Nikola Đurišić ( sr-cyr, Никола Ђуришић; born 23 February 2004) is a Serbian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for Mega Basket of the

ABA League The ABA League, renamed to the ABA League First Division in 2017, is the 1st-tier regional men's professional basketball league that originally featured clubs from the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Mace ...

and the

Basketball League of Serbia The Basketball League of Serbia ( sr, Кошаркашка лига Србије, Košarkaška liga Srbije; abbr. КЛС or KLS), is a top-tier men's professional basketball league in Serbia. Founded in 2006, it is run by the Basketball Federatio ...

. Standing at and weighing , he plays both

shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional positions in a regulation basketball game. A shooting guard's m ...

and

small forward The small forward (SF), also known as the three or swingman, is one of the five positions in a regulation basketball game. Small forwards are typically shorter, quicker, and leaner than power forwards and centers but taller, larger, and stronger t ...

positions.

Early life and career

Đurišić was born in

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, as his father was playing

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

professionally. His father is

Duško Đurišić Duško Đurišić ( Cyrillic: Душко Ђуришић; born 20 December 1977) is a Montenegrin former professional footballer who played as a defender. Club career After spending seven years at OFK Beograd, Đurišić moved abroad to Switze ...

, a Montenegrin former professional footballer, and his mother is Vesna Čitaković, a Serbian former professional

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

player who helped the Serbia national team to win a silver medal at the 2007 European Championship and a bronze at the 2006 World Championship. He spent his early childhood in Belgium,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

with his mother as she was playing volleyball, before he moved to

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, Serbia when he was 8. His uncle, Perica Đurišić, a basketball coach, introduced him to the game. Đurišić was playing basketball for the KK Banjica

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if ...

before he joined the Mega Basket youth system in 2017. At the 2020–21 Euroleague Basketball Next Generation Tournament, he averaged 16.9 points, 7.6

rebounds 'Rebound' is a term used in sports to describe the ball (or puck or other object of play) becoming available for possession by either opponent after an attempt to put the ball or puck into the goal has been unsuccessful. Rebounds are generally ...

, 5.6 assists, and 1.9 steals per game, and won the All-Tournament Team selection. In May 2022, was named the Euroleague NGT Finals MVP and honored with Euroleague NGT All-Tournament Team, after his team won the

Euroleague Basketball Next Generation Tournament The Euroleague Basketball Next Generation Tournament is an international boy's youth age basketball tournament that is contested between the best basketball clubs in Europe in the Under-18 age category. The tournament is organized by Euroleague Ba ...

for the 2021–22 season.

Professional career

In September 2020, Mega Basket loaned Đurišić to

OKK Beograd Omladinski košarkaški klub Beograd ( sr-cyr, Омладински кошаркашки клуб Београд), commonly referred to as OKK Beograd, is a men's professional basketball club based in Belgrade, Serbia. They are currently competin ...

for the

2020–21 Basketball League of Serbia The 2020–21 Basketball League of Serbia ( sr-cyr, Кошаркашка лига Србије 2020–21.) is the 15th season of the Basketball League of Serbia, the top-tier professional basketball league in Serbia. Also, it's the 77th national ...

. Over 29 regular season games, he averaged 16.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, and three assists per game. Đurišić made his senior debut in the

for Mega Basket on 11 April 2021 in a 84–76 loss to FMP making only 17 seconds of playing time. On his 18th birthday, 23 February 2022, Đurišić signed his first professional contract with Mega Basket.

National team career

Đurišić was a member of the Serbia U16 national team that participated at the

2019 FIBA U16 European Championship The 2019 FIBA U16 European Championship was the 33rd edition of the Under-16 European Basketball Championship. The competition took place from 9 to 17 August 2019 in Udine, Italy. The top five teams qualified for the 2020 FIBA Under-17 Basketball ...

Udine Udine ( , ; fur, Udin; la, Utinum) is a city and ''comune'' in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (''Alpi Carniche''). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with t ...

, Italy. Over seven tournament games, he averaged 4.7 points, three rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game. He was a member of the Serbia U19 national team at the

2021 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup The 2021 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup (Latvian: 2021. gada FIBA Pasaules kauss basketbolā līdz 19 gadu vecumam) was the 15th edition of the FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup, the biennial international men's youth basketball championship ...

. Over three tournament games, he averaged 7.7 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game. On 25 February 2022, Đurišić made his debut for the Serbia national team at the 2023 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers, just two days after his 18th birthday. In a 75–63 win over

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

, he recorded 7 points, 4 rebounds, one assist, and 3 steals in 20 minutes of playing time.

References

External links

Profile
at euroleague.net
Profile
at

realgm.com RealGM.com is a sports website created in 2000. The site was originally a basketball site, but has since expanded its scope to provide information about American football, baseball, ice hockey and soccer. According to Alexa, the site ranked in the ...

Profile
at

eurobasket.com Eurobasket.com also commonly referred to as "Eurobasket News", is a basketball-centered website that provide coverages of every professional and semi-professional leagues around the world. Although primarily focusing on European basketball, th ...

Profile
at aba-liga.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Djurisic, Nikola 2004 births Living people ABA League players Basketball League of Serbia players Basketball players from Belgrade KK Mega Basket players OKK Beograd players Serbian men's basketball players Serbian expatriates in Belgium Serbian people of Montenegrin descent Shooting guards Small forwards Sportspeople from Ghent