Vlade Đurović

Vlade Đurović

Personal information
Born	(1948-05-16) May 16, 1948 Belgrade, PR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia
Nationality	Serbian/Greek [1]
Career information
Playing career	1964–1973
Coaching career	1973–present
Career history
As player:
1964–1973	OKK Beograd
As coach:
1973–1978	OKK Beograd (assistant)
1978–1982	Sloboda Tuzla
1982–1984	Šibenka
1984–1985	Budućnost
1985–1986	KK Zadar
1986–1988	Red Star Belgrade
1988–1993	Panionios
1993–1994	Aris
1994–1995	A.E.K.
1995–1996	Limoges CSP
1996–1997	Panionios
1997	AEL Limassol
1997–1998	Oostende (Telindus)
1998–1999	Okapi Aalstar
1999–2000	Dafni B.C.
2000	Achilleas
2000–2001	Okapi Aalstar
2001–2002	ASVEL (assistant)
2002	Budućnost
2002–2004	FMP
2004–2005	Lietuvos rytas
2005–2006	NIS Vojvodina
2006–2007	CSKA Sofia
2008–2009	Metalac Valjevo
2009–2010	FMP
2011–2014	OKK Beograd
2015–2016	OKK Beograd

Vlade Đurović (also known as Vlado Jurović) (Serbian Cyrillic: Владе Ђуровић; born May 16, 1948) is a Serbian former basketball player and current basketball coach.

Early life

Đurović was born to parents Danilo Đurović from Sokolac and Mileva Cerović from Rogatica, both active World War II participants on the Partisan side who moved to Belgrade after the war, got married, and started a family.^[2]

Growing up in the Belgrade neighbourhood of Cerak, young Vlade played various sports, including football, basketball, and handball. At one point during the late 1950s, he even considered pursuing football in a more structured environment, registering for Red Star Belgrade's youth categories under the tutelage of up and coming young coach Miljan Miljanić, but soon gave it up.

Club career

His successful athletic career started as a basketball player in OKK Beograd in 1959. After passing different age levels within the club's youth system, Đurović made his first team debut in 1964. He ended up playing until 1973.

Coaching career

By the end of his playing career, he wanted to stay at OKK Beograd, he finished a coaching school and became the first professional in the history of the "OKK Belgrade." In the "OKK Belgrade" has worked with juniors and cadets. For his coaching career thankful to his godbrother Bogdan Tanjević, who persuaded him to train Sloboda Dita from Tuzla, and thus begins his rich coaching career (1978).

In 1982 Đurović, became head coach of Šibenka and he had the extraordinary luck to train young Dražen Petrović. In 1983 he won the championship title with Šibenka but only for sixteen hours,^[3] as the Board of Directors of the Basketball Association of Yugoslavia, to an urgently convened session, decided to cancel the game and ordered a rematch in Novi Sad. Šibenka decided to boycott it, and the title was awarded to Bosna. In the same year reached with Šibenka, the final of FIBA Korać Cup^[4] but was defeated for the second^[5] consecutive time by the same team, the French Limoges of Richard Dacoury and Ed Murphy.

After a one-year passage from Titograd and Budućnost, the summer of 1985 he joined Zadar. He stayed there just one year and led the team to the league title against back-to-back European Champions Cibona although Zadar struggled to the playoff finals with handicap seat.^[6] The 1986-87 season he was found to train the team of Crvena Zvezda and despite the fourth place in the regular season ranking, his team overcame the obstacle of Cibona in the semifinal and had the opportunity to claim the title towards super talented and young team of Partizan. Eventually the title was lost with 0-2 defeats.^[7] In his second year in Zvezda, incidentally that was the last of Yugoslavia over the next 14 years, he didn't managed something important in the domestic competitions, while in the Korać Cup reached the semifinals were eliminated rather easily by subsequent winner of institutional, Real Madrid.

In 1988 he went to Greece to coaching Panionios which these days was the third great power in the Greek League behind the eternal enemies of Thessaloniki, Aris and PAOK. Τhere depending on the competition, which began gradually to grow, succeed maintaining Panionios in the first four league positions and some march to their quarterfinals of Korac Cup in 1990 and 1993. His greatest success, however, was the victory in the final of Greek Cup towards the recently European Cup Champions PAOK of his old player in Zvezda, Branislav Prelević.^[8] In 1993 Vlade Đurović leave Panionios although the team that year had a roster capable of great things both in Greece and in the Korać Cup. The next two years had a pass from Aris and AEK^[9] without accomplish something great. On April 17, 1996 Đurović got a job in Limoges until the end of the season with a view to lead the team in winning the French Cup and the second position for participation in playoffs.^[10] From now he began to decline his coaching career after he was found to train clubs beyond the high European level in Cyprus and Belgium. In December 2011 Vlade returned after 23 years at home in OKK Belgrade.^[11]

He is a frequent pundit on Radio Television of Serbia basketball broadcasts.

Career achievements

• Yugoslav League: 1 (with Zadar: 1985-86)
• Greek Cup: 1 (with Panionios: 1990-91)
• Belgian Cup: 1 (with Oostende: 1997-98)
• Serbian and Montenegrin Cup: 1 (with FMP: 2002-03)

References