I
have known Dejan Tomasevic since his first season at Crvena Zvezda, in 1991-92, and his more than discreet 4 points in six games. However, going through his biography again, I must admit that I was surprised by his number of titles. If I calculated well, among his seven club teams and the Yugoslav national team, he won 23 trophies plus a silver and a bronze medal. There were also some individual accolades as competition MVP or member of an all-tournament team. There is no doubt that Dejan Tomasevic is one of the most decorated players in European basketball. He was a national champion 10 times with five of his seven club teams in three countries; he won six national cups in Yugoslavia, Spain and Greece. He won the EuroLeague and the EuroCup, the latter as MVP of the finals. And if that was not enough, with Yugoslavia he was world champion twice, European champion three times, and won both an Olympic silver medal from Atlanta in 1996 and a bronze from EuroBasket 1999 in France.
From football to basketball Tomasevic was born on May 5, 1973, in Belgrade. Unlike many other great players, he started playing basketball quite late, at age 15. Until then, Tomasevic had played football for Crvena Zvezda as a central defender, but after growing too much in just one year, he
101 greats of european basketball
Dejan Tomasevic
The center with point guard passing
became a bit clumsy on the football field. Tomasevic then decided to switch sports, fortunately for him and for basketball. Instead of being a mediocre defender in football, basketball had won an excellent center who would make history in the sport. Even though it has been written that Tomasevic started playing with Borac Cacak, that is not the truth. His very first club was Crvena Zvezda. He was promoted to the first team at age 18 in the 1991-92 season. He played alongside the late Boban Jankovic, Nebojsa Ilic, Aleksandar Trifunovic and Sasa Obradovic, although he had a small role. The following season, without Jankovic, who left for Panionios in Greece, but with young prospect Predrag Stojakovic, Tomasevic scored 82 points in 30 league games. I remember the prediction at the time of Coach Boza Maljkovic, who told me that Tomasevic had big potential. The following season, with the second straight national title for Crvena Zvezda, Tomasevic was already contributing 14.9 points and more and more rebounds. In his fourth season, 1994-95, his average in 28 games rose to 23.3 points. That summer he made his debut on the national team and won his first gold medal, at the 1995 EuroBasket in Athens. Tomasevic was not an important figure alongside Vlade Divac, Zarko Paspalj, Dejan Bodiroga, Aleksander Djordjevic, Predrag Danilovic and Zoran Savic, but he made the team and averaged 3.3 points and 3 boards per game. And he would stay on the team for the following 10 years, collecting trophy after trophy. After four years, two league titles and one cup with Zvezda, Tomasevic decided to leave the club and join its eternal archrival, Partizan. Crvena Zvezda fans never forgave him for this big sin, but he was looking for the best for himself and he took a giant step forward in
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