Prospect Highlight: Nikola Tomic 2005 GER Braunschweig

Nikola Tomic has played for the youth ranks at ALBA Berlin and FC Bayern Munich and now the 2005 German talent looks to take the next step with Braunschweig.

Nikola Tomic is starring this season for Basketball Löwen Braunschweig’s U19 NBBL team, and the 2005-born talent is doing so after playing in the youth ranks of two of Germany’s biggest clubs - ALBA Berlin and FC Bayern Munich.

Nikola Tomic hails from Berlin and is the son of the former German league professional Drazen Tomic. The former shooting guard/small forward played 83 games for Germany from 1995 to 2003 including at the 1999 and 2001 EuroBaskets. He even scored 32 points with 6 three-pointers against Croatia - the homeland of his parents - in 1999.

The Berlin native Drazen Tomic played 14 years in Germany including for ALBA (1992-97) Bonn (1997-2000), Cologne (2001-03), Lichterfelde (2004-05) and Braunschweig (2006-07). He made his professional debut as an 18-year-old in 1992 and he was on the ALBA team that won the 1997 German league and cup double. Tomic, who also played in France, Spain, Poland and Greece, retired in 2007 playing his final game for New Yorker Phantoms Braunschweig.

After retiring, Tomic founded a marketing and consulting company with former German international Marko Pesic with Lumani 10.7 serving as an agency for basketball players.

Drazen Tomic also raised his son Nikola Tomic, who is one of the top stars in the U19 NBBL league this season.

Nikola Tomic came up in the TuS Lichterfelde club and then joined Friedenauer TSC in the German capital for the U12 ranks. He played two years for Friedenau in the U16 JBBL. In June 2020 after having averaged 9.2 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.3 steals in 15 games in the 2019-20 JBBL season, Tomic and his fellow Friedenau point guard teammate Nils Machowski moved to the youth program of ALBA Berlin.

Tomic chances of playing in the JBBL were limited in 2020-21 due to the Covid pandemic. He ended up playing 4 games and averaged 26.5 points, 10.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2.8 steals for ALBA.

During the 2020-21 season, Tomic received regular invitations to training camps for the German U16 national team, participating in November 2020, January, February, March, June and July 2021. Tomic did not however end up making the Germany team for the FIBA U16 European Challengers 2021, which included Martin Kalu, Joshua Bonga, Declan Duru, Esli Edigin and Johann Grünloh.

After three seasons in the JBBL, Tomic jumped to the U19 NBBL with ALBA in 2021, not turning 17 years old until January 5, 2022. He made a solid contribution for the season, picking up 7.2 points, 2.1 rebounds. 1.1 assists and 0.7 steals in 13 minutes per game over 10 games.

Tomic, who hit 7-of-14 three-pointers for 50.0 percent, had two stand-out games. Against Hagen in late November, he hit 8-of-12 shots including both of his three-point attempts for 19 points to go with 2 rebounds and 3 assists. And he collected 14 points with 2 three-pointers, 4 rebounds and 2 assists against Hamburg in mid-December. Tomic was not included on ALBA’s NBBL playoffs rosters while the team won the 2022 title.

Tomic was however included on the ALBA team that participated in the Adidas Next Generation Tournament in April in Ljubljana, picking up 7 points and 4 rebounds in 26 combined minutes in 4 games.

In the summer of 2022, Tomic decided to move from ALBA to Bayern, where he would in addition to play the NBBL as a 17/18 year old he would also compete against adults in the third division ProB with Bayern’s second team.

Tomic got injured shortly after the move and did not play a game until November 6 in the NBBL. That was the beginning of a season of starts and stops. He missed three weeks and then played one game. Tomic then sat out two months before playing one game in the NBBL in last January.

He missed another three weeks before making his ProB debut in mid-February. That was followed by nearly another month break. Tomic played in both of Bayern’s Round of 16 playoff games in the NBBL in mid-March, totalling 5 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals in 20 minutes. He also played in two more ProB games in mid-March and early April, scoring his first points in the second game with 4 points, 2 rebounds and 1 steal versus Speyer.

Tomic also appeared in the first game of Bayern’s NBBL Quarter-Finals playoffs against Bamberg-Breitengüßbach, picking up 2 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists in 11 minutes.

For the season, Tomic totalled 23 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals in 66 minutes over 6 NBBL games. And he added 4 points, 2 rebounds and 1 steal in 24 minutes of 3 ProB appearances.

Tomic also received an invitation in February 2023 to the German U18 national team training camp. He once again did not make the final German team this past summer for the FIBA U18 European Championship 2023.

All of the time away from the team didn’t really allow Tomic a chance to get incorporated with the Bayern team. And after just one season, the still 18-year-old went looking for another program.

His father contacted Braunschweig’s assistant coach Liviu Calin, who runs the club’s youth program and was with the club when the elder Tomic finished his playing days - at the early days of Dennis Schröder’s time in the club.

“It’s not far from Berlin, and I already knew some of the guys from the team from there - Gian Aydinoglu, Raphael Ejimofor and Emre Gülsekin,” Nikola Tomic said in an interview with the Braunschweiger Zeitung (subscription needed).

After a try-out with Braunschweig youth coach Benjamin Travnizek, Tomic ended up signing a three-year deal with the club.

Tomic took part in the Braunschweig Bundesliga team training camp ahead of the season. And he started the 2023-24 campaign in strong fashion in the fourth division Regionalliga against adults. He had 8 points and 4 assists in the season opener and then collected 28 points with 4 three-pointers, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals against Königs Wusterhausen.

Those games were still at the end September and then he took on a bigger role with the NBBL team. And he absolutely dominated.

He started with 31 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists and then had 24 points, 14 rebounds and 5 assists.

In an 87-86 overtime loss to Sartorius Juniors, Tomic played all but 4 seconds and scored 46 points on 16-of-41 shots, including 4-of-12 three-pointers to go with 11 rebounds and 6 assists. Tomic three more times eclipsed the 40-point mark - all three times grabbing double figure rebounds as well.

For the season, Tomic is averaging 33.7 points on 54.4 percent two-point shooting (averaging 11.7-of-21.4 shoots per game) and 29.2 percent three-pointers (2.1-of-7.2) to go with 10.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.9 steals and 1.9 blocks in nine games. He is also averaging 4.6 turnovers in nearly 35 minutes per game.

Tomic has also started to dominate the Regionalliga as well.

Through 12 games in the season, he is tallying 14.2 points with 38.6 percent three-point shooting, 4.6 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.8 steals. But in his last three games, Tomic is averaging 23.0 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 3.0 steals while shooting 40.0 percent on three-pointers.

Tomic has not yet been included on Braunschweig’s roster in an easyCredit BBL this season and it seems quite unlikely that will happen in the near future. The 20-year-old point guard Gian Aydinoglu has only appeared in 5 games - three league contests and twice in the German Cup - and he has been with the club since 2022. And fellow 20-year-old playmaker Jamil Hyangho has not gotten into one game this season in his fourth season with the club.

Tomic only turned 19 on January 5 and he still has plenty of time. But the fact that he is already excelling at both the NBBL and Regionalliga levels shows a good promise. And Tomic is in a club where if he truly is ready he will get a chance to play in the German top flight.

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