There are players in sports that we know are good, but when it comes to big games, they turn into ruthless beasts. One of them is Aleksa Avramovic.
Borac Cacak, OKK Beograd, Varese, Unicaja Malaga, Estudiantes, and Partizan. At first glance, it seems like a decent career for a 29-year-old player who reached his peak in the Partizan jersey. A career that most young players from this region would undoubtedly sign up for. Playing for your hometown club, then heading to Europe where you ‘see the world,’ earn a nice paycheck, gain new experiences, and reach the pinnacle in one of the biggest European clubs.
Aleksa Avramovic was never destined for greatness; he wasn’t a God-given talent for whom it was clear from an early stage that he would have a successful career, as many believe about players like Nikola Topic today. Aleksa had to work hard to get to where he is today. People who knew him from his early life unanimously describe him as a hardworking individual fully committed to the collective. You know when we say in basketball that every team needs a ‘glue guy’ – a player who connects guards and centers, starters and the bench, coaches and players, someone who does a bit of everything, isn’t the best at anything but can do it all.
Avramovic, although he has all the attributes to fill that role, is not a glue guy; he is ‘Big game Aleksa.’
Serbia has a vast pool of quality players, and while Avramovic may not be among the most talented, his place is in the national team
Serbia, like most national teams, lost some of its biggest stars before the recent FIBA World Cup. Some teams can withstand it better, some less, and Serbia should definitely be one of those with a wide pool of quality players.
However, almost the entire starting five withdrew from Serbia, either due to rest, injuries, or decisions by coach Svetislav Pesic. Nikola Jokic, Vasilije Micic, Aleksej Pokusevski, Boban Marjanovic, Nikola Kalinic, Vladimir Lucic, Milos Teodosic, Nemanja Bjelica, Alen Smailagic, Ognjen Jaramaz, Nemanja Nedovic.
Adding the players who play in the EuroLeague, such as Danilo Andjusic, Uros Trifunovic, Balsa Koprivica, Luka Mitrovic, Ognjen Kuzmic, and a few other solid names from the EuroCup and FIBA Champions League, we get the depth of the squad we talked about earlier.
From a Serbian perspective, this may not seem impressive, but other countries in the region would give anything to have at least a few of the mentioned names. Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina could use one or two guards, Montenegro a wing, Slovenia a center, while Serbia, due to its depth, may not have room for some of those classes.
When we look at the guard positions, Serbia has it all. For playmaking, there are Teodosic, Micic, and Stefan Jovic. If you need scoring, you have Micic, Bogdanovic, Marinkovic, Nedovic, and Guduric. If defense is required, there are Avramovic and Dobric.
The person who is most intriguing is undoubtedly Nikola Topic, the young playmaker from Mega who has been dominating in the ABA League this season. He has shown both scoring and passing abilities, an explosive first step and speed, a decent shot that can be improved, and excellent defense.
Topic should be ‘the one’ in the years to come, and Avramovic is somewhere in comparison to all the others, but… he doesn’t create better, doesn’t score better, doesn’t shoot better, isn’t faster than the rest, but his defense is exceptional.
How did Serbia manage to win the silver medal?!
At the FIBA World Cup, Serbia was welcomed with the lowest expectations due to the absences. However, as long as Serbia has captain Bogdan Bogdanovic in its lineup, expect great things.
To start with, Nikola Milutinov finally took on the role of the starting center and emerged from the shadow of Jokic, Marjanovic, Raduljica, and Kuzmic. The defensive specialist showed that he is much more than that and excelled on both ends of the court, being the team’s best player in the shadows.
In addition to his noted defensive prowess, Avramovic was the third-leading scorer and the second ‘thief’ on his team at the FIBA World Cup. He did all of this quietly. It was known that he could defend excellently on the perimeter, but the defensive clinic he put on in the semifinal against Canada, where he limited NBA superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who had averaged 31 points per game in the highest-quality league in the world and was the tournament’s leading scorer up to that point, will be etched in golden letters in the history of Serbian basketball.
The Canadian was held to ‘only’ 15 points and was able to attempt just eight field goals. Aleksa Avramovic didn’t give him room to breathe as soon as he crossed the center, and the Partizan guard finished that game with by far the highest +/- rating (+15). In the final, he couldn’t shut down the tournament’s MVP, Dennis Schröder, but he was the leading scorer for Serbia with 21 points and with his heroics, he brought the Serbs back into the game in the last quarter.
In those two games, all the hard work that Aleksa Avramovic had invested in himself throughout his career paid off. He was the best Serbian player in the final stages of that tournament and one of the most deserving for the unexpected silver medal.
If Partizan had Avramovic against Real Madrid last season, things would have looked different.
There have been thousands of articles written about the epic series between Partizan and Real in the EuroLeague quarterfinals last season. We all know how the legendary Sergio Rodriguez ignited the engines in the closing moments of those games and reminded us of his basketball genius. In the end, Sergio Llull also started making important shots. Without Avramovic’s broken hand, Llull and Rodriguez wouldn’t have had such an easy time. It was clear how they ‘felt the blood’ of Partizan’s defense in Avramovic’s absence.
Even Nikola Topic felt Avramovic’s power this season
Partizan has undergone some changes this season, and despite keeping Kevin Punter and Zach Leday, the impression is that the team is slightly weaker this year. When they added a loss to Mega in the ABA League, Partizan was on shaky ground when they faced the star-studded Crvena Zvezda.
In a game where only Avramovic showed up with 26 points in a direct duel with Topic, he ended his streak of five consecutive games with 20 or more points precisely against Avramovic. Coincidence or not, judge for yourself.
Avramović becomes ‘executioner’ of Crvena Zvezda
After dealing with the young talent, it was time for the more experienced ones, namely Milos Teodosic and Nemanja Nedovic. The eternal derby didn’t disappoint, even though Nedovic was absent due to injury. It was a game in which Partizan took a 15-point lead in the first quarter, only for Crvena Zvezda to completely turn the game around and take a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter. Only for Zeljko Obradovic’s men to regain the lead and win a game of crucial importance for both teams.
The key player of the match? Big game Aleksa. Once again. He scored a remarkable 12 points in the final quarter, 12 of his total 14 in that game, ensuring a smoother continuation of the competition for Partizan.
Just a few days later, another ‘eternal’ derby arrived, and Partizan was once again in a ‘must-win’ situation because they had lost to Mega in the previous round, which would almost certainly place them second at the end of the regular season. This would mean losing the home-court advantage in a potential finals series against Crvena Zvezda. We all know that so far, every time the ABA League was won by the team with the home-court advantage in the ‘eternal’ clash.
There was no Kevin Punter, Partizan’s best player, but it didn’t matter because the phenomenal Aleksa Avramovic showed up once again. He is slowly but surely becoming a true ‘star’ of Partizan. He scored 15 points with six assists, three steals, and one block, being crucial on both ends of the court. His +/- was +20, the highest in the game, while for comparison, the game’s top scorer, Frank Kaminsky with 22 points, had a -3. Avramovic had an incredible impact on Partizan’s play.
He is the key man in the systems of Zeljko Obradovic and Svetislav Pesic. Even if we disregard statistics, his energy and perimeter defense are what stand out. Next year, when all the big names will want to play for Serbia, no matter how much more talented they are than Avramovic, they won’t have an advantage over him.
It’s somewhat like when Steve Kerr for the ‘Dream Team’ of the USA at the Paris Olympics next year wants to have Jrue Holiday, who is 34 years old. Despite the fact that they have Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Ja Morant, Trae Young, and Tyresse Haliburton at his position, players that any basketball fan would want to have on the ideal U.S. roster. A few of them will make way if Holiday agrees to come because Jrue Holiday is a defensive pitbull who will perfectly fit Coach Kerr’s game plan.
Aleksa Avramovic has proven to be just like that, a key player in the systems of Zeljko Obradovic and Svetislav Pesic. Two coaches through whose hands many legends of this game have passed, winning major trophies with them. Being the most important part of their system is a significant, enormous thing. If he stays in Partizan’s project that began with Obradovic’s return, after Crvena Zvezda was dethroned following years of dominance, he could become synonymous with this new Partizan. Thus, he could enter the same sentence as the greatest players in Partizan’s history.