101 Greats of European Basketball

Simply a champ
It happened on the Serbian mountain of Zlatibor
in the summer of 1986. Zeljko Obradovic, at that
point a player for Partizan, was taking a course to
become a basketball coach. It was a mandatory
session for the students and Zeljko was a good
pupil. His gift for this profession showed from the
first minute. There was a group of kids around 15 and
16 years old in a basketball summer camp, and Zeljko
spotted one of them who was tall and thin. The player
caught his attention. Obradovic gave him a Partizan
jersey and, once back in Belgrade, he told his head
coach, Dusko Vujosevic: “Listen, I just saw a kid from
Sarajevo that we have to sign right now. His name is
Predrag Danilovic and he plays with Bosna Sarajevo.”
He didn’t have to tell Vujosevic twice. The coach started
pulling strings and the 16-year-old arrived in Belgrade
shortly thereafter – but without documents. Bosna
didn’t approve of the transaction because it also saw
that it had a diamond in its hands. With the support of
his parents and his own will, Danilovic arrived in Belgrade
with the intention of waiting as long as it would take to
play for his favorite team.
Two years inactive
With the rules on its side, Bosna toughened up and
didn’t give permission for the move. Young Danilovic spent
a full year just practicing. Vujosevic dedicated a lot of time
to him, with loads of individual practices, and that’s when
a great friendship was born. It lasts to this day.
When at the beginning of the 1987-88 season Bosna
stood its ground, it was clear that Danilovic was going to
miss another year. Then, Partizan decided to send him
to a high school in the United States to finish school and
learn English. He played basketball in Cookeville, Tennessee,
but he says that he didn’t learn anything new
because he was the best player in the school, by far.
Finally, in the summer of 1988, he was back in Belgrade
as a Partizan player. His brilliant career started with the triumph
of Yugoslavia at the FIBA U18 European Championship
in 1988, played in Srbobran in the Vojvodina region.
The coach was Vujosevic, and he had a powerful team:
Arijan Komazec, Zan Tabak, Rastko Cvetkovic, Dzevad Alihodzic
and, of course, Danilovic. In the title game, which I
saw live in the small gym, Yugoslavia defeated Vincenzo
Esposito’s Italy by the score of 84-75. Big man Alihodzic
had 23 points, shooting guard Komazec 20, and young
Sasha had 14 with 4 of 4 free throws. His average for the
tournament was 9.4 points. That was the first gold medal
of his career, which truly started on that day.
In the 1988-89 season, Danilovic made his debut
with Partizan’s first team and ended with 123 points in
21 games for a modest average of 5.6 points. But, by
playing next to Zarko Paspalj, Vlade Divac, Sasha Djordjevic
and his mentor, Obradovic, Danilovic gained valuable
experience and also two trophies: the Yugoslav
Cup, against a great Jugoplastika team of Boza Maljkovic
that won that year’s EuroLeague, and the Korac Cup,
in a great final against Cantu. In the first game of that
Korac Cup final, played in Italy on March 16, 1989, Cantu,
coached by Carlo Recalcati, won 89-76 as Kent Benson
starred with 24 points and Antonello Riva scored
19. The Italians arrived in Belgrade as clear favorites for
the second game, on April 22. In the old gym of New
Belgrade, which was packed to the rafters with 7,000
fans, Partizan won 101-82 with 30 points by Divac, 22
by Paspalj, 21 by Djordjevic and 10 by Danilovic.
101 greats of european basketball
Predrag Danilovic
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