Aleksandar Petrović

Aleksandar "Aco" Petrović, commonly known as Aco Petrović (born 16 February 1959), is a Croatian professional basketball coach and former player. He currently serves as a head coach for the Brazil national team. Petrović is also the older brother of the late professional basketball player Dražen.

Petrović could play as a point guard or shooting guard, and achieved prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The pro clubs he played for included: Šibenka, Cibona, Scavolini Pesaro, Novi Zagreb, and Racing Luxembourg. He was among the 105 player nominees for the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors list.

Between 1991 and 1995, Petrović started his club coaching career with Cibona. Between 1995 and 1997, he coached the Spanish ACB League club Caja San Fernando, before returning to Cibona for the 1997–98 season. In the 2001–02 season, he went to Poland to coach Anwil Włocławek. In 2004, he was again in Spain with Caprabo Lleida. In 2006, he took over at the Italian League club Carifac Fabriano, before switching to Eurorida Scafati. In the 2007–08 season, he took over the Croatian club Zadar. He then became the head coach of Cedevita. He was named the EuroCup Coach of the Year in 2011.

In February 2012, he was appointed as the coach of Bosnia and Herzegovina's senior men's national basketball team. After departure of Božidar Maljković, Petrović once again took charge over Cedevita on November 26, 2012. After Cedevita was eliminated from the EuroLeague and the Croatian Cup, and left without any chance of qualifying for the ABA League Final Four, Petrović offered his resignation to the club, which was accepted on 3 March 2013.

Petrović has coached the senior men's Croatian national team on three occasions: in 1995, when they finished third in the EuroBasket 1995, between 1999 and 2001, when they finished 7th in the EuroBasket 2001, and during Croatia's run to the Olympics in Rio 2016.

On 23 March 2016, Petrović was named the head coach for the Croatia national team for the third time. In August 2016, Croatia reached the 2016 Olympic tournament by surprisingly winning an Olympic Qualifying Tournament held in Torino. At the tournament, Croatia beat Spain, and lost in the quarterfinal of the tournament from the Serbia national team. On 15 September 2017, Petrović left the team after a loss to the Russia national team in the Round of 16 at the 2017 EuroBasket.

In October 2017, a month after leaving the Croatia national team, he was named the head coach for the Brazil national team.

Aleksandar Petrović was born in Šibenik, to a Herzegovinian Serb father Jovan "Jole" Petrović, born in 1939 in Trebinje, and a Croat mother Biserka (née Mikulandra) Petrović, born in 1941, in the village of Bilice, near Šibenik. His brother Dražen, born in 1964, was also a basketball player, who died in a car accident in 1993 in Denkendorf, Germany.

Petrović's cousin is the Serbian former professional basketball player Dejan Bodiroga. Aleksandar's paternal grandfather and Bodiroga's paternal grandmother were siblings.