Srpski
ON THIS DAY 21 YEARS AGO MEGA WAS FOUNDED
Namely, since December 23, 1998, when it was established under the name Basketball Club Avala Ada, Mega has crossed a long way from the basketball section of the cardboard packaging factory to the only team outside the US that has 3 players selected in the same NBA draft 3 times. It is interesting that the sports director of that team was Velimir Mihailović who spent all these years in the club and today he is the President of BC Mega Bemax.
Starting with the non-league, the club gradually advanced in the competition ranks, reaching the First League in 2005 to secure a placement to the ABA League 8 years later, at the end of the 2012/13 season under the lead of coach Dejan Milojevic who is from that season during all this time head coach of the club. After 2 Cup finals in 2014 and 2015, Mega achieved the greatest success in the history of the club by winning the Radivoj Korac Cup in 2016 and reached the finals of the ABA League playoffs as a confirmation of the historic season. The following season, Mega participated in the premiere season of the FIBA Champions League and this season’s edition of the ABA League is the seventh consecutive year in which Mega has participated.
However, what made Mega famous throughout the basketball world apart from the original jerseys is the fact that it is a true player factory for the world’s strongest basketball league. Since 2014, as many as ten Mega’s players have been selected in the NBA draft, and five have gone straight from the club to the NBA. The most famous of them is Nikola Jokic, who was named the NBA’s best center in the last season, and besides him, former players of Mega in the strongest league in the world are also Ivica Zubac, Goga Bitadze, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarot, Vlatko Cancar and Boban Marjanovic, who Serbian Basketball league MVP in the Mega’ jersey in 2012/13 season. Also from former Mega’s player, this season in the NBA is Adam Mokoka, who has a two-way deal with the Chicago Bulls.
In addition to these players, numerous former and current Serbian national team members such as Vasilije Micic, Stevan Jelovac, Novica Velickovic, Marko Keselj have performed for Mega … And for years to come, Mega will not deviate from its recognizable work system, so it will continue as convincing the youngest team to give prospective players the opportunity to gain the necessary experience that will lead them to the jerseys of national teams and NBA clubs in the future.
Photo: Mega Bemax/Ivica Veselinov
