Before the start of the Endesa League final, the bomb went off: Barça wanted to get rid of Nikola Miroticits star since landing from the NBA in the summer of 2019. Two Leagues, two Copas del Rey and three appearances in the Final Four were not a sufficient curriculum for the Catalans to keep the power forward (32 years and 2.08 m) in a squad that had to face a drastic drop in expenses due to the club’s global financial problems.
Once the season closed, the verb became flesh and the two parties began to negotiate an exit that has concluded with a unilateral termination of Mirotic’s contractwho is owed 22 million gross euros receivable for the two remaining seasons with Barça.
As soon as these negotiations (finally unsuccessful and that will end up in court) for his departure were known, several Euroleague clubs showed interest in the MVP of the competition in 2022. From Milan to Monaco passing through Panathinaikos. Although the one that is going to take the cat into the water is the Belgrade Partizan.
The Serbian club would put the icing on the cake for a team that has managed to keep Kevin Punter and Zach LeDay, although it has lost Dante Exum. A landing that was quarantined due to alleged threats from Red Star fans about Mirotic. The fans of the eternal rival of the Partizán did not see (again supposedly) the arrival of the star born in Montenegro.
Some pressure that Nebojsa Covic, president of the Red Star, categorically denies, directly accusing Partizan of being behind those insinuations: “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask the Partizan people. Calming tensions is resolved with concrete actions and not with words. You know, before the fifth game of the final, they lit candles for me in front of the Belgrade Arena while I was undergoing a complicated surgery. Do you think it’s normal?” says the president in an interview with eurohoops when asked about the tension between the two Serbian teams.
“Or to press Euroleague clubs with disinformation through Zoran Savić, and many other things, cLike what is happening now with the Mirotic saga, where lies are being spread to the detriment of my club? Nikola (Mirotic) is an extraordinary man, a philanthropist, who deserves the best and we wish him all the best. whatBut to say that someone is threatening you so that you don’t go to another club? It’s crazy. We are in favor of normal relationships, and rivalry but only on the basketball court.”
