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Biography
Aleksandar "Saša" Đorđević or Sale Đorđević (Anglicized: Sasha Djordjevic; Serbian Cyrillic: Александар Саша Ђорђевић, [aleksǎːndar sâʃa dʑǒːrdʑeʋitɕ]; born 26 August 1967) is a Serbian professional basketball coach and former player. He currently serves as a head coach for Virtus Bologna of the Italian Serie A.
During his playing career, he was a 1.88 m (6'2") 90 kg (198 lb.) point guard, and he played in 108 games with the senior Yugoslavian national basketball team. Đorđević led the KK Partizan to its first EuroLeague title in 1992, while he earned the All-Final Four Team selection. He was named one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors. 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. He became the first one to win an medal in Olympics, World Cup and Eurobasket as a player and as a coach.
Playing career
KK Partizan (1984–1992)
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.
In summer 1990, after being away from competitive basketball for a year due to the mandatory Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) service, twenty-three-year-old Đorđević spent four months with the Boston Celtics at their free agent camp, competing for a spot on the 1990-91 Celtics roster against some thirty other point guards. Đorđević joined the camp on recommendation from the Celtics' scout Nedjeljko "Mišo" Ostarčević and made it to the very end of the process before getting cut shortly before the season began due to Brian Shaw's return from Virtus Roma.
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.
Italy (1992–1996)
Đorđević played two seasons for Olimpia Milano from 1992 to 1994, and two seasons more for Fortitudo Bologna until 1996.
Portland Trail Blazers (1996)
After the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Đorđević had a stint with the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) during the 1996–97 season. Đorđević made his NBA debut on November 29, 1996, recording 2 points and a rebound in a 119–93 win over the Golden State Warriors. His last game was on December 15. Over 8 season games, he averaged 3.1 points per game in November and December 1996.
Spain (1996–2002)
After his 1996 NBA stint, Đorđević signed for FC Barcelona of the Liga ACB, where he played three seasons, until 1999. In 1999, Đorđević joined Real Madrid.
Return to Italy (2002–2005)
In 2002, Đorđević returned to Italy and signed for Scavolini Pesaro.
In 2005, Đorđević signed back to Olimpia Milano where he finished his playing career.
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, 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.
Panathinaikos (2015–2016)
On 20 June 2015, Đorđević signed a two-year contract to be the head coach of the Greek team Panathinaikos. On 20 April 2016, Panathinaikos announced the termination of Đorđević's contract.
Bayern Munich (2016–2018)
On 1 August 2016, Đorđević signed a two-year contract with the German team Bayern Munich, to be their head coach. 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.
On 29 March 2018, Đorđević was sacked after the elimination in the semifinal of EuroCup. During his coaching tenure, Bayern Munich held first position in the 2017–18 Basketball Bundesliga with 23–2 score before he was sacked. 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. 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 did not allow bigger involvement of team's management in coaching decisions.
Virtus Bologna (2019–present)
On 11 March 2019 Đorđević signed as a head coach for Virtus Bologna of the Lega Basket Serie A. In his Virtus Bologna debut on 13 March, Đorđević led the team to an 81–58 victory over Le Mans Sarthe. Virtus Bologna had won the second leg and advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2019 Basketball Champions League Final Four in Antwerp, which won on 5 May defeating Iberostar Tenerife 73–61, thanks to an outstanding game by Kevin Punter, who was nominated Final Four MVP. The BCL was the fifth European title in team's history and the first one after ten years.
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 | 3 | 2 | 1 | .667 | Eliminated in group stage |
| Panathinaikos | 2015–16 | 27 | 15 | 12 | .556 | Lost in Quarterfinal Playoffs |
| Career | 30 | 17 | 13 | .567 | ||
National team coaching
Serbia national team (2013–2019)
In November 2013, Đorđević was named the head coach of the Serbian national basketball team. 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.
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, and they eventually also lost to the host team, France, in the bronze-medal game, by a score of 81–68.
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.
At the FIBA Basketball World Cup, Serbia lost to Argentina in the quarterfinal game. In the Classification games, Serbia defeated United States and Czech Republic, thus finished 5th. After the game vs Czech Republic, Đorđević announced he would no longer be a head coach of Serbia national team.
Awards and accomplishments
Some of the honors Đorđević won as a senior player are:
- EuroLeague:
- 1992
- FIBA Korać Cup:
- 1989, 1993, 1999
- National Championship of Yugoslavia:
- 1987, 1992
- National Cup of Yugoslavia:
- 1989, 1992
- Spanish League:
- 1997, 1999, 2000
Honors won as a head coach:
- FIBA Champions League champion: 1
- Greek Cup winner: 1
- German Cup winner: 1
Personal life
His father, Bratislav Đorđević, was a professional basketball player and later head coach of many European teams.
Đorđević is one of the UNICEF National Ambassadors for Serbia, alongside Emir Kusturica, Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Janković and Novak Djokovic 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.