Bulls center Nikola Vucevic has announced his retirement from the Montenegrin national team, BasketNews.com relays.
Montenegro failed to advance in the EuroBasket tournament. Vucevic made his announcement after the team lost to Great Britain.
“It sucks for me to finish [my international career] this way. I would have loved to play more in Riga, but it is what it is,” Vucevic said. “I’d like to thank my teammates, coaches, and most importantly, the fans for everything they did throughout my career with the national team. It was an honor to play here, but that’s sports. I enjoyed playing here, but it’s time for a new generation to leave its mark.”
Vucevic made his first major national team appearance in 2011 at EuroBasket.
“There’s a lot of pride; we are a very small country. We don’t have a lot of players, and for us, every time we got into a big tournament, it was a huge success, and we always tried to do our best and represent our country the best way,” he said, per Aris Barkas of Eurohoops.net. “In some tournaments we did well, in some others we didn’t, and that’s how it goes.
“I am very proud that I had the chance to represent my country in all these tournaments, and very happy to play with all the guys I had. With some of them, we are close friends now, and that’s something that you have for the rest of your life. We are all very proud; we wish it could have ended differently, but that’s sports. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes it’s not.”
Vucevic, who turns 35 in October, is entering the final season of his three-year, $60MM contract with the Bulls.