Nebojša Popović

Nebojša Popović
Personal information
Born (1923-02-08)8 February 1923
Irig, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Died 20 October 2001(2001-10-20) (aged 78)
Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia
Nationality Yugoslav
Career information
Playing career 1945–1952
Number 8
Coaching career 1945–1955
Career history
As player:
1945–1951 Crvena zvezda
1951–1952 Gallaratese
As coach:
1945–1955 Crvena zvezda (men's)
1946–1952 Crvena zvezda (women's)
1950–1953 Yugoslavia
Career highlights and awards

As player:

As coach:

Career Yugoslav League statistics
Points 518 (8.9 ppg)
FIBA Hall of Fame as coach

Nebojša Popović (Serbian Cyrillic: Небојша Поповић; February 8, 1923 – October 20, 2001) was a Yugoslav basketball player, coach and administrator. He is the basketball legend of Red Star Belgrade. In 2007, he was enshrined as a contributor in the FIBA Hall of Fame.[1]

Early life

Popović lived with his family in Rijeka, where he played water polo as goalkeeper. He learned about basketball from the Yugoslav water polo and basketball pioneer Božo Grkinić.

Basketball career

Crvena zvezda

Popović was a co-founder of the Crvena Zvezda basketball club in 1945. He held number 1 membership card.[1] He played for Crvena Zvezda from 1945 to 1951, he also coached men's team at Red Star from 1945 to 1955 and women's Red Star team from 1946 to 1952.[1]

Popović played for the Italian team Gallaratese in 1951–1952.[1]

Yugoslavia national team

As a player for the Yugoslavia national basketball team Popović participated in 1950 World Championship and 1947 European Championship.[2] He scored first point in history of World Championships as player of Yugoslavia.[1]

He coached Yugoslavia national basketball team at the 1950 World Championship and 1953 European Championship.

Administrator

Popović served as the president of the Yugoslav Basketball Federation (1985–1987) and president of the Commission for International Competition of FIBA.

Journalism

Popović also worked as a journalist, contributing to La Gazzetta dello Sport for four decades.[1]

He was the executive of Yugoslav Radio Television (JRT), the Yugoslav national TV channel. He covered four Summer Olympic Games with JRT.[1]

Career achievements and Awards

Coaching record

Legend
 W  Wins  L  Losses  D  Draws  W%  Winning percentage

Yugoslav First Men's Basketball League

Season Team Games W D L W % Result
1946 Crvena zvezda 7 6 0 1 .857 Champions
1947 Crvena zvezda 4 4 0 0 1.000 Champions
1948 Crvena zvezda 5 4 0 1 .800 Champions
1949 Crvena zvezda 18 17 0 1 .944 Champions
1950 Crvena zvezda 18 16 0 2 .889 Champions
1951 Crvena zvezda 22 18 2 2 .818 Champions
1952 Crvena zvezda 4 4 0 0 1.000 Champions
1953 Crvena zvezda 6 5 1 0 .833 Champions
1954 Crvena zvezda 22 16 0 6 .727 Champions
1955 Crvena zvezda 18 14 1 3 .778 Champions
Career124104416.839

Yugoslav Women's Basketball League

Season Team Games W D L W % Result
1946 Crvena zvezda 3 3 0 0 1.000 Champions
1947 Crvena zvezda 4 4 0 0 1.000 Champions
1948 Crvena zvezda 5 5 0 0 1.000 Champions
1949 Crvena zvezda 4 4 0 0 1.000 Champions
1950 Crvena zvezda 5 5 0 0 1.000 Champions
1951 Crvena zvezda 10 9 1 0 .900 Champions
1952 Crvena zvezda 3 3 0 0 1.000 Champions
Career343310.971

National team

Tournament Team Games W L W % Result
1950 World Championship Yugoslavia 5 0 5 .000 10th place
1953 EuroBasket Yugoslavia 11 6 5 .545 6th place
Career16610.375

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 FIBA Hall of Fame page on Popović
  2. ↑ https://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fa/player/p/pid/64267/sid/2241/tid/390/_//index.html
  3. ↑ Full Cast & Crew of We Will Be the World Champions
Sporting positions
Preceded by
Petar Breznik		 President of the
Basketball Federation of Yugoslavia
1987–1989 		Succeeded by
Miodrag Babić
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