Nikola Mirotic is leaving Bilbao with a heavy load in his luggage. The Spain power forward collected first the title of the top scorer of the tournament, then a gold medal and finally, the MVP trophy.
Even if the U20 European Championship MVP is immune to the kind of playful superstition that characterises most sportsmen, it will be hard for him not to acknowledge there was almost a sense of destiny in his achievement.
Mirotic, a humble, almost reluctant super star, was chosen as the face of the tournament in the promotional posters around Bilbao a long time before the first tip-off, as the organisers felt he best embodies the combination of skill, talent and ethos that, ultimately, are the values and qualities that FIBA Europe aspires these young athletes will take from their participation in a Youth European Championship and will carry with them for the rest of their careers.
He then went on to not only top the scorers table, but also break the tournament record in points per game, averaging in excess of
All-tournament team: Nikola Mirotic (Spain), Furkan Aldemir (Turkey), Alessandro Gentile (Italy), Bojan Dubljevic (Montenegro), Evan Fournier (France)
