Dario Saric has returned to Anadolu Efes 10 years after leaving the Turkish club for the NBA. Now 32, the Croatian forward believes he is coming back to an organization with a different mentality after its championship success during his absence.
Before getting into basketball, Saric joked about the demands of EuroLeague media day.
“Feeling good, feeling great,” Saric said, preparing for a long day of interviews. “Media day, I guess it’s gonna be a hard one, a tiring day, but we will survive somehow.”
Saric remembers Efes as an established European club, but he believes winning consecutive EuroLeague championships fundamentally changed expectations in Istanbul.
“Obviously, things change,” he explained. “Efes became a winner in the EuroLeague. So they know how to build a team now. They know what it takes. The situation is pretty much the same, the people around the team are the same, but I think once you win as a team, it puts you up there. You know what it takes to win the EuroLeague.”
That success, according to Saric, has created a confidence that was not as evident during his first stint.
“Yeah, the confidence,” he replied, agreeing that the team’s outlook has evolved. “You know, that posture, that body language that some teams have because they’ve been through the history and they just have something different. It’s hard to explain, but it’s something different. I think that’s what changed. Efes was always a ‘gentleman team’ throughout history, but once they won, they became known as winners. Now they can level up all the time. It’s not enough just to be in the playoffs; you need to win, because there is some history behind Efes now.”
Familiarity also influenced Saric’s decision after a decade in the NBA.
“Yeah, kind of,” he admitted. “After ten years in the NBA, it was more logical for me to come play somewhere I’ve been, to be surrounded by people I know, to feel confident and good, and to play good games. To give my best efforts to the team. I felt it was the best situation and the best thing for me.”
The reunion nearly happened before the end of last season, but Saric and Efes ultimately waited until the summer.
“After the situation with Detroit, after I got cut, I wanted to come immediately to play a couple of games before the season ended,” he revealed. “We didn’t come to an agreement, and the situation wasn’t really good in the second half of the season for Efes. So we waited for the summer. I had a couple of offers, and I decided that Efes is the best place for me to provide my best basketball.”
