Dejan Bodiroga

Dejan Bodiroga

Bodiroga playing with Lottomatica Roma in 2006.
Personal information
Born (1973-03-02) 2 March 1973
Klek, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia (present-day Klek, Republic of Serbia)
Nationality Serbian
Listed height 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in)
Listed weight 110 kg (243 lb)
Career information
NBA draft 1995 / Round: 2 / Pick: 51st overall
Selected by the Sacramento Kings
Playing career 1989–2007
Position Small forward
Number 4, 10, 15
Career history
1989–1990 Proleter Zrenjanin
1990–1992 Zadar
1992–1994 Stefanel Trieste
1994–1996 Stefanel Milano
1996–1998 Real Madrid
1998–2002 Panathinaikos
2002–2005 FC Barcelona
2005–2007 Lottomatica Roma
Career highlights and awards
Medals
Men's Basketball
Representing  Yugoslavia
Summer Olympic Games
1996 Atlanta National Team
FIBA World Cup
1998 Greece National Team
2002 USA National Team
EuroBasket
1995 Greece National Team
1997 Spain National Team
1999 France National Team
2001 Turkey National Team

Dejan Bodiroga (Serbian Cyrillic: Дејан Бодирога; born 2 March 1973) is a retired Serbian professional basketball player. Listed at 2.05 m (6 ft. 8¾ in.) and 110 kg (243 lbs.), he mainly played the small forward position.[1] He had the ability to assume a point forward role as well as both guard positions.

A EuroLeague icon of the early part of the 2000s, Bodiroga proved himself to be a symbol of excellence by lifting consecutive EuroLeague trophies with Panathinaikos and FC Barcelona, and earned the EuroLeague Final Four MVP award both times. Among many other honors, Bodiroga was named to the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors and the EuroLeague 2001–10 All-Decade Team.

Bodiroga led Yugoslavia to two FIBA World Cup titles in 1998 and 2002, earning MVP honors in the former. In addition, he won three EuroBasket gold medals (1995, 1997, 2001) and a bronze (1999), as well as an Olympic silver medal in 1996.

Club career

Yugoslavia

Bodiroga first started playing structured basketball at the age of 13. He enrolled in Zrenjanin's Mašinac (Servo Mihalj) basketball section, under supervision of local basketball enthusiast Rade Prvulov. At the age of fifteen, he sprung up to 2.05m, and was quickly incorporated into the first team squad, coached by Miodrag Nikolić, a former OKK Belgrade and SFR Yugoslav national team player in the 1960s.

His domestic career took off when, at 17, he was noticed by Krešimir Ćosić at a friendly youth tournament that featured Mašinac and Zadar among others, where Bodiroga scored 32 points in a game that pitted two teams. Ćosić then brought Bodiroga for a week-long basketball camp in Zadar and eventually persuaded Bodiroga's family to allow their son to move away to Zadar. In the meantime Bodiroga signed a pre-contract with Vojvodina so that when he finally went to Zadar in autumn 1989 he wasn't right away eligible for the first team, meaning that he first worked with coach Josip Grdović in the club's youth sections while simultaneously attending high school. After a year he was allowed to be moved into the full squad, then under head coach Slavko Trninić.[2]

After just one season in the first team, Bodiroga's stay on the Dalmatian coast came to a premature end in 1991 due to the Yugoslav wars. The breakup of Yugoslavia war was about to start raging, and basketball quickly became an afterthought. Being a Serb in a Croatian city was increasingly uncomfortable for Bodiroga, so his mentor Ćosić (coaching AEK at the time) tried to persuade Bodiroga to follow suit.

Italy

Trials were arranged with AEK and Olympiacos, with both clubs offering a contract, on the condition that Bodiroga become a naturalised Greek citizen. He refused and ended in Italy instead, joining a Stefanel Trieste emerging team, coached by Bogdan Tanjević and financially backed by the Stefanel clothing empire. In Trieste, he first captured the attention of the wider basketball public. Shortly after his arrival in the summer of 1992, he made an impact, averaging 21.3 points per game over 30 league matches and leading his team to the playoffs. There, however, they were quickly disposed of in the second round by the more experienced Clear Cantù.

He had a stellar season for Trieste in 1993–94, this time leading his team deeper into the playoffs. In the semifinals game 3 against Scavolini Pesaro, Carlton Myers' buzzer beater clinched a 2-1 series victory for Pesaro. Trieste also reached the FIBA Korać Cup final, where they surrendered to PAOK from Thessaloniki, who starred Zoran Savić, Walter Berry and Bane Prelević. After that season, Stefanel changed its backing to Olimpia Milano, sparking an exodus of Trieste players and coaches to Lombardy (coach Tanjević, Bodiroga, Gregor Fučka, Alessandro De Pol, Davide Cantarello, and Ferdinando Gentile).

Bodiroga's leading role remained unchanged as he developed into an all-around player. In 1994–95, Olimpia reached the Korać Cup final, with players that also reached it the previous year in Trieste. However, they lost to Alba Berlin, coached by Svetislav Pešić, who would later play a big role in Bodiroga's career. On the home front, the team made it to the playoff semi-finals but lost 3-2 to the eventual champions, Buckler Bologna, led by another Serbian superstar, Predrag Danilović. The two Serbs turned the series into a personal duel, with Danilović's experience prevailing in the end.

The summer of 1995 was an important milestone for Bodiroga. He became part of the great Yugoslavia squad that was making its comeback after years of international exile. The team was loaded with stars like Aleksandar Đorđević, Vlade Divac, Žarko Paspalj, Danilović and Savić. Together, they won the gold in one of the most spectacular finals in EuroBasket history against a Lithuania that featured the likes of Arvydas Sabonis, Šarūnas Marčiulionis, Rimas Kurtinaitis, and Artūras Karnišovas.

That same summer, Bodiroga was drafted by the Sacramento Kings in the 1995 NBA draft (second round, #51 overall). One year later, the Kings selected his younger countryman Peja Stojaković. However, unlike Stojaković, Bodiroga declined the offer to play in the NBA, choosing instead to remain in Europe. In 1995–96, Bodiroga won his first trophy in Milan, but the Korać Cup was again lost, this time to Efes Pilsen.

In the league, Bodiroga led the way with 23.3 points per game in 32 regular season matches. During the playoffs, they beat Virtus 3-1 in the semi-finals (Danilovic left for the Miami Heat in the summer), and Teamsystem Bologna led by Myers, Đorđević and Alessandro Frosini. He took his place in the Yugoslav national team for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and he brought home a silver medal, with Dream Team III winning the gold.

Spain

For the 1996–97 season, Bodiroga joined Real Madrid after an offer of $1 million per season, and teaming up with coach Željko Obradović, whom he knew well from his national team stints. The squad also featured veteran Joe Arlauckas as well as established internationals Alberto Herreros and Mikhail Mikhaylov. In the Spanish ACB League finals, they faced an FC Barcelona team that boasted Aleksandar Đorđević, Jerrod Mustaf, and Artūras Karnišovas. FC Barcelona prevailed 3-2, winning the deciding 5th game 82-69 away, as Madrid settled with the European Cup trophy.

On the national basketball front, Yugoslavia rolled over the competition with considerable ease en route to another European gold in 1997, with Bodiroga again playing an integral role. In the group stages, the Serbs faced Croatia, in the first meeting in basketball between the two nations since the breakup of the old Yugoslavia. The game carried much political tension and was low-scoring, with Đorđević winning it for Yugoslavia (by then comprising only Serbia and Montenegro) with a dramatic 3-pointer at the end.

In Bodiroga's next and final season with Real Madrid, (and without Obradovic, who had moved to Benetton Treviso) there were no improvements, as the team was ousted in the league's semifinals by TDK Manresa. He did achieve League MVP honours for the 1997–98 season. That summer's national team duty was happier, as it brought another World Championship title for Yugoslavia, the first for Bodiroga. Now 25, Bodiroga was, together with Đorđević (who suffered knee problems and played few minutes) and Željko Rebrača, one of the team leaders.

Greece

Bodiroga with Panathinaikos B.C.

The same summer of 1998 also saw Bodiroga move to the Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos, where club chairman Pavlos Giannakopoulos began assembling a team to conquer Europe. As such, Bodiroga was the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle that already included Dino Rađa, Fragiskos Alvertis, Michael Koch, "Nando" Gentile, Pat Burke and coach Slobodan Subotić.

The Greens won the Greek League, but the EuroLeague ended in a disappointing note, leading to the departures of Radja and Subotić, with the latter's replacement being old acquaintance Željko Obradović, who brought along Željko Rebrača from Benetton Treviso, Johnny Rogers from Olympiacos and Oded Kattash from Maccabi Tel Aviv. After such an investment, Panathinaikos captured both the 1999–00 Greek League and the EuroLeague trophies, the latter coming in a final versus Maccabi Tel Aviv. In 2001, Panathinaikos again won the Greek Championship and also reached the SuproLeague final in Paris. A year later, Bodiroga was named the EuroLeague Final Four MVP, as the Greeks beat hosts Kinder Bologna, and their star player Manu Ginóbili 89-83.

In the international front, Bodiroga, as the team's undisputed leader, helped Yugoslavia win the 2001 European Championship in Turkey and the 2002 FIBA World Championship in Indianapolis. In this competition, the national side defeated Team USA in the quarterfinals and the Argentine national team in the final, in overtime.

Back to Spain

In the summer of 2002, Bodiroga returned to the Spanish league's FC Barcelona, which was managed by Svetislav Pešić and had players like Šarūnas Jasikevičius, Gregor Fučka and Juan Carlos Navarro. He won the EuroLeague with Barça (the first time the team achieved this), and also added two domestic league titles with them.

Finishing up back in Italy

In the 2005–06 season, Bodiroga came back to the Italian League, this time with Lottomatica Roma, re-joining coach Pešić, as the team played in the ULEB Cup. After getting eliminated from European contention in the round of 16 and losing the Italian Cup final (83-85) to Carpisa Napoli, Virtus finished the season in 6th place with a 22-12 record in the national league. Bodiroga finished the year with a 15.7 points-per-game regular season scoring average.

The playoff first round pitted Roma against favorites Montepaschi Siena. After dropping the first game, Bodiroga dominated the series in a 3-1 victory. During the 2006–07 season's playoffs, however, both teams played again, with the exact opposite outcome. After the fourth and final game, Bodiroga announced his retirement from professional basketball on 8 June 2007.

Career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  PIR  Performance Index Rating
 Bold  Career high

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

† Denotes seasons in which Bodiroga's team won the Euroleague

EuroLeague

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG PIR
2001–02† Panathinaikos 22 17 32.3 .590 .390 .796 5.2 1.9 1.0 .0 20.0 23.1
2002–03† Barcelona 22 20 31.5 .554 .417 .810 3.8 2.4 .8 .0 16.1 18.9
2003–04 17 17 32.3 .544 .313 .785 4.5 2.4 1.0 .1 14.8 17.5
2004–05 20 18 30.6 .532 .308 .813 4.8 1.1 .5 .1 15.1 16.0
2006–07 Lottomatica 19 17 29.1 .496 .415 .727 4.1 2.5 1.4 .1 13.6 14.7
Career 100 89 31.6 .545 .381 .792 4.5 2.0 .9 .1 16.1 18.2

International career

Bodiroga made his debut for the senior FSFR Yugoslav national team in 1991 at the first round of the 1991 Mediterranean Games in Athens.[3] He was a regular for the team throughout the 1990s and early 2000s (decade), participating in a total of three Summer Olympics (1996 Olympic Basketball, 2000 Olympic Basketball, 2004 Olympic Basketball,[4]) two FIBA World Cups (1998 FIBA World Championship and 2002 FIBA World Championship) and five European Championships (EuroBasket 1995, EuroBasket 1997, EuroBasket 1999, EuroBasket 2001, and EuroBasket 2005).

Bodiroga retired from the national team after the EuroBasket 2005 fiasco,[5] in which his team, one of the tournament's favorites, was eliminated as early as the first elimination round by the French national team on their own home court, in a tournament that ended with a verbal tirade by head coach Željko Obradović at the final press conference, revealing numerous fights between many of the players.[6]

Titles

Club

Yugoslavian national team

Individual Honours and Awards

Post-playing career

After retiring from playing professional basketball in June 2007, Bodiroga became the general manager of Virtus Roma, thus continuing at the club where he finished his playing career. He ended his GM term in June 2009.

In April 2010, Bodiroga along with fellow former player Željko Rebrača sued the Carmel, Indiana-based company Worldwide Associates LLC for investment fraud. They allege in their suit they each gave the company more than $4 million to manage, which the company used as venture capital in speculative startup companies instead of investing it in traditional securities.[8]

Personal

The son of Vaso and Milka Bodiroga, Dejan is a devout Orthodox Christian.[3] His father hails from the village of Bodiroge near Trebinje and was among the wave of migrants from Herzegovina that moved northwards following the devastations of World War II. On 13 July 2003 Bodiroga married his long-time fiancée Ivana Medić; the couple's first child was born in 2004.

He is a relative of another European basketball player – Dražen Petrović. Bodiroga's paternal grandmother and Petrović's paternal grandfather are brother and sister, making Bodiroga and Petrović second cousins. Although he never played for the club, Bodiroga is a declared fan of Partizan and is often seen at their games. Bodiroga is one of the founding members of the Group Seven Children's Foundation.

He is one of few players who have won the EuroLeague with clubs from two different countries, and he is also one of the few players to win each of the top 3 European national domestic leagues, the Italian League, the Greek League, and the Spanish League. He has several nicknames – Bodi Bond, "White Magic", Mr. MVP, God.[9][10]

Bodiroga is highly regarded by fans of Panathinaikos for his known passion in games with Greek arch-rival Olympiacos. In Serbia, he is admired for his unassuming and quiet way of going about matters off the court.[11]

References

  1. ↑ Bodiroga: 2.05 m 110 kg, Ciao.es; accessed 21 October 2016.
  2. ↑ Ispovest: Dejan Bodiroga - Fintom poslao Melouna po burek, Blic.rs; 18 April 2010.(Serbian)
  3. 1 2 Official website (English) (Serbian) (Spanish) (Slovene); accessed 21 October 2016.
  4. ↑ Yugoslav Olympic participants by sports-BASKETBALLArchived 5 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ FIBA: ITA - Late Bodiroga baskets push Lottomatica Roma past Varese, Noticias.info; accessed 21 October 2016.
  6. ↑
  7. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on August 20, 2010. Retrieved August 20, 2010.
  8. ↑ "Former basketball players accuse firm of investment fraud"; Indianapolis Business Journal, 16 April 2010.
  9. ↑ Interbasket Profile, Interbasket.net; accessed 21 October 2016.
  10. ↑ Profile, Sports-reference.com; accessed 21 October 2016.
  11. ↑
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