If anyone had forgotten what a former Euroleague MVP could do after two years playing a bit role in the NBA, well, Vasilije Micic made sure to remind us all what he’s all about.

With the score 56-52 and 8:04 left in the third quarter of Hapoel Tel Aviv’s 100-93 win at Valencia, Micic who was an absolute magician in the period put his stamp on the phrase made famous by Michael Jordan, “I’m Back.”

Micic put in a 3-point play, drilled in a triple, added a pair of deuces, scored another bucket and drew a foul for and and-one and then scored another bucket for a cool 15 third quarter points to give the Reds a 80-70 lead and for all intents and purposes create the necessary separation to close out the victory.

Having scored 7 points in the first half and having come off what was a subpar performance (in what he would call a subpar performance with 14 points and not having an impact on the game) in last week’s Derby defeat, Micic was not going to let anyone think that at the age of 31 he was done. After a mystical third frame, he was anything but finished.

It’s clear as to why Hapoel Tel Aviv owner Ofer Yannay wanted to open the purse strings to bring on the 2x Euroleague Finals MVP. The Reds need to make the playoffs in order to have any chance to stay in the continental competition as they are not a licensed club. By paying Micic a salary that is basically equivalent to the annual Euroleague fee they will put themselves in the best possible position to extend their time just like Monaco has done when they had brought in Mike James.

The logic is simple but yet brilliant and all the basketball aficionados reap the benefit of seeing the Serbian play once again in his backyard.

So far, Micic is averaging 16.2 points, 4.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds in four games, but it’s not just the stats that tell the story, it’s the experience and it’s the leadership that he brings to the table that will aid Head Coach Dimitrios Itoudis and Hapoel Tel Aviv reach their goals.

The consummate professional wasn’t far off from the showings he had during his MVP season with Anadolu EFES back in 2021 and if he can continue his fine play thus far, he will once again be in the most valuable player conversation.

Micic played for Mega Basket between 2010-2014 as he began to hone his trade and then was selected 52nd overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2014 NBA Draft. While it took him almost a decade to head over to North America, the Kaljevo native featured for a pair of seasons with Bayern Munich prior to spending a year a piece with Tofas and Zalgiris where he really began to flourish.

Off to Turkey and EFES Micic went between 2018-2023 where he dominated the Euroleague and picked up every award imaginable along both in continental play as well as in the domestic competition.

The two seasons in the NBA didn’t really show much of what Micic could do as there were flashes here and flashes there during his time with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Charlotte Hornets and a short cameo with the Phoenix Suns.

Micic saw that his future wasn’t going to be in the “World’s Greatest League” and made the decision to come back to the Euroleague and go for the gold in more ways than one.  

Itoudis is going to ride Micic as much as he can and he’s going to rely on the veteran guard who stands at 6”5 and 1.96 meters. In fact, the Greek bench boss has tightened up his Euroleague rotation as he featured nine players, two of which in Colin Malcolm and Tomer Ginat who played only 8:49 and 10:35 respectively.

The fact that the bench boss used a short rotation in this game may see the Reds pay a price on Friday night against Paris Basketball in France, but as they say, winning is the name of the game and if Itoudis feels that this gives the team the best chance to win, then who is to argue with him?

It’s always best to get off to a good start and that’s what Hapoel has done with a 3-1 record.

You can always work things out over the course of the first few months with what is a fairly new team when you are winning, but when you are losing (see Maccabi Tel Aviv with a 1-3 record) it’s going to be much tougher.

Sure, the Reds are not an entirely new team with holdovers in Johnathan Motley, Antonio Blakeney, Ish Wainright and Tomer Ginat along with Yam Madar when he returns from injury, but there are also plenty of newcomers in Elijah Bryant, Chris Jones, Dan Oturu and Malcolm in addition to Micic, so there is plenty of cohesion that needs to take place between these players.

One of the advantages that Itoudis has with a very large squad is that not only does he have plenty of players he can choose from including a trio that didn’t see the floor in the win over Valencia which included Tai Odiase, Tyler Ennis and Bar Timor, he also has enough players to use for a scout squad.

The scout squad in essence mimics the opponent that Hapoel will be playing which was something Jordan Loyd had told me he had done with the Toronto Raptors and played the part of Steph Curry when they defeated the Golden State Warriors to win the NBA championship.

In theory, a player like Israeli guard Iftach Ziv who has only featured in the domestic league could have taken the role of Omari Moore who carved up the Reds for 22 points while Oz Blayzer may have been Nate Reuvers and so on. Theses players would have watched video together with the coaches and then play how Valencia would have in what would be the best way to prepare for any opponent. It would surprise me if Itoudis is not doing this with his roster and staff but of course it’s not as simple as it sounds.

Itoudis has plenty of tools at his disposal to make this season a special. But above all, it’s going to be Micic who is going to be the barometer of the team and Hapoel will most probably go as far as he will take them.

If the game against Valencia was any indication, then the Reds will no doubt be heading in the right direction.