• Mirotic. "The dicks? For me they are a motivation"

No need for the competition to reach temperature. Nikola Mirotic is already a Barca rocket on the track, 'trending topic' on this side of the pond based on dominant performances, lots of points and even some controversy over the alleged arbitral protection ( in four ACB games he has visited the line 47 times of free throws , 18 times more than Prepelic, the second). In any case, its extraordinary irruption is the most exciting news for the Barcelona basketball section in years, in full force of the Laso era, although they will finally be the titles (the Endesa League has not won since 2014) and the return to the elite European (five consecutive absences in the Final Four) that make the multi-million dollar investment of the club something profitable on the track.

A player in full (28 years), with obvious conditions to be a starter in the NBA -Pesic revealed that he had several offers, including one of 45 million Bulls (for three years) -, has in Europe a favorable ground in The one to raze. Your numbers in this initial month are resounding. In the ACB only a similar dawn has been remembered for a decade (Felipe Reyes): he averages more than 30 valuation and is the top scorer with 24.7 points per game. In Euroleague, only Larkin and Shved have scored more points than him (20.5). In addition, Barça, which receives Aíto García Reneses's Alba from Berlin on Friday (9:00 p.m., DAZN), has won seven of the eight official matches: he only gave up in the Super Cup final, in the WiZink against Real Madrid . You can see, of course, Niko's exhaustive summer preparation, for which he sacrificed his participation with Spain in the World Cup, although that cost him a notch to his hard-to-repair track record, to be world champion.

That was precisely one of the main contradictions in his departure from the NBA. Beyond the family comfort of which he now boasts in Barcelona ("I already have a house, we are installed and everything is in order. If my family is well here in Barcelona, ​​I am too"), in the United States I could not find the adequate competitiveness Or so he argued: "I missed winning because there, in the NBA, it's only a title that is played." He missed the fight for the titles, but the first thing he did was to give up the national team that won continental gold in 2015 and the Olympic bronze in Rio. An absence that did not sit well with the hard core of the team , except when its statement tried to explain the reasons came after.

Little interest of Laso

After his amazing performance on Sunday in the win against Valencia, in which he exceeded his record of scoring in the Endesa League (33), the Montenegrin spoke for the official website of the competition. There were other statements surprised. «I knew what my signing was going to mean, I was very conscious. For me it was a great challenge, I wanted to be in the eyes of others . I knew that everybody was going to whistle me and all that, but for me that is a motivation, ”he said, referring to the hostile reception of what was his hobby, as it could already be seen in the Super Cup.

A difficult message to explain by taking a look at the intrahistory of his arrival at Barça. Because with the impressive offer on the table and the negotiation about to be sealed, it was Mirotic himself who phoned Florentino Pérez . A friendly call, courtesy, to inform you in the first person, but also to confess that if Real Madrid, the club that formed him and always boasted - «I would never go to Barcelona. If you feel very Real Madrid you can not go to that team and that is my case », he confessed in 2012-, he was willing to match the offer, he would be willing to wear white again.

Before the amount of the operation (70 million for six seasons, according to MARCA) , the white president, with whom he maintains a cordial relationship, wished him all the luck in the world in his new stage. Such amount shattered the project and the budget of the entity, which at that time was focused on the renovations of two of its pillars, Tavares and Campazzo. In addition to economics, Pablo Laso's low interest in the return of his pupil was also heavy.

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  • Real Madrid
  • Nikola Mirotic
  • Pablo Laso Biurrún
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  • U.S
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  • Euroleague

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