Nikola Mirotic, Italian champion with record-breaking results

A day after Fenerbahçe, with Sarunas Jasikevicius, Nigel Hayes-Davies, Nick Calathes and Sertak Sanli, won the Turkish league title, another former Barça player ended the season with success. We are referring to Nikola Mirotic, who was declared Lega champion this Thursday after leading Armani Milan to a 1-3 victory over Virtus Bologna (85-73) in the final of Italy’s top competition. Ettore Messina’s team overcame their rivals’ home field advantage to win the title.

The former Barça star was the absolute protagonist of Game 4, scoring 30 points (4/6 2-pointers, 2/5 triples, 16/18 free throws), 12 rebounds, 2 blocks and 1 shot, a scandalous total. He recovered in 27 minutes and received an astonishing 47 rating. No one has rated a Lega final game this highly since the Serbian Zeljko Rebraca (Benetton Treviso) scored 56 points, also against Virtus Bologna, in the 1997 final. In the four final games, Mirotic averaged 17.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and a PIR of 23.8. Obviously, the former Barça player was named MVP of the final.

The 47 rating that Mirotic achieved this Thursday exceeds the highest rating he had during his four years at Barça (2019-2023), when he recorded 43 points against Valencia Basket in the 2019-20 season, as well as 41 points (20-21) and two 39 points (21-22) against Real Madrid.

“I’m really lucky to experience these emotions at this moment in my career, to present the trophy to great fans and to do so under the orders of my favorite coach, Ettore Messina… We have a great group and I’m happy with the players and how we’ve reached the final stage of the season. We’ve been able to turn a not-so-positive start to the season into a great one,” said Mirotic after receiving the MVP trophy.

Armani Milan opened the final with an extra-time victory against Bologna (75-86). Virtus responded in the second game (72-64), but the Messina team then won the two games played on their own court (81-78 and 85-73 yesterday).