Nikola Vucevic Confirms Chicago Bulls Stay For 2025-26 Season

Nikola Vucevic has confirmed he will start the 2025-26 NBA season with the Chicago Bulls following talks with general manager Marc Eversley.

The veteran center has been rumoured to be of interest to the Los Angeles Lakers, who are looking to add to their frontcourt, as he enters the final year of his contract with the Bulls.

Vucevic averaged 18.5 points, 10.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists while shooting at 53% from the field last season as the Bulls finished 10th in the Eastern Conference, before losing in the play-in tournament against the Miami Heat.

The 34-year-old has played 972 regular-season games in the NBA, averaging 17.2 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.9 assists.

The upcoming 2025-26 campaign will be his 16th in the league after being drafted in the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2011.

Vucevic is confident he will start the new season with the Bulls after a conversation with Eversley, claiming he was never bothered by the trade rumours.

"I have almost no doubt that I'll be in Chicago," Vucevic exclusively told Stats Perform.

"That's how I'm preparing myself. That's what I'm expecting. I'll be in Chicago at the start of the season. We'll see, you never know, we can't control everything that's going to happen.

"The rumours are always there. Especially about me in the last few years. Honestly, most of them, or the majority, were really nonsense, especially the latest one about the buyout.

"People, especially in Europe, took it as if it was going to happen tomorrow, even though the journalist said that if there was no trade during the season, there might be a buyout option before the deadline. Here, they picked up on that as if the buyout was tomorrow. And then there's a rumour that I'll end up in Europe, etc.

"Honestly, I don't pay too much attention to it. I rarely read what's going on. I mean, the rumours about me. It's mostly my friends who send me stuff or my wife who sees something, but I don't pay too much attention to it. I'm used to it.

"And anyway, a week ago, I spoke with the Chicago GM, who had contacted me after all the rumours about a buyout and everything.

"He told me that none of it was true. They still want me there. That everything he told me after the season still stands. So, I knew. At no point did I think it was going to happen.

"But it's nice when your GM contacts you and tells you that. So, there you have it, there were a lot of rumours this summer and none of them were true. As usual!"