MEGA TURNED 23!

On this day 23 years ago, Mega was founded!

Namely, since December 23, 1998, when it was founded under the name of Basketball Club Avala Ada, Mega has come a long way from the basketball section of the cardboard packaging factory to the only team outside the US that had 3 players selected in the same NBA draft on 3 occasions and with a total of 13 drafted players so far, it belongs to the very top of Europe. It is a particularly impressive fact that last season, two former Mega’s players were chosen as MVP in the two strongest leagues in the world, Nikola Jokić in the NBA and Vasilije Micic in the Euroleague, which is another fact that Mega is unique in the basketball world.

It is interesting that the sports director of that team was Velimir Mihailovic, who spent all these years in the club and today he is the president of BC Mega Mozzart.

Starting from the non-league, the club gradually progressed in the ranks of the competition, reaching the First League in 2005, and 8 years later, at the end of the 2012/13 season, Mega secured a place in the ABA league under coach Dejan Milojevic. After 2 cup finals in 2014 and 2015 year, Mega achieved the greatest success in the history of the club by winning the Radivoj Korac Cup in 2016, and as a confirmation of the historic season, they reached the finals of the ABA League playoffs. The following season, Mega was a participant in the premiere season of the FIBA ​​Champions League.

In the current season, Mega Mozzart is currently with the score 5-7 is sharing the 6th place in the ABA league.

What made Mega famous in the entire basketball world, apart from the original jerseys, is the fact that it is a real factory of players for the strongest basketball league in the world. To date, as many as thirteen Mega players have been selected in the NBA Draft, and seven have gone directly from the club to the NBA League. The most famous among them is Nikola Jokic, the current MVP of the NBA league, and among the former Mega’s players in the strongest league in the world are Marko Simonovic, Ivica Zubac, Goga Bitadze, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Vlatko Cancar and Boban Marjanović who was the MVP in the Mega’s jersey in Serbian basketball League in the 2012/13 season.

In addition to the mentioned players, many former and current members of the Serbian national team played for Mega, such as Vasilije Micic, who is the current Euroleague MVP, then Filip Petrusev, Ognjen Jaramaz, Novica Velickovic, Marko Keselj, as well as the recently deceased Stevan Jelovac, who made his first senior steps in Mega’s jersey.

In the coming years, Mega will continue with its recognizable system of work, so as the convincingly youngest team, it will continue to provide an opportunity for young and promising players to gain the necessary experience on the way to the national team jersey and NBA clubs.

Photo: Mega Mozzart