Chicago Bulls center Nikola Vucevic confirmed that he’s retiring from international basketball and the ongoing EuroBasket 2025 will be his final tournament, where he’ll represent the Montenegro national team.
The news was first broken by Eurohoops, but NBA Central further shared that the 35-year old’s NBA career will continue.
Nikola Vucevic is retiring at the age of 35, per @Eurohoopsnet
After years of competing at the highest level, he’s officially stepping away — but only from international play. His NBA career will continue pic.twitter.com/OWPfNoMTR3
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) September 3, 2025
In the ongoing EuroBasket 2025 tournament, Vucevic has averaged 18.3 points, 11.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists, while featuring against teams like Germany, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden. He kept his team’s hope alive in the 87-81 win against Sweden. He finished the game with 23 points, 15 rebounds, four assists and three blocks. However, Montenegro lost their group stage finale against Great Britain, 89-83.
Montenegro is currently in fifth place in Group B but tied for fourth in terms of wins alongside Great Britain. Teams placed inside the top four will qualify for the Round of 16 stage of the tournament.
Nikola Vucevic shut down retirement buzz among NBA circles
Last year in September, there were questions being raised on whether Nikola Vucevic was thinking about dropping a curtain on his career. However, the Bulls center shut down those rumors saying he still has four good years of basketball left.
“In my mind I have at least four more years and then I want to see from there what I can do. But it came out as, like, I want to play four more years,” the Bulls center said.
Vucevic still has one year remaining on his three-year, $60 million deal signed with the Bulls before the 2023-24 NBA season. He’ll become a free agent after the 2025-26 season.