April 16, 1992 a triple of a djordjevic still with hair after an amazing suspension in the race turning in the air in front of the Joventut point guard Tomás Jofresa gave himthree seconds from the horn of the final, the European Cup to Partizan Belgrade. The great conquest of the undertakersas the fans of the club that wears black are known, which makes them one of the 11 of the current Euroleague who have won the tournament. A triumph that marks 30 years. Three decades of the Partizán de Fuenlabradathis is how he was called because he played the previous phase in the municipality of the Community of Madrid due to the war in Yugoslavia, creating a great bond, which is still alive, between the city and the club.
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That season, the hardest emotionally (“The field was our salvation”, Djordjevic would say), was also the most triumphant of those from Belgrade, who returned to the Final Four in 2010 to move away from the elite. They had not participated in the Euroleague since 2014 and now return with Zeljko Obradovic, 62, on the benchas in that course in which In the summer of 1991, in a matter of hours, the Serbian coach spent preparing as a player with Yugoslavia for the Eurobasket to hanging up his boots and accepting the position of Partizan’s head coach. The legend Dragan Kicanovic, then in the offices, bet on him, and the Yugoslav master coach, Asa Nikolic, served as an adviser during the campaign.
Obradovic was only 31 years old and months later, leading a team with an average age of 21, he was proclaimed European champion. he did it with djordjevic and a very young Danilovic of referentsbut also with kropivica father (the son is now at his command) and Ivo Nakic, a Croat in a Serbian Partizan in the middle of the war and who did not leave the group despite suffering enormous pressure in his country. And a beardless Rebraca. and Nikola Loncarwhich is also Spanish: “Without really knowing what was happening, we saw ourselves playing in Fuenlabrada, in a pavilion (Fernando Martin) which was great at the time (inaugurated in September of that same 1991). Until the end of our lives we will be grateful because we had the best year I remember as an athlete”.
jose quintanacurrent president of Fuenlabrada and then mayor, played an important role for Partizán to play in Spain: “We chose it because it was a young team, like the city, and it became ours”and that was the case even against Spanish rivals such as Estudiantes and Joventut.
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Today, that very young coach is a living legend of basketballthe most successful ever, winner of nine European Cups with five different squads (Partizán, Joventut, Real Madrid, Panathinaikos and Fenerbahçe). Zeljko has returned home to close the circle with a Partizan that bets on the young but is ambitious, in the fight for a playoff spot with important players like Exum, Punter, Nunnally, Papapetrou, LeDay and Lessort, and also with some injury problem (Avramovic, Smailagic and Koprivica). The budget, one third that of Madrid or Barça (it can be around 14 million), is less than the illusion that it generates a project, in which Zoran Savic is the sports director, capable of selling 11,500 season tickets and attracting almost 17,000 fans on average in the first five home games at the Stark Arena (19,011 in the last one against Maccabi).
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That Partizán, which was from Fuenlabrada 30 years ago, is back. He had not played in Madrid in the Euroleague since February 2014. A Real awaits him, which has beaten him 18 times in 20 games and has four wins and equals in second place (6-3 balance) with Olympiacos, Barça and AS Monaco. A Madrid with Musa (plus Balkan talent) who has just scored 28 points against Valencia Basket at La Fonteta.
“It is an athletic and energetic teamwho plays with good rhythm and has great capacity in the low post and one on one, and has a great coach”He says Chus Mateo of the Partizan. A Mateo who in that distant 1991, at just 22 years old, was already showing his head in the Real Madrid grassroots categories. And that I was at the club when Obradovic was the first Merengue coach (1994-97) and that coincidedboth as assistants to Javier Imbroda in 2002-03, with Josep María Izquierdo, second to Zeljko at Joventut, Fenerbahçe and now again at Partizan. Here is history.
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Sasha Djordjevic: “We knew how to connect with the people, who went crazy with us”
“Fuenlabrada was not a basketball center and it was the mayor’s idea (José Quintana), who wanted to have a level team. The three teams from ex-Yugoslavia played in Spain: Jugoplastika in A Coruña, Cibona in Puerto Real (Cádiz) and us in Fuenlabrada. Were the most difficult days of our lives and of the country’s history: there were no gas stations, no flights… Total embargo. Little by little the relationship with the people in Fuenlabrada grew. We Serbs when we play basketball we do it to give emotions to those who come to see us. Probably We knew how to connect with those people, who gradually went crazy with us. The pavilion was always full, especially when Estudiantes and Joventut came. It was a very, very good group. Sometimes We spent two or three weeks in Madrid, living in a hotel, soaking up your language, your culture… We didn’t want to travel forever. That is why little by little that relationship grew, which was more than a friendship. And it gave us time to learn some Spanish… Bingo!”
Predrag Danilovic: “One of the most beautiful experiences of my life”
“We didn’t know where Fuenlabrada was, but we quickly had a nice connection with this city. I think it is one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. They didn’t make us feel like foreigners, rather we felt at home. The people of Fuenlabrada made things much easier for us. I remember that In the last training we had here they gave me a cake. It was my birthday and I was very excited. Then Djordjevic’s triple would come in the final, I was the MVP… I remember that we never threw in the towel; nor with the basket of Tomás Jofresa. When he hit the triple Sasha was so happy!
THIS IS HOW THEY ARRIVE
real Madrid
partizan
