Aleksandar Đorđević

Đorđević joined Partizan Belgrade during the summer of 1983, at the age of 16. 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 serving his mandatory Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) stint, twenty-three-year-old Đorđević spent four months at the Boston Celtics' free agent training camp, competing for a spot on the 1990–91 Celtics roster against some thirty other point guards.[7] Đorđević joined the camp on recommendation from the Celtics' scout Nedjeljko "Mišo" Ostarčević, making it to the very end of the selection process before getting cut shortly before the season began due to Brian Shaw's return to the club from Virtus Roma.

Đorđević's pro club career is most remembered for his game-winning, buzzer-beating three-pointer, in the 1991–92 FIBA European League (EuroLeague)'s 1992 Final, which he hit in the game against the Spanish club Montigalà Joventut. He was named to the 1992 EuroLeague All-Final Four Team. In addition to winning Europe's most prestigious club title, the EuroLeague championship, with Partizan Belgrade in 1992, Đorđević also won Europe's third most important competition at that time, the FIBA Korać Cup title, in the 1988–89 season. He also won two Yugoslav First Federal League championships (1986–87 and 1991–92), and two Yugoslav Cups (1989 and 1992) while with the club.

Đorđević moved from Partizan Belgrade to Olimpia Milano, which competed in the top level Italian League, in 1992. He stayed at the club for two seasons, from 1992–93 to 1993–94. With Olimpia Milano, he won the FIBA Korać Cup championship, which was Europe's third most significant competition at that time, in the 1992–93 season. He was the top scorer of the finals.

Đorđević moved to the Italian League club Fortitudo Bologna, in 1994. He played with the club during the 1994–95 and 1995–96 seasons.

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.[8] 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.[9] His last NBA game was on December 15. Over 8 season games, he averaged 3.1 points per game, in games played in November and December 1996.[10]

After his NBA stint with the Portland Trail Blazers in 1996, Đorđević signed with FC Barcelona of Spain's premier competition, the Liga ACB. He stayed with the club for three seasons (1996–97, 1997–98, and 1998–99). With Barcelona, he won the European-wide third-tier level FIBA Korać Cup championship of the 1998–99 season, and he was the final's top scorer. He also won two Spanish ACB League championships with the club, in the 1996–97 and 1998–99 seasons.

In 1999, Đorđević joined the Spanish ACB League club Real Madrid.[11] With Real Madrid, he won the championship of the 1999–00 Spanish League season in FC Barcelona's arena. As he celebrated the title in the court he was pushed by his former teammate Nacho Rodríguez,[12] who claimed that "Sasha has to know that you can't do that in an opponent's grounds".[13]

He also spent the 2000–01 and 2001–02 seasons with the club.

After a season off, Đorđević returned to Italy and he signed with Scavolini Pesaro for the 2003–04 season. With Scavolini, Djordjevic reached the finals of the 2004 Italian Cup, where his team lost to Benetton Treviso. He also played with Pesaro in the beginning of the 2004–05 season.

On 25 February 2005, Đorđević signed with Olimpia Milano again. The club made it to the 2004–05 Italian League's Finals, where they lost to Fortitudo Bologna, 3 games to 1. The 2004–05 season was the last season of Đorđević's pro club career.

Đorđević officially retired from playing professional club basketball on 3 July 2005, after an exhibition game, which was held in his honor. The game was held in front of the Serbian fans in Belgrade. Many of his former teammates and toughest opponents played in that game.

Đorđević was a member of SFR Yugoslavia's junior national teams. With the SFR Yugoslav Under-18 national team, he won the gold medal at the 1986 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship. As a member of the SFR Yugoslav Under-19 national team, he won the gold medal at the 1987 FIBA Under-19 World Cup.

Đorđević was also a member of the senior SFR Yugoslav national team. With SFR Yugoslavia, he won a bronze medal at the 1987 EuroBasket. He also won a gold medal at the 1991 EuroBasket.

Đorđević was also a member of the senior FR Yugoslav national team. With FR Yugoslavia, he won the gold medal at the 1995 EuroBasket, where he had one of the best individual performances ever in a EuroBasket Finals game. In that 1995 EuroBasket Finals game against Lithuania, he scored 41 points and made 9 out of his 12 three-point shot attempts. He also won the silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Đorđević won another gold medal at the 1997 EuroBasket. During that tournament, he hit a game-winning shot against Croatia. Finally, Đorđević won another gold medal at the 1998 FIBA World Cup.[14]

Đorđević retired from playing pro basketball in 2005. On 25 January 2006, he began a new career, working as a basketball coach, when he was named the head coach of the last team that he played with, Armani Jeans Milano, of Italy's Lega Basket Serie A and Europe's premier competition, the EuroLeague.[15] He left that position at the end of the 2006–07 Italian League season.

Đorđević's next head coaching job was with the Italian Serie A club Benetton Treviso. He coached the club during the 2011–12 season. During that season, the club competed in both the 2011–12 Italian League and also in Europe's secondary competition, the 2011–12 EuroCup.

On 20 June 2015, Đorđević signed a two-year contract to be the head coach of Panathinaikos, a club competing in the Greek Basket League and the EuroLeague.[16] With Panathinaikos, he won the 2016 edition of the Greek Cup. On 20 April 2016, Panathinaikos announced the termination of Đorđević's contract.[17]

On 1 August 2016, Đorđević signed a two-year contract with the German Bundesliga team Bayern Munich, to be their head coach.[18] In European-wide competitions, Bayern Munich participated in one of Europe's two secondary competitions, the 2016–17 EuroCup, where it was defeated in the quarterfinals by Unicaja. Bayern Munich finished the 2016–17 Basketball Bundesliga regular season in 3rd place, with 28–4 record, and was eliminated by Brose Bamberg in their semifinal playoff series, with a 3–0 series score. Bayern also finished as the runner-up of the 2017 German Cup for the second season in a row, after losing in the Cup's Final to Brose Bamberg, by a score of 74–71.

Over the summer of 2017, Maik Zirbes, a prominent center, joined the team. Bayern Munich started the 2017–18 German League season in a dominant fashion, leading the league's standings table. In February 2018, Bayern Munich won the 2018 German Cup, after an 80–75 win over Alba Berlin, and the club thus won the German Cup trophy for the first time in 50 years.[19]

On 29 March 2018, Đorđević was sacked by Bayern, after the club's elimination in the semifinals of the 2017–18 EuroCup.[20] During that season, Bayern Munich held the first position in the 2017–18 Basketball Bundesliga regular season standings, with a record of 23–2, before he was sacked.[20] A few days after his dismissal, Đorđević stated that his firing was an "insult for common sense", especially since the 2017–18 season was one of the most successful in the team's history.[21] He also added that there was an apparent disagreement between the team's management (in particular general manager Marko Pešić), and his coaching staff, as he had not allowed the team's management to have a bigger role in coaching decisions.[21]

Coach Đorđević and the team, after winning the 2018–19 Basketball Champions League in Antwerp

On 11 March 2019, Đorđević signed to be the head coach of Virtus Bologna of the Lega Basket Serie A.[22][23][24] In his Virtus Bologna debut on 13 March, Đorđević led the team to an 81–58 victory over Le Mans Sarthe.[25] Virtus Bologna advanced to the 2019 Basketball Champions League Final Four in Antwerp,[26][27] where the club won the championship on the 5th of May, after defeating Iberostar Tenerife, by a score of 73–61, in part thanks to an outstanding game by Kevin Punter, who was named the BCL Final Four MVP.[28] The 2019 BCL championship was the fifth European-wide title in the team's history, and the first one it had won in ten years.[29]

On 13 July, Virtus signed a three-year deal with Miloš Teodosić, 2016 EuroLeague champion and former NBA player,[30] who was widely considered one of the best European point guard of all time.[31] Among others, the team signed also Vince Hunter, Frank Gaines, Kyle Weems, Julian Gamble, Stefan Marković and Giampaolo Ricci.[32] On 7 April 2020, after more than a month of suspension, the Italian Basketball Federation officially ended the 2019–20 season, due to the coronavirus pandemic that severely hit Italy.[33] Virtus ended the season first, with 18 wins and only 2 defeats, but the title was not assigned.[34]

On 7 December 2020, just 10 games after the starting of the season, Đorđević was unexpectedly and suddenly relieved from Bologna and, with him, his coaching assistant Goran Bjedov.[35] However, on the following day, after a long confrontation with the ownership, Đorđević was confirmed as coach.[36]

Đorđević with Željko Obradović in 2015

In November 2013, Đorđević was named the head coach of the Serbian national basketball team.[37] With Serbia, he took the silver medal at the 2014 FIBA World Cup. In June 2015, he signed an extension with the Basketball Federation of Serbia, to be the team's selector until 2019.[38]

His second major tournament in which he led the Serbian national team was the 2015 EuroBasket. In the first phase of the tournament, Serbia dominated in the tournament's toughest group (Group B), with a 5–0 record, and then eliminated Finland and the Czech Republic in the round of 16 and quarterfinal games, respectively. However, Serbia were stopped in their semifinal game by Lithuania, by a score of 67–64,[39] and they eventually also lost to the host team, France, in the bronze-medal game, by a score of 81–68.[40]

On 21 August 2016, he led Serbia's national team to the silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics. At the 2017 EuroBasket, Serbia won the silver medal, after losing in the final game to Slovenia.[41]

At the 2019 FIBA World Cup, Serbia lost to Argentina in their quarterfinals game. In the classification games, Serbia defeated the United States and Czech Republic, and thus finished the tournament in 5th place.[42] After the game versus the Czech Republic, Đorđević announced that he would no longer be the head coach of Serbia's senior national team.[43]