Aleksandar Đorđević

Aleksandar Đorđević
Đorđević with Serbia in 2015
Personal information
Born (1967-08-26) August 26, 1967
Belgrade, SR Serbia,
SFR Yugoslavia
Nationality Serbian
Listed height 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Listed weight 90 kg (198 lb)
Career information
NBA draft 1989 / Undrafted
Playing career 1984–2005
Position Point guard
Number 4, 6, 10, 19, 20
Coaching career 2006–present
Career history
As player:
1984–1992 Partizan
1992–1994 Olimpia Milano
1994–1996 Fortitudo Bologna
1996 Portland Trail Blazers
1997–1999 FC Barcelona
1999–2002 Real Madrid
2003–2005 Scavolini Pesaro
2005 Olimpia Milano
As coach:
2006–2007 Olimpia Milano
2011–2012 Benetton Treviso
2013–present Serbia
2015–2016 Panathinaikos
2016–2018 Bayern Munich
Career highlights and awards

As a player

As a head coach

Medals
Men's basketball
Representing  Yugoslavia/
 Yugoslavia
Summer Olympic Games
1996 AtlantaTeam
FIBA World Cup
1998 Greece
EuroBasket
1991 Italy
1995 Greece
1997 Spain
1987 Greece
U19 World Cup
1987 Italy
European U-18 Championship
1986 Austria
Head Coach for  Serbia
Summer Olympic Games
2016 Rio de Janeiro
FIBA World Cup
2014 Spain
EuroBasket
2017 TurkeyTeam

Aleksandar "Saša" Đorđević (Anglicized: Sasha Djordjevic or Sale Djordjevic, Serbian Cyrillic: Александар "Саша" Ђорђевић, pronounced [alě̞ksaːndar sâʃa d͡ʑɔ̝̌ːrd͡ʑe̞vit͡ɕ]; born 26 August 1967) is a Serbian professional basketball coach and former player. He currently serves as a head coach for the senior Serbian national basketball team.

During his playing career, he was a 1.88 m (6'2") 90 kg (198 lb.)[1][2] point guard, and he played in 108 games with the senior Yugoslavian national basketball team. In 1995, Đorđević received the Golden Badge award for the Best Athlete of Yugoslavia, and the Yugoslav Olympic Committee declared him the Sportsman of the Year.[3]

Professional career

Club career

Đorđević, who was about to turn 17 years of age, joined Partizan during the summer of 1984. The youngster's arrival at the club coincided with a front office shakeup, that saw Yugoslav and club legend Dragan Kićanović, who had just retired from playing, assume the club's vice-president role. The club also appointed Moka Slavnić, another freshly retired Yugoslav legend, to be the new head coach.

Professionally, Đorđević played for: Partizan (1984–1992), Philips Milano a.k.a. Recoaro Milano (1992–1994), Filodoro Bologna a.k.a. Teamsystem Bologna (1994–1996), the Portland Trail Blazers (September–December 1996, 8 games, 25 points scored), FC Barcelona (January 1997 – 1999), Real Madrid (1999–2002), Scavolini Pesaro (2003–2005), and Armani Jeans Milano (February–June 2005).

He is most remembered for his game-winning, buzzer-beating three-pointer, in the 1991–92 FIBA European League (EuroLeague)'s Final, while he was playing with Partizan, against Montigalà Joventut.

Đorđević retired from playing professional basketball on 3 July 2005, after an exhibition game, in front of the home crowd in Belgrade, in which many of his former teammates and fierce opponents took part.

National team career

In the EuroBasket 1995, Đorđević put on one of the best individual performances ever, in a EuroBasket finals game, against Lithuania. He scored 41 points, and shot 9 of 12 on three pointers. Đorđević is also remembered for his performance against Croatia, in the 1997 EuroBasket.

Coaching career

On 25 January 2006, Đorđević was named the head coach of his former team Armani Jeans Milano,[4] a position he left at the end of the 2006–07 season. In the 2011–12 season, he was the head coach of Benetton Treviso.

Serbia national team (2013–present)

In 2013, Đorđević was named the head coach of the Serbian national basketball team.[5] With Serbia, he took the silver medal at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup. In June 2015, he signed an extension with the Basketball Federation of Serbia to be the team's selector until 2019.[6]

His second major tournament in which he led the Serbian national team was the EuroBasket 2015. In the first phase of the tournament, Serbia dominated in the toughest Group B, with a 5–0 record, and then eliminated Finland and Czech Republic in the round of 16 and quarterfinal games, respectively. However, Serbia were stopped in the semifinal game by Lithuania, by a score of 67–64,[7] and they eventually also lost to the host team, France, in the bronze-medal game, by a score of 81–68.[8]

On 21 August 2016, his team won the silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics, with the Serbian national basketball team.

At the EuroBasket 2017, Serbia won the silver medal, after losing in the final game to Slovenia.[9]

Panathinaikos (2015–16)

On 20 June 2015, Đorđević signed a two-year contract to be the head coach of the Greek team Panathinaikos.[10] On 20 April 2016, Panathinaikos announced the termination of Đorđević's contract.[11]

Bayern Munich (2016–18)

On 1 August 2016, Đorđević signed a two-year contract with the German team Bayern Munich, to be their head coach.[12] In the European competitions, Bayern Munich participated in the EuroCup where it was stopped in the quarterfinals by Unicaja. Bayern Munich finished the 2016–17 Basketball Bundesliga regular season in 3rd place with 28–4 score and was later eliminated by the Brose Bamberg in the semifinal series of the Playoff with 3–0 score. Also, Bayern finished as the runner-up of the 2017 BBL-Pokal Cup for the second season in a row after losing to Brose Bamberg with 74–71.

Over the summer of 2017, a prominent center Maik Zirbes joined the team. Bayern Munich started the 2017–18 season dominantly, leading the league table. In February 2018, Bayern Munich won the 2018 BBL-Pokal Cup after 80–75 win over Alba Berlin, thus way lifting the trophy for the first time after 50 years in the national cup competition.[13]

On 29 March 2018, Đorđević was sacked after the elimination in the semifinal of EuroCup.[14] During his coaching tenure, Bayern Munich held first position in the 2017–18 Basketball Bundesliga with 23–2 score before he was sacked.[14] Few days after the dismissal, Đorđević qualified it as an "insult for common sense", especially since the 2017–18 season was one of the most successful in team's history.[15] He also added that there was apparently a disagreement between team's management (in particular general manager Marko Pešić) and his coaching stuff, as he didn't allow bigger involvement of team's management in coaching decisions.[15]

Coaching record

Legend
G Games coached W Games won L Games lost W–L % Win-loss %

Note: The EuroLeague is not the only competition in which the team played during the season. He also coached in domestic competition, and regional competition if applicable.

EuroLeague

Team Year G W L W–L% Result
Olimpia Milano 2005–06 321.667Eliminated in group stage
Panathinaikos 2015–16 271512.556Lost in Quarterfinal Playoffs
Career301713.567

Awards and accomplishments

Some of the honors Đorđević won as a senior player are:

Honors won as a head coach:

Personal life

His father, Bratislav Đorđević, was a professional basketball player and later head coach of many European teams.[16]

Đorđević is one of the UNICEF National Ambassadors for Serbia, alongside Emir Kusturica, Ana Ivanovic, and Jelena Janković, one of the founders of the humanitarian organization Group Seven, as well as the president of the Belgrade Marathon. Đorđević has also worked as a sports commentator for EuroLeague TV.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Height: 6-2 (188 cm) Weight: 198 lbs (90 kg).
  2. ↑ Aleksandar Djordjevic (Sasha) 6-2, 198lb.
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-08-20. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
  4. ↑ Aleksandar Djordjevic named coach of Milano
  5. ↑ http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/14/wcm/news/p/nid/70951/article.html
  6. ↑ "Đilas: Đorđević i Maljkovićeva selektori do 2019". novosti.rs (in Serbian). Tanjug. 4 July 2015. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
  7. ↑ "LITHUANIA END SERBIAN STREAK, RETURN TO FINAL". eurobasket2015.org. Archived from the original on 2015-09-19. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  8. ↑ "FRANCE REWARD HOME SUPPORT WITH BRONZE". eurobasket2015.org. 20 September 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-09-22. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  9. ↑ "Slovenia overcome injuries to claim historic title in Dragic's swansong". FIBA.basketball. 17 September 2017. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  10. ↑ "Αλεξάντερ Τζόρτζεβιτς: Τιμή και προνόμιο να βρίσκομαι στον Παναθηναϊκό". paobc.gr (in Greek). 30 June 2015. Retrieved 1 July 2015.
  11. ↑ "Termination of the cooperation with Aleksandar Djordjevic". paobc.gr. 20 April 2016. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  12. ↑ "Bayern Munich name Sasha Djordjevic head coach". sportando.com. 1 August 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  13. ↑ ""Srpski" Bajern osvojio Kup posle 50 godina". b92.net (in Serbian). 18 February 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  14. 1 2 Nikolić, Darko (29 March 2018). "Bajern smenio Sašu Đorđevića!". sport.blic.rs (in Serbian). Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  15. 1 2 ""Uvreda za zdrav razum – Pešić nije napao samo mene, već instituciju trenera"". b92.net (in Serbian). Tanjug. 3 April 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  16. ↑ Euroleague – Vladimir Stanković: The excitement starts here
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