One of the best playmakers in the game will keep working his magic in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague after Anadolu Efes Istanbul announced that Vasilije Micic has re-signed with the club for three more years, through the end of the 2023-24 season. Micic (1.96 meters, 27 years old) was chosen as the 2020-21 EuroLeague MVP after averaging 16.7 points and 4.9 assists in 40 games. Micic was also the Final Four MVP. Not only did he lead Efes in scoring in both games at Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany, but his averages of 25.0 points, 5.5 assists and a PIR of 27.0 were the most at this season’s Final Four, too, as he caried Efes to its first continental crown. He also became the fifth player in competition history to capture both the EuroLeague MVP and Final Four MVP trophies in the same season, joining Dimitris Diamantidis (Panathinaikos Athens, 2011), Vassilis Spanoulis (Olympiacos Piraeus, 2013), Nando De Colo (CSKA Moscow, 2016) and Luka Doncic (2018, Real Madrid) in that distinguished group.

<div style="display: grid; place-items: center;"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="tr" dir="ltr">🚨 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MVP?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MVP</a> ile 3 Yıl Daha! 🚨<br><br>2018-2019 sezonundan bu yana formamızı terleten şampiyon oyuncumuz Vasilije Micic ile 3 yıllık sözleşme yeniledik! 💪🏻<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BenimYerimBuras%C4%B1?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BenimYerimBurası</a> <a href="https://t.co/qcEofOh1Rt">pic.twitter.com/qcEofOh1Rt</a></p>&mdash; Anadolu Efes SK (@AnadoluEfesSK) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnadoluEfesSK/status/1410573609312083971?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>

Micic started his career with Mega Vizura of Serbia and made his EuroLeague debut with German powerhouse FC Bayern Munich on October 17, 2014. He has also played for Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade of Serbia, Tofas Bursa of Turkey and Zalgiris Kaunas of Lithuania. Micic was chosen to the All-EuroLeague First Team last season and to the All-EuroLeague Second Team in 2018-19, when he took helped Efes reach the EuroLeague championship game. He got to the Final Four in 2018 with Zalgiris and was named the EuroLeague MVP for November 2018. Micic helped Zvezda win the Serbian League and the Adriatic League titles in 2016, won the Lithuanian League and Cup double with Zalgiris in 2018 and lifted the Turkish League trophy with Efes in 2019 and 2021. Micic is also a member of the Serbian national team and helped it win a silver medal at EuroBasket 2017.

In 164 EuroLeague career games, Micic has amassed 1,891 points (11.5 ppg.) and 773 assists (4.7 apg.). In the last three seasons, since he joined Efes, Micic ranks third in the competition in PIR (1,600) and scoring (1,474 points), second in assists (538), steals (116) and fouls drawn (434), and fifth in three-point shots made (193).

EuroLeague MVP Micic re-signs with Efes

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FC Barcelona signed Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champion Sertac Sanli to a two-year deal, the club announced on Thursday. Sanli (2.12 meters, 29 years old) comes off a breakout season with Anadolu Efes Istanbul in which he averaged 7.8 points and 2.2 rebounds per game. He was dominant in the latter stretches of the season, including at the Final Four in Cologne, Germany, where he averaged 15.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocks to help Efes to its first EuroLeague championship.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">🏀✅ Acuerdo por dos temporadas con <a href="https://twitter.com/SanliSertac?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SanliSertac</a>. El pivot turco se convierte en el primer refuerzo del Barça. <br><br>El acuerdo, pendiente de la revisión médica</p>&mdash; 🏆 Barça Basket 🏆 (@FCBbasket) <a href="https://twitter.com/FCBbasket/status/1410546170317922304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Sanli spent the previous three seasons with Efes. A product of the Pinar Karsiyaka Izmir youth system, he has also suited up for Genc Telekom, Galatasaray Istanbul, Tofas Bursa, Royal Hali Gaziantep, Usak Sportlif. Trabzonspor and Besiktas Istanbul. He won the Turkish League three times – twice with Efes and once with Galatasaray. Sanli is also a member of the Turkish national team. Barcelona will be his first team outside of his native Turkey.

Barcelona signs Sanli for two years

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In a season that saw teams play more games than ever before, Turkish Airlines EuroLeague players put their remarkable shooting skills on display and delivered historic shooting accuracy. Especially from long range.

With each team playing 34 regular-season games, and three teams – Anadolu Efes Istanbul, FC Barcelona and AX Armani Exchange Milan – playing a record 41 games during the 2020-21 campaign, it should not surprise anyone that 13 teams set single-season club records for three-point shots made.

It all led to teams knocking down a total of 5,912 three-point shots, smashing the previous single-season high of 4,758. The teams also combined to make the most-ever 12,771 two-point shots.

graphic by Darius Garuolis

Despite the high volume of long-range shots, not only did league-wide shooting percentages not drop, they reached new heights! As the graphic above shows, the 2020-21 season saw the highest three-point shooting percentage in league history. EuroLeague players made shots at an incredible rate of 37.82%, topping the previous best of 37.54% set in the 2017-18 campaign.

The players also shined from inside the arc, making 53.57% of their two-point shots, which was the second-highest percentage league-wide this century. The only season EuroLeague players shot better was in 2018-19 when they made 53.71% of two-pointers attempted.

Notwithstanding the record totals and high accuracy in both categories, a deeper look shows that the numbers of attempted two-point shots and three-pointers are heading in opposite directions.

The 2020-21 season had the second-most three-pointers attempted per game at 23.82 and the second-fewest two-point attempts at 36.3 per game. Another side effect of players shooting from deep more than ever before was the 2020-21 season featuring the fewest free throw attempts per game (16.87).

As one can see above, three-pointers are at an all-time high, with more than 34% of the points scored in the league coming from behind the arc in each of the last two seasons after having never broken 32% before. On the other hand, two-point shots are at an all-time low.

In each of the past two seasons, two-pointers accounted for fewer than 50% of all points scored, which had never happened before, while free throws accounted for less than 17% of all points for only the second time this century.

With the games at a faster pace, three-point accuracy at historic levels and players working non-stop at crafting their shooting skills, it will be intriguing to see if the long-range percentages can keep rising and whether the number of trips to the foul line will continue to dip.

In a season that saw teams play more games than ever before, EuroLeague players put their remarkable shooting skills on display and delivered historic shooting accuracy.

Closer look: Shooting accuracy soared in 2020-21

AS Monaco and 7DAYS EuroCup Coach of the Year Zvezdan Mitrovic are working together for one more season, the club announced Thursday

Monaco, Coach Mitrovic stay together

Mitrovic, 51, was chosen by Euroleague Basketball from among many deserving candidates after he guided Monaco to its first EuroCup trophy in a 2-0 finals sweep against UNICS Kazan of Russia. That result followed a semifinals sweep of Herbalife Gran Canaria after Monaco had aced the last two games of the quarterfinals to outlast Buducnost VOLI Podgorica. With that season-ending six-game streak, coupled with a first-place finish in its Top 16 group, Monaco won 11 of its final 13 games to finish with a 17-6 record. He also helped Monaco reach the French League semifinals.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="fr" dir="ltr">✔️ Zvezdan Mitrovic, coach de l&#39;année <a href="https://twitter.com/EuroCup?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EuroCup</a> et <a href="https://twitter.com/LNBofficiel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@LNBofficiel</a>, poursuit l’aventure avec la <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RocaTeam?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RocaTeam</a> la saison prochaine 💪 🔴⚪️ <a href="https://t.co/3sHeEx66xK">pic.twitter.com/3sHeEx66xK</a></p>&mdash; AS Monaco Basket (@ASMonaco_Basket) <a href="https://twitter.com/ASMonaco_Basket/status/1410528367561031684?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>'
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Mitrovic began his head coaching career by leading teams in Ukraine for 10 seasons between 2002 and 2014. He helped Khimik Yuzhny win the Ukrainian League title in 2009 and lifted the Ukrainian Cup trophy with Budivelnik Kiev in 2012. Mitrovic first joined Monaco in March of 2015 and led its promotion to the French first division later that season. Once in the French elite, Mitrovic immediately turned Monaco into a force, winning three consecutive French Leaders Cup trophies and ranking first after the French League regular season in 2016, 2017 and 2018. After helping Monaco finish third in the FIBA Basketball Champions League in 2017 and second in 2018, Mitrovic left to coach LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne for two seasons. They won the French League title in 2019, downing Monaco 3-2 in the finals, and also lifted the French Cup trophy. He led ASVEL to a 10-18 record in the 2019-20 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague before that season's ending was suspended and finally canceled due to the global pandemic. Mitrovic has also coached the Montenegrin national team.

AS Monaco and 7DAYS EuroCup Coach of the Year Zvezdan Mitrovic are working together for one more season, the club announced Thursday. 

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Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv continued its remake of the roster by signing veteran power forward Derrick Williams for the coming season, the club announced Wednesday. Williams (2.03 meters, 30 years old) played for Valencia Basket last season and averaged 9.0 points and 3.1 rebounds in 34 games – of which he started 19. It was his third EuroLeague campaign after debuting with FC Bayern Munich in 2018-19 and suiting up for Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul the following season. Williams led Bayern to the 2019 German League championship and helped Fenerbahce win the 2020 Turkish Cup.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">🛂Prepare for takeoff<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeAreMaccabi?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeAreMaccabi</a> <a href="https://t.co/ITUDkqGDer">pic.twitter.com/ITUDkqGDer</a></p>&mdash; Maccabi Tel Aviv BC (@MaccabitlvBC) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaccabitlvBC/status/1410129573124182017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 30, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The second overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, Williams played parts of seven seasons in the NBA for Minnesota, Sacramento, New York, Miami, Cleveland and the Los Angeles Lakers. He averaged 8.9 points and 4.0 rebounds in 428 NBA regular-season career games. Before making his EuroLeague debut with Bayern, Williams also spent time with Tianjin Gold Lions in China.

Maccabi lands Williams at power forward

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Zenit St Petersburg's first full Turkish Airlines EuroLeague campaign was a memorable one as the club made history by reaching the EuroLeague Playoffs and becoming the first eighth-seeded team to take the best-of-five series to a maximum five games.

Overshadowed in all the drama was the fact that Zenit did so with some historic three-point help from one of its players. As the team compiled a 20-14 regular-season record before bowing out in the playoffs against eventual runner-up FC Barcelona, Zenit sharpshooter Billy Baron was in the process of making at least one three-point shot in 29 straight games.

That was the longest single-season streak of consecutive games with at least 1 three-point made in league history. Baron did so by hitting at least 1 triple in the last 24 regular-season games and then in each of the five playoff games.

Baron opened the season by hitting at least 1 shot from behind the arc in just six of the first 10 games before going on his historic run. His streak started in Round 13 with 1-for-5 shooting in a road loss against Real Madrid and then continued in the next round by going 4-for-5 in a win over FC Bayern Munich.

Baron proceeded to knock down multiple threes in 20 of those 29 games to finish the season, including a stretch of the final six regular-season games in which Zenit was making a playoff push; Baron shot 20 of 32 (62.5%) from downtown during that span.

The streak also means Baron enters the 2021-22 season 10 games shy of tying the all-time streak of making a triple in 39 consecutive appearances, a record currently held by two players.

The first one to do it was Marko Popovic, who started his streak in the 2006-07 season, continued it in 2007-08 and then returned to the EuroLeague in 2011-12 and finished his streak in the 2012-13 campaign. He played all of those games in a Zalgiris Kaunas uniform.

Alexey Shved matched that streak with Khimki Moscow Region over the span of three seasons. Shved's three-point streak started with him making a triple in each of the last 20 games of the 2017-18 season. Then he made at least one triple in each of his 14 appearances in 2018-19 before continuing his streak in the first five games of the 2019-20 campaign.

Baron’s current streak is the sixth-longest in the EuroLeague this century and if he opens the next season by making at least one three-pointer in each of his first two games, he will join the top five. If he makes a triple in his first 11 appearances next season, Baron will make EuroLeague history, again. 

Zenit St Petersburg sharpshooter Billy Baron made history last season by knocking down at least 1 three-pointer in 29 straight games.

Baron's three-point streak

Turkish Airlines EuroLeague runner-up FC Barcelona announced on Wednesday that guard Alex Abrines has signed a contract extension that will keep him with the Catalan club until 2026. Abrines (1.98 meters, 27 years old) averaged 6.1 points and 1.8 rebounds in almost 19 minutes on the court over 39 EuroLeague games last season. Abrines has already played six seasons with Barcelona, first from 2012 through 2016 and from 2019 to the present and has appeared in more than 400 games with the team. In between, he spent three seasons in the NBA with Oklahoma City. Abrines will be 32 years old when this new contract expires.

<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">✅ Barça &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/alexabrines?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AlexAbrines</a>: 2026</p>&mdash; Barça Basket (@FCBbasket) <a href="https://twitter.com/FCBbasket/status/1410163457698242562?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 30, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> </center>

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Abrines, Barca together five more years

UNICS Kazan hired Velimir Perasovic as its new head coach, the club announced Tuesday. Perasovic, 56, last coached TD Systems Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz in 2019. This will be Perasovic's 12th season as a EuroLeague head coach. He previously had five with Baskonia, three with Anadolu Efes Istanbul, two with Cibona Zagreb and one with Valencia Basket. He guided Baskonia to Final Fours in 2006 and 2016. Perasovic also won the 7DAYS EuroCup title with Valencia in 2014 when they defeated UNICS in the Finals. He claimed Croatian League crowns in 2009 and 2010, and lifted domestic cup trophies in Spain, Turkey and Croatia.

As a player, Perasovic helped Split win three consecutive EuroLeague titles from 1989 to 1991, among other highlights. He also coached Caja San Fernando and Estudiantes Madrid of Spain and helped Split win the 2004 Croatian Cup as the team's sports director. Perasovic coached the Croatian national team, too. He has a EuroLeague coaching record of 108-103 (51.2% wins) and is 33-18 in the EuroCup (64.7% wins).

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="ru" dir="ltr">Велимир Перасович – главный тренер БК УНИКС🤝<br>⠀<br>В составе сборной Хорватии завоевал серебряную медаль на Олимпийских играх. Пять раз был лучшим бомбардиром испанской лиги.<br>⠀<br>После завершения игровой карьеры был спортивным директором БК «Сплит». Затем начал тренерскую карьеру. <a href="https://t.co/2voKHHDouu">pic.twitter.com/2voKHHDouu</a></p>&mdash; BC UNICS Kazan (@unicsbasket) <a href="https://twitter.com/unicsbasket/status/1409919540297875461?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 29, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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UNICS signs head coach Perasovic

Zalgiris Kaunas bolstered its frontcourt for the foreseeable future by inking center Marek Blazevic to a multi-year deal, the club announced Tuesday. Blazevic (2.07 meters, 18 years old) arrives from archrivals Rytas Vilnius, where he averaged 4.1 points and 3.0 rebounds in 9 7DAYS EuroCup games last season. He started his career with Perlas Vilnius, joining Rytas soon after that. Blazevic led U18 Rytas to the 2017-18 Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament title, getting 20 points and 11 rebounds in the Championship Game against U18 Stellazzurra Rome ane earning All-Tournament team honors. He also played as the 2018-19 ANGT Qualifier in Kaunas, averaging 12.7 points and 6.0 rebounds in 3 games. Blazevic is set to make his Turkish Airlines EuroLeague debut with Zalgiris in the 2020-21 campaign.

