Serbia’s Nikola Djurisic, who has Israel connection, sees pre-NBA draft stock soar

The NBA Draft will take place on Wednesday night with plenty of uncertainty as to who will be the No. 1 overall selection. As there is no generational talent as there had been last year with French superstar Victor Wembanyama, there could be plenty of surprises right from the start throughout the two rounds.

While there will be no Israelis picked in this draft for the fourth year in a row since Deni Avdija was taken by the Washington Wizards with the ninth pick of the 2020 Draft, there is still one top prospect who jumps out for sports fans in Israel, and that is Nikola Djurisic. The 20-year-old Serbian swingman, who plied his trade with Mega Basket in the ABA and Serbian Leagues this past season and has steadily moved up the draft charts over the past few months, spent the first year of his life in the Holy Land.

The son of former Hapoel Petah Tikva soccer player Dusko Djurisic and volleyball star Vesna Citakovic who played for Ra’anana, Nikola spent the 2004/05 season in Israel and spoke warmly about his family’s experience when The Jerusalem Post met up with him in Belgrade earlier in the year.

The younger Djurisic, who averaged 14.4 points in the regular season and 22.3 points in the playoffs, is now on the cusp of being a first-round selection after a stellar campaign, his third full time year with Mega. The Ghent-born Djurisic was paired with the talented Nikola Topic for the first part of the season, but once Topic moved from Mega to Red Star Belgrade midway through the season, Djurisic really took off.

Topic, who will most likely be a top-10 pick in the draft, saw the second half of his season suffer a bit due to injuries that kept him off the floor, which has caused some draft experts to waver somewhat on where he will be selected.

Djurisic began playing basketball when he was eight years old while learning the game from his uncle, Perica Djurisic. After spending his formative years at the KK Banjica youth department, Djurisic moved to Mega in 2017 where he continued his development.

At the prestigious Basketball Next Generation Tournament in 2020/21, Djurisic averaged 16.9 points, grabbed 7.6 rebounds and dished out 5.6 assists to earn a spot on the exclusive All-Tournament Team and he was named the tournament MVP when his squad won the competition in the 2022 edition.

Djurisic continued his ascent as he starred with the Serbian Youth National teams and made his debut for the Senior National Team as an 18-year-old in 2022 during 2023 FIBA World Cup Qualifying in a 75-63 win over Slovakia, when he scored seven points and took four boards top go along with three steals in 20 minutes of action.

In 2023, Djurisic was named the ABA League’s Top Prospect as the swingman kept turning heads with his intelligent play and intangibles. Mega Basket is known to produce many high-level prospects and stars – from three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, who plays for the Denver Nuggets, to Los Angeles Clippers big man Ivica Zubac and the Miami Heat’s Nikola Jovic.

“Personally for me, this is my fourth year in professional basketball and the third year in the ABA League,” Djurisic told the Post after he had led his team in scoring with 17 points in a 92-72 loss to powerhouse Buducnost.

“I am not a veteran, but I am experienced in this type of league. It’s tough, especially because you have much older and experienced guys so it’s much harder to play against them. But you just need to be competitive and show that you are not afraid to go head to head with them.”

Goals since childhood

Djurisic has looked forward to the opportunity to play in the NBA from his childhood and would love the chance to show what he can do on the biggest and brightest stage. He has been invited to over half a dozen pre-draft workouts with NBA teams, including the Indiana Pacers, but he also is aware that he has plenty to work on in order to play with the sport’s top stars.

“My dream is to be a basketball player and the dream is to be in the NBA. That would be a dream come true, but I need to get my 3-point percentage up. At the beginning of the season it was good and there were games where I was shooting very well and then some games later on where I was getting a lot of bad shots up because I want to compete and the game takes me away, so I’ll shoot some wild shots. If I can be better in my 3-point percentage I think I can play in the NBA.”

The modest 20-year-old came into the season with a minor injury, but once that was behind him it was all systems go as he played the first half of the season with Topic.

“It was tough the first three or four games because I didn’t practice with the club as my foot was hurt in the preseason and I had maybe just three practices before I came back to play. I needed to adjust to them and once we got into the rhythm it was easy to play with Nikola Topic. He’s a hell of a player and one of the best point guards. Unfortunately, he got injured after his move to Red Star, but he will come back as I am talking to him everyday and we are really close off  the court.”

Djurisic looked at his upbringing as being key to how he plays the game of basketball.

“The Balkans, the ex-Yugoslavian countries, when we are little and going to practice, the coach doesn’t let us do the wild stuff. They are all about teaching us how to play proper basketball. Pass, extra pass, cut, defend and those types of things. In the area of basketball IQ, we have that advantage.”

As for players Djurisic looked up to in patterning his game after, he chose a pair of legends.

“Locally my father showed me Dejan Bodiroga, and in the world I started playing because of Michael Jordan, so those two players from their highlights.”