Zoran Radović

Zoran Radović (born February 17, 1961 in Belgrade, PR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia) is a retired Serbian basketball player and current FIBA administrator.

Zoran Radović

Personal information
Born	(1961-02-17) February 17, 1961 Belgrade, PR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia
Nationality	Serbian
Listed height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Career information
College	Wichita State (1980–1981)
NBA draft	1982 / Undrafted
Playing career	1978–1995
Position	Point guard
Career history
1978–1980	OKK Beograd
1981–1990	Crvena Zvezda
1990–1992	Alba Berlin
1992–1993	OKK Beograd
1993–1994	Pavia
1994–1995	OKK Beograd
Medals Men's Basketball Representing  Yugoslavia World Championship 1982 Colombia National team 1986 Spain National team Eurobasket 1987 Greece National team 1989 Yugoslavia National team Universiade 1981 Bucharest National team 1987 Zagreb National team

Early career and college

Known for tenacious defensive skills, Radović started playing basketball at OKK Belgrade where he went through all age groups within the club's youth system. Among the various coaches Radović played for at OKK Belgrade, Vlade Đurović would go on to a significant coaching career.

In 1980, Radović moved to the United States to play college basketball at Wichita State University where his single season in the NCAA Division I with the Shockers was very successful. Arriving to Wichita together with compatriot Žarko Đurišić, Radović joined the squad featuring future NBA players Cliff Levingston, Antoine Carr, and Ozell Jones as the sixth seeded Wichita State team came within one game of making it to the Final Four, losing the Midwest regional final to first regional seed Louisiana State University.

Professional career

After his NCAA adventure, Radović came back home, signing with Red Star Belgrade where he spent 9 seasons (1981–1990) and grew into a dependable point guard as well as a defensive stalwart on the Yugoslav national team. In addition to suffocating and aggressive defensive style, going after offensive rebounds became the staple of his game — a practice he picked up while playing college ball and introduced to the Yugoslav League where guards at the time rarely engaged in such forays on offense.[1] During his career at Red Star Radović played at four Yugoslavian playoff finals in 1984, 1985, 1987 and 1990, one Yugoslavian cup final in 1990 and one European Korac cup final in 1984.

In 1990, he moved to Berlin, spending two seasons at the developing German club Alba Berlin where he played two finals of German league playoff vs Bayer Leverkusen. His 49 points at the single game still stands as a record of the most points scored in one game in the history of Alba Berlin.

In 1992, he came home to Belgrade again and played for the team where he started his career, OKK Belgrade and with the team he won Yugoslavian Cup in a memorable game vs Partizan in 1993.

Next season 1993-1994 he played in Pavia, Italy and finished out his career in 1994-1995 season with a club where he started it - OKK Belgrade.

National team career

He started playing for junior National team of Yugoslavia at Balkan championship in 1977 where the team won gold medal and repeated the success in 1978 by winning gold again at the same event. As junior he won the best junior tournament in the world Albert Schweitzer in 1979 and played first FIBA junior World Championship in 1979 where Yugoslavia finished fourth.

His senior career with National team of Yugoslavia started already in 1981 at the World University Games and continued throughout the years until 1992. He played at two World Championships, three European Championships, three World University Games and two Balkan championships, missing Olympic Games in 1988 due to the injury and in 1992 due to the sanctions against Yugoslavia imposed by United Nations. He played 168 official games for Yugoslavia which keeps him at top 30 players in the history of Yugoslavian basketball by number of appearances.

During his national team career he was coached by Bogdan Tanjevic, Ranko Zeravica, Kresimir Cosic and Dusan Ivkovic, all of them being instrumental during periods for the success of Yugoslavian basketball.

References

1. Željko Obradović: Svi smo postali deo Velikog Brata, a to ništa ne valja!;telegraf.rs, 2 January 2014