Nebojša Popović
{{short description|Serbian basketball player and coach}}
{{for|the handball player|Nebojša Popović (handballer)}}
{{Infobox basketball biography
| name = Nebojša Popović
| image =
| caption =
| height_m =
| weight_kg =
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1923|02|08}}
| birth_place = Irig, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2001|10|20|1923|02|08}}
| death_place = Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia
| nationality = Yugoslav
| career_position =
| career_number = 8, 16
| career_start = 1945
| career_end = 1952
| coach_start = 1945
| coach_end = 1955
| years1 = 1945–1951
| team1 = Crvena zvezda
| years2 = 1951–1952
| team2 = Gallaratese
| cyears1 = 1945–1955
| cteam1 = Crvena zvezda Men
| cyears2 = 1946–1952
| cteam2 = Crvena zvezda Women
| cyears3 = 1950–1953
| cteam3 = Yugoslavia
| FIBA_HOF_coach = Nebojša-Popovic
| medaltemplates =
| stats_league = Yugoslav League
| stat1label = Points
| stat1value = 518 (8.9 ppg)
| highlights =
As a player:
- 6× Yugoslav League champion (1946–1951)
As a coach:
- 10× Yugoslav Men's League champion (1946–1955)
- 7× Yugoslav Women's League champion (1946–1952)
- Piva Ivković Award for Lifetime Achievement
- FIBA Order of Merit (1997)
| medal_templates = {{MedalSport|Men's basketball}}
{{MedalCountry|{{bk|YUG}}}}
{{MedalCompetition|Balkan and Central Europe Games}}
{{MedalSilver|1947 Albania| Team }}
{{MedalBronze|1946 Romania| Team }}
}}
Nebojša Popović ({{lang-sr-cyr|Небојша Поповић}}; 8 February 1923 – 20 October 2001) was a Serbian basketball player, coach and administrator. He represented the Yugoslavia national basketball team internationally. He is the basketball legend of Red Star Belgrade. In 2007, he was enshrined as a contributor in the FIBA Hall of Fame.[https://www.fiba.basketball/hall-of-fame/Neboj%C5%A1a-Popovic FIBA Hall of Fame page on Popović]
Early life
Popović lived with his family in Rijeka, where he played water polo as a goalkeeper. He learned about basketball from the Yugoslav water polo and a 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.
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. In July 1950, he was a member of the Zvezda squad that won an international cup tournament in Milan, Italy.{{cite web |title=Daba: Kad je Zvezda osvajala Milano… |url=https://kosmagazin.com/daba-kad-je-zvezda-osvajala-milano/ |website=kosmagazin.com |date=September 2020 |access-date=10 January 2021}}
Popović played for the Italian team Gallaratese in 1951–1952.
= Yugoslavia national team=
As a player for the Yugoslavia national basketball team Popović participated in 1950 World Championship and 1947 European Championship.{{cite web| url = https://archive.fiba.com/pages/eng/fa/player/p/pid/64267/sid/2241/tid/390/_//index.html| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161121044553/https://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fa/player/p/pid/64267/sid/2241/tid/390/_//index.html| archive-date = 2016-11-21| title = Nebojsa Popovic's profile {{!}} 1947 European Championship for Men}} He scored first point in history of World Championships as player of Yugoslavia.
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.
He was the executive of Yugoslav Radio Television (JRT), the Yugoslav national TV channel. He covered four Summer Olympic Games with JRT.
Career achievements and awards
- Yugoslav Men's League champion: 10 (with Crvena zvezda: 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955) as coach/player until 1951 and as coach only, until 1955.
- Yugoslav Women's League champion: 7 (with Crvena zvezda: 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952)
- FIBA Order of Merit (1997), awarded by the FIBA
- Prize “Sports & Universality”, awarded by the International Olympic Committee
In popular culture
- In 2015 Serbian sports drama We Will Be the World Champions Popović is portrayed by Strahinja Blažić and his wife Maja Bedeković is portrayed by Iva Babić.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4160726/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast Full Cast & Crew of We Will Be the World Champions]
Coaching record
| class="toccolours" style="font-size: 90%; white-space: nowrap;" |
| colspan="14" style="background-color: #F2F2F2; border: 1px solid #AAAAAA;" | Legend |
|---|
| style="background-color: #F2F2F2; border: 1px solid black" | W
| Wins | style="background-color: #F2F2F2; border: 1px solid black" | L | Losses | style="background-color: #F2F2F2; border: 1px solid black;" | D | Draws | style="background-color: #F2F2F2; border: 1px solid black;" | W% | Winning percentage |
= Yugoslav First Men's Basketball League =
| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;" | ||||||
| scope="col" |Season
!scope="col" |Team !scope="col" |Games !scope="col" |W !scope="col" |D !scope="col" |L !scope="col" |W % !scope="col" |Result | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1946
| 7 | 6 | 0 | 1 | {{Winning percentage|6|1}} | style="background:gold;"| Champions | |
| 1947
| 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | {{Winning percentage|4|0}} | style="background:gold;"| Champions | |
| 1948
| 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | {{Winning percentage|4|1}} | style="background:gold;"| Champions | |
| 1949
| 18 | 17 | 0 | 1 | {{Winning percentage|17|1}} | style="background:gold;"| Champions | |
| 1950
| 18 | 16 | 0 | 2 | {{Winning percentage|16|2}} | style="background:gold;"| Champions | |
| 1951
| 22 | 18 | 2 | 2 | {{Winning percentage|18|4}} | style="background:gold;"| Champions | |
| 1952
| 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | {{Winning percentage|4|0}} | style="background:gold;"| Champions | |
| 1953
| 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | {{Winning percentage|5|1}} | style="background:gold;"| Champions | |
| 1954
| 22 | 16 | 0 | 6 | {{Winning percentage|16|6}} | style="background:gold;"| Champions | |
| 1955
| 18 | 14 | 1 | 3 | {{Winning percentage|14|4}} | style="background:gold;"| Champions | |
| class="sortbottom"
| align="center" colspan=2|Career | 124 | 104 | 4 | 16 | {{Winning percentage|104|20}} |
= Yugoslav Women's Basketball League =
| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;" | ||||||
| scope="col" |Season
!scope="col" |Team !scope="col" |Games !scope="col" |W !scope="col" |D !scope="col" |L !scope="col" |W % !scope="col" |Result | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1946
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | {{Winning percentage|3|0}} | style="background:gold;"| Champions | |
| 1947
| 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | {{Winning percentage|4|0}} | style="background:gold;"| Champions | |
| 1948
| 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | {{Winning percentage|5|0}} | style="background:gold;"| Champions | |
| 1949
| 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | {{Winning percentage|4|0}} | style="background:gold;"| Champions | |
| 1950
| 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | {{Winning percentage|5|0}} | style="background:gold;"| Champions | |
| 1951
| 10 | 9 | 1 | 0 | {{Winning percentage|9|1}} | style="background:gold;"| Champions | |
| 1952
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | {{Winning percentage|3|0}} | style="background:gold;"| Champions | |
| class="sortbottom"
| align="center" colspan=2|Career | 34 | 33 | 1 | 0 | {{Winning percentage|33|1}} |
= National team =
| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;" | |||||
| scope="col" |Tournament
!scope="col" |Team !scope="col" |Games !scope="col" |W !scope="col" |L !scope="col" |W % !scope="col" |Result | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 World Championship
| 5 | 0 | 5 | {{Winning percentage|0|5}} | 10th place | |
| 1953 EuroBasket
| 11 | 6 | 5 | {{Winning percentage|6|5}} | 6th place | |
| class="sortbottom"
| align="center" colspan=2|Career | 16 | 6 | 10 | {{Winning percentage|6|10}} |
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.mojacrvenazvezda.net/103173/2015/02/08/na-danasnji-dan-rodjen-nebojsa-popovic/ Na današnji dan: Rođen Nebojša Popović], mojacrvenazvezda.net
- [http://www.kkcrvenazvezda.rs/nebojsa-popovic---zvezdin-broj-1-za-sva-vremena-20-10-2016.html Nebojša Popović - Zvezdin broj 1 za sva vremena]
{{s-start}}
{{s-sports}}
{{s-bef|before=Petar Breznik}}
{{s-ttl|title=President of the
Basketball Federation of Yugoslavia|years=1987–1989}}
{{s-aft|after=Miodrag Babić}}
{{s-end}}
{{KK Crvena zvezda coach navbox}}
{{KKŽ Crvena zvezda coach navbox}}
{{FIBA Hall of Fame}}
{{KK Crvena zvezda}}
{{The Basketball Stars of Red Star}}
{{Navboxes
|title= Crvena zvezda squads
| bg = #EC1C24
| fg = white
| bordercolor = #D1AA67
|list1=
{{Crvena zvezda 1946 Yugoslav Basketball League Champions}}
{{Crvena zvezda 1947 Yugoslav Basketball League Champions}}
{{Crvena zvezda 1948 Yugoslav Basketball League Champions}}
{{Crvena zvezda 1949 Yugoslav Basketball League Champions}}
{{Crvena zvezda 1950 Yugoslav Basketball League Champions}}
{{Crvena zvezda 1951 Yugoslav Basketball League Champions}}
{{Crvena zvezda 1952 Yugoslav Basketball League Champions}}
{{Crvena zvezda 1953 Yugoslav Basketball League Champions}}
{{Crvena zvezda 1954 Yugoslav Basketball League Champions}}
{{Crvena zvezda 1955 Yugoslav Basketball League Champions}}
}}
{{Slobodan Piva Ivković Award for Lifetime Achievement navbox}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Popovic, Nebojsa}}
Category:People from Irig, Serbia
Category:Sportspeople from Srem District
Category:1950 FIBA World Championship players
Category:FIBA Hall of Fame inductees
Category:KK Crvena zvezda players
Category:KK Crvena zvezda head coaches
Category:ŽKK Crvena zvezda coaches
Category:Basketball player-coaches
Category:Serbian basketball executives and administrators
Category:Expatriate basketball people in Italy
Category:Serbian men's basketball players
Category:Serbian men's basketball coaches
Category:Yugoslav men's basketball players
Category:Yugoslav basketball coaches
Category:20th-century Serbian journalists
Category:1942 Belgrade Basketball Championship players
Category:Yugoslav expatriate basketball people