CHARLOTTE – All-Star Weekend is truly a celebration. It’s about paying tribute to the game and honoring its players and fans. For Nikola Vucevic, it’s also about a dream turned into a reality.
Growing up in Montenegro, Vucevic idolized NBA stars like Dirk Nowitzki and fantasized about one day playing the game on the world’s biggest stage.
As he touched down in Charlotte around midnight on Friday, the 7-foot center’s emotions started to set in. Not only was he officially an All-Star, one that would soon take the court with one of his childhood heroes, Nowitzki, but he was doing it with his high-school sweetheart turned wife, Nikoleta, and newborn son, Filip, by his side.
In continuation with the life-comes-full-circle theme of the weekend, the Magic’s big man started off his All-Star experience by serving as a coach for the fifth annual Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Global Camp.
“It feels good when you have an opportunity to help those kids out – they look up to you,” Vucevic said. “I was in that same position as a young guy as well.”
The camp was hosted at the Queens University of Charlotte Levine Center for Wellness and Recreation and featured 63 boys and girls from 31 countries.
Fittingly, one of those young men was Jovan Kljajic from Vucevic’s home country of Montenegro.
Vucevic met him before at one of his camps he hosts overseas during the summer and has tried to serve as a mentor, giving Kljajic advice and sharing his knowledge of the game.
“I think that's one of the best things about us being professional athletes, just being a role model for others, really embracing that and trying to do the best you can,” Vucevic explained.
Vucevic tried to impart as much knowledge as possible to all the kids at the BWB camp, pulling athletes aside to give them tips on their game as well as delivering words of wisdom.
“It’s really simple, you have to put in the work,” Vucevic explained. “Anything, any job you want to do in the world, you have to put in the work, especially when it comes to being a professional athlete – a lot of education, a lot of sacrifice, and a lot of work, but it’s all worth it at the end when you make it.”
As Vucevic gets set to represent the Magic this All-Star Weekend at the Taco Bell Skills Challenge on Saturday and the 68th annual All-Star Game on Sunday, his words of hard work converting into future success ring true.
After all, he was once in their shoes. Equally important, though, is to follow in the footprints that he left in the gym on Friday, that it’s even more special when you make it and have the opportunity to give back.
After all, he was once in their shoes. Equally important, though, is to follow in the footprints that he left in gym on Friday, that it’s even more special when you make it and have the opportunity to give back.
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