year it gained independence following Yugoslavia\u2019s dissolution. Vu\u010devi\u0107 became a fixture of the national team five years later. His presence in the post defined the foundation of the country\u2019s national basketball program.<\/p>\n
Vu\u010devi\u0107 holds every memory from the last 15 years with the national team as a point of personal pride. Leading the U-20 team in the 2009 EuroBasket tournament. Debuting with the senior team in 2011. Finishing 11th in the 2023 FIBA World Cup as a country of fewer than 650,000 people \u2014 and playing a U.S. opponent tightly in their final game.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverseas, it\u2019s very different for us,\u201d Vu\u010devi\u0107 said. \u201cWe play for this team for free. We play because we want to. It\u2019s very emotional playing for our country, especially for me coming from a small country, playing in big tournaments with big stakes. It means a lot for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Bulls'](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/CTC-BULLS-1015_1f4590.jpg\")
Bulls’ Nikola Vu\u010devi\u0107 catches a pass in the post in the second half of a game against the Raptors at the United Center on April 1, 2025. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
For Vu\u010devi\u0107, the decision was made simple by the other driving force in his life \u2014 his three sons.<\/p>\n
International competition is grueling for NBA players who dedicate months of their offseason to qualifiers and tournaments half a world away. Vu\u010devi\u0107 didn\u2019t want to give up those summers with his boys anymore, a feeling that ultimately determined his readiness to step away from the Montenegrin team.<\/p>\n
This is a natural shift for Vu\u010devi\u0107. Life \u2014 and basketball \u2014 has changed over the past decade as a parent. Basketball used to be something he did on his own, independent from his role as a father. Now, he\u2019s greeted after games by cheers and playful chirping from his eldest son, Filip, who is old enough to stay up later and watch the entirety of an NBA game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I get mad and I get a tech, he\u2019s like, \u2018Why were you yelling at the ref?\u2019\u201d Vu\u010devi\u0107 joked. \u201cI might need to cut down on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the cold of the winter months creeps in, Vu\u010devi\u0107 often takes his sons to the Advocate Center.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an easy constant amid the sleet and snow of November or January in Chicago. Vu\u010devi\u0107 puts on his kids\u2019 favorite music and lowers the hoops, chasing them around and running them through ballhandling drills.<\/p>\n
Sometimes the family teams up for mini scrimmages \u2014 his wife Nikoleta paired with Filip, and Vu\u010devi\u0107 with the middle boy. Filip is already growing into a lengthy frame that reflects both of his parents. He takes pride in getting up on shots on the 10-foot rims, impressing any Bulls staffers who are close enough to watch his jumper.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey come in here and they want to put on the jerseys and their basketball shoes and feel like they\u2019re part of the Bulls team,\u201d Vu\u010devi\u0107 said.<\/p>\n
Nothing feels more familiar for Vu\u010devi\u0107, who grew up on the hardwood of practice courts throughout Europe as his father, Borislav, followed his own professional basketball career.<\/p>\n
Vu\u010devi\u0107 can\u2019t remember the first time he saw a basketball or a hook shot. His father brought him to the gym as a little boy, sometimes dragging over a smaller rim. Borislav installed a hoop in the hallway outside of Vu\u010devi\u0107\u2019s childhood bedroom and he spent hours tossing the ball through the net.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was never really pushed onto me,\u201d Vu\u010devi\u0107 said. \u201cIt\u2019s just something that I loved. It was always the thing we were doing together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Borislav coached Vu\u010devi\u0107 for four formative years of his youth career. He was tough \u2014 most dads are \u2014 but those long hours in the gym with his father shaped the way Vu\u010devi\u0107 approached the game, even now as an NBA veteran.<\/p>\n
For now, Vu\u010devi\u0107\u2019s kids can just be kids. They\u2019re more focused on soccer, although Vu\u010devi\u0107 trusts they will eventually grow too tall for the pitch and come home to the basketball court for good. And when they\u2019re ready, Vu\u010devi\u0107 hopes to offer his sons the same support that has been a constant since he was that little boy on the sidelines of his dad\u2019s games.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was always my biggest supporter,\u201d Vu\u010devi\u0107 said. \u201cWhether it was going great or bad, he knew how to talk to me. If it was not going well, he could talk me out of it. If it was going great, he would celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spending time with his boys was motivation enough to retire from his national team. But for Vu\u010devi\u0107, the opposite is true for his NBA career. He wants to play more games with his sons courtside. And most importantly, he wants more time with basketball.<\/p>\n
After all these years, Vu\u010devi\u0107 still feels the same about basketball \u2014 the same love he felt watching his father play, the love he hopes to instill in his sons.<\/p>\n
\u201cRetirement is not something that\u2019s at all on my mind,\u201d Vu\u010devi\u0107 said. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to enjoy it \u2014 as long, as much as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nikola Vu\u010devi\u0107 is a little tired of talking about his age. Yes, he turns 35 next week. Is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":308078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[23604,960,3127,17269,155934,5386,1818,1260,77816,11435,155935],"class_list":{"0":"post-308077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-billy-donovan","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-bulls","11":"tag-eurobasket","12":"tag-how-old-is-nikola-vucevic","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-illinois","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nba-season","17":"tag-nikola-vucevic","18":"tag-nikola-vucevic-contract"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115383951384840914","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Bulls'](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/CTC-BULLS-MEDIA-DAY-24_240513180.jpg\")
Bulls’ Nikola Vu\u010devi\u0107 walks through the atrium during media day at the United Center on Sept. 29, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n