Nikola Vučević is a little tired of talking about his age.
Yes, he turns 35 next week. Is that really — really — all that ancient?
The rest of the Chicago Bulls starting lineup has an average age below 25 (and in some iterations, below 23). On a team transitioning to focus on a youth-development movement for the future, a center entering his 15th NBA season is guaranteed to stand out.
But Vučević doesn’t want to talk about that.
“I still feel very young, actually,” Vučević quipped after fielding nearly 10 minutes of questions mostly focused on his age during media day.
On a Bulls roster that is getting younger every year, Vučević is eager to embrace his leadership role. The center enjoys mentoring younger players, even if he sometimes leans into the role of the grumpy veteran. But he also shrugs off the suggestion that reaching 35 means he is nearing the end of his career.
For Vučević, there’s no need to slow down. Not yet. He still feels fit. His game — which has never overly relied on physicality — still translates to coach Billy Donovan’s game plan in Chicago. And last season marked one of the most efficient stretches of his career.
“I still love playing basketball,” Vučević said. “I think the moment where that starts fading away, I would have to start thinking about some decisions. But honestly, basketball has been my main love. I’ve grown up around it. It’s always been part of my life. … None of that has changed at all for me. If anything, I think now I get to enjoy it more from a different perspective.”
The NBA is shifting toward a preference for younger players. The Bulls, notably, have a rookie on their roster who won’t turn 19 until December. But improvements in sports science, injury rehabilitation and player-recovery methods have afforded athletes longer careers.
Vučević has become an example of longevity. The center has missed only 160 games in 14 seasons — and only 24 in his Bulls tenure, which included playing all 82 games in 2022-23.
Donovan credits this durability to the precise attention to detail in Vučević’s daily routine, including turning down a slice of the birthday cake brought into the locker room by teammates last year because it didn’t mesh with his in-season diet.
“He keeps himself in great shape,” Donovan said. “He takes care of his body. He’s one of the first players here. He’s in that weight room. He gets treatment. He gets everything. … I still think Vooch is a very productive player. He can continue to be a productive player for us.”
Still, Vučević can’t deny that his perspective has begun to shift in the later years of his career.
Things changed this summer when the center announced his retirement from the Montenegrin national team following his final game in the EuroBasket tournament. The decision didn’t just mark a chapter closing for Vučević — it signaled a changing of the guard for the national team.
Montenegro didn’t join FIBA until 2006, the same year it gained independence following Yugoslavia’s dissolution. Vučević became a fixture of the national team five years later. His presence in the post defined the foundation of the country’s national basketball program.
Vučević holds every memory from the last 15 years with the national team as a point of personal pride. Leading the U-20 team in the 2009 EuroBasket tournament. Debuting with the senior team in 2011. Finishing 11th in the 2023 FIBA World Cup as a country of fewer than 650,000 people — and playing a U.S. opponent tightly in their final game.
“Overseas, it’s very different for us,” Vučević said. “We play for this team for free. We play because we want to. It’s very emotional playing for our country, especially for me coming from a small country, playing in big tournaments with big stakes. It means a lot for us.”
For Vučević, the decision was made simple by the other driving force in his life — his three sons.
International competition is grueling for NBA players who dedicate months of their offseason to qualifiers and tournaments half a world away. Vučević didn’t want to give up those summers with his boys anymore, a feeling that ultimately determined his readiness to step away from the Montenegrin team.
This is a natural shift for Vučević. Life — and basketball — has changed over the past decade as a parent. Basketball used to be something he did on his own, independent from his role as a father. Now, he’s greeted after games by cheers and playful chirping from his eldest son, Filip, who is old enough to stay up later and watch the entirety of an NBA game.
“If I get mad and I get a tech, he’s like, ‘Why were you yelling at the ref?’” Vučević joked. “I might need to cut down on that.”
When the cold of the winter months creeps in, Vučević often takes his sons to the Advocate Center.
It’s an easy constant amid the sleet and snow of November or January in Chicago. Vučević puts on his kids’ favorite music and lowers the hoops, chasing them around and running them through ballhandling drills.
Sometimes the family teams up for mini scrimmages — his wife Nikoleta paired with Filip, and Vučević with the middle boy. Filip is already growing into a lengthy frame that reflects both of his parents. He takes pride in getting up on shots on the 10-foot rims, impressing any Bulls staffers who are close enough to watch his jumper.
“They come in here and they want to put on the jerseys and their basketball shoes and feel like they’re part of the Bulls team,” Vučević said.
Nothing feels more familiar for Vučević, who grew up on the hardwood of practice courts throughout Europe as his father, Borislav, followed his own professional basketball career.
Vučević can’t remember the first time he saw a basketball or a hook shot. His father brought him to the gym as a little boy, sometimes dragging over a smaller rim. Borislav installed a hoop in the hallway outside of Vučević’s childhood bedroom and he spent hours tossing the ball through the net.
“It was never really pushed onto me,” Vučević said. “It’s just something that I loved. It was always the thing we were doing together.”
Borislav coached Vučević for four formative years of his youth career. He was tough — most dads are — but those long hours in the gym with his father shaped the way Vučević approached the game, even now as an NBA veteran.
For now, Vučević’s kids can just be kids. They’re more focused on soccer, although Vučević trusts they will eventually grow too tall for the pitch and come home to the basketball court for good. And when they’re ready, Vučević hopes to offer his sons the same support that has been a constant since he was that little boy on the sidelines of his dad’s games.
“He was always my biggest supporter,” Vučević said. “Whether it was going great or bad, he knew how to talk to me. If it was not going well, he could talk me out of it. If it was going great, he would celebrate.”
Spending time with his boys was motivation enough to retire from his national team. But for Vučević, the opposite is true for his NBA career. He wants to play more games with his sons courtside. And most importantly, he wants more time with basketball.
After all these years, Vučević still feels the same about basketball — the same love he felt watching his father play, the love he hopes to instill in his sons.
“Retirement is not something that’s at all on my mind,” Vučević said. “I’m just trying to enjoy it — as long, as much as I can.”