Dejan Bodiroga

We drank the fourth coffee, but the story could not stop. Dejan has forgotten more about basketball than some people ever learn. Trainings, preparation, travel, games, stress, pressure. At one point everything is merged and you say 'it was enough', but the memories remain for all time.

They say that no pictures, no footage can be compared to what a person wears in his head. The feeling that you had at the moment of important victory is no technology capable of proving. Bodiroga has enough memories for two books, let alone one text ...

The vision of Krešo Ćosić is something that will always be talked about. A man who always went ahead of his time, who had the eye to recognize the great player and who always understood where this game is going ...

"I talked to him all the time, he explained to me coldly what will happen in basketball in the next 10 years and how the game will look. Most of the things you hear from him are to remember them for the rest of their lives. He said that everyone is helping you become a big player - both those who love you and those who do not like you, but you do more for them. "

Leading clubs in Serbia were not interested in Bodrog. It was asked by Vojvodina, he did not want it there. Cosic gentlemen asked Partizan and Zvezdu whether they had anything against that he took a kid. Nobody was bothered.

Thus, the boy who scored 30 points in Zadar's junior tournament became his new member.

"I also rejected Zadar at first and they called me to camp for seven days and after that I told them no. I was very nostalgic, I mean, for the same reason, I refused Vojvodina, so how can I go now?" But after 15 days the people from Zadar arrived again, who Kreso sent to Zrenjanin and talked to my parents for a long time with me. "That was the decision." Bodirga trained "Spartan" in Zadar, all according to Cosic's instructions. The first year after seven hours a day with Pino Grdovic, the other year five with Slavko Trninić.
"They were the key years for my gaming development, and I was in charge of all the dribbling, positioning on every part of the field, shot, penetration, I moved at 7 in the morning and ended around 23 o'clock, just take me out in front of the apartment, and I would he collapsed into bed, and then again every now and again. "

Zadar was an ideal center for the progress of a young player. Love for basketball was impossible. Absolutely everything looked ...

"The training of the junior was watched by 500 people. I finish training with the first team and then I am waiting for junior training, and the Jazine is filled as if it had to start the first match.

In 1991, he signed a four-year contract in Zadar, but the start of the war leads him to Italy, near Boša ​​Tanjević

"Kreso was already in Greece, he was trying to bring me there but he was quite skeptical." We came to a tournament in Greece and then I stayed there. "The next station was Italy."

Cosic had previously mentioned to Tanjevic that he had a small one to be a player. Tanjevic only once watched Bodrog, at the tournament in Porec, but with Cosic's words it was enough to bring him to the strongest European league, in the Stefanel team from Trieste.

"For the first six months, I trained and watched games. Already from the stands, it was clear to me that I could play that league, which was the strongest in Europe."

The next season Bodiroga becomes the youngest foreigner in the Italian league at age 19. This is his first senior season. Other teams have Kukoc, Rada, Danilovic, Djordjevic, Teagle, Mannion, Garrett, Volkov, Antonio Davis. Trieste has Bodrog and Tanjevic, who, of course, installs it with 205cm on the place of playmaker ...

"Everyone was telling him he was crazy, he would get fired. What's he doing with a 19-year-old child in a foreign country?" But he believed me, and I trusted him and returned the error right from the first moment. "The mistake was not much . In his first season in Pallacanest, Bodiroga had 21 points, five rebounds, 60% two-point shot and 85% free throws on average! Reggio Callabrii scored 51 points !! Watch the 19-year-old put 51 points in the strongest league in Europe ...
"After that, everyone realized I was not kidding ... But for me, the real confirmation came when we got Benetton in Trieste. I put in 30 points, and after the match, Toni Kukoč went to the dressing room to congratulate us. At the end of the season, we were fourth . "

You only have to wait for your last match abroad. Discounts for foreigners, especially in the league of such quality, are not ...

"I had to grow up early, there you can not explain to anyone how old you are 19. If you do not score 20 points with a high percentage of shots, questions are immediately raised. The home player throws six points and a lightly sipping coffee, Dalipagic and Delibasic the conversations made it clear that I have to be a champion in every match and to point out how I know and wash, otherwise it will not be good. "

Trieste and Milan, after a couple of Bowie's season, joined a team, and Boschi had the choice of the best players from both teams. This team is lead by Bodrog and Rolando Blackman won the title of champion and a bunch of Italy. He went to Real Madrid with Zeljko Obradovic ...

"Real is an institution, and I did not say anything new, but a football institution." At the time I came, no matter what the top coach was, the top players were missing something in the organizational sense. "

What he missed with Real, he made up for the national team. European champion in 1997 and world champion a year later, with the title of MVP of the SP 1998, and a series of crucial scores in the finals. Club, arrives at one of the two favorite career stations ...

"Pan was a miracle, I arrived there with Pixie Subotić and Dina Rađa, I replaced Byrona Scott, and we settled Olympiacos in Piraeus in the fifth game of the finals, which was the first time that the team won the finals without the advantage of the home team. , really. We immediately recognized each other and this is love that continues to this day. "The arrival of Zeljko Obradovic meant trophies in the Euroleague. The first in Thessaloniki, and then a phenomenal match in Bologna in 2002 where Panathinaikos stopped the "Dream Team" of Kinder. Ginobili, Rigaudeau, Andersen, Smodis, Granger, Griffith, Jarić ...
In general, the Bodrogro series in the period from 2001 to 2003 on a club and representative plan is something that will be remembered. He won two Euroleagues, he was both the best F4 player, won the European 2001 and the World Cup in 2002 ... The impossible series ...

"In that finale with Kinder, nobody gave us two percent chance, we lost 14 halftime differences and then broke them in the second part. They were all set for celebration, but we also asked something."

At the SP in Indianapolis, Bodiroga kept his best again when the issue of the winner was resolved.

"We lost eight differences at 2:20 to the end, I tied nine points for an extension." "The two throws I had for 17 seconds to the end were a tough 100 tons!" Everyone watched ... the first thing that danced on the ring, but I felt that I had to pull in the end. "

As a prize for the winning SP, he received Svetislav Pesic one day of rest ...

"I always tell him when I'm kidding him. After the SP I came home to see my parents and I joined the preparations of Barcelona the next day."

He cleared the season in Barcelona. The "Triple Crown" in Greece may not be a feat, but in Spain ... it's hardly feasible.

"I had three serious offers from the NBA before Barca, Houston, Toronto and San Antonio. I never doubted I could play in the NBA, I mean, look who played there, but Barca's offer was so strong that I said to myself," Come on. " once everything from the beginning ''.

There are no jokes in ACB. Every game is dangerous. Any hosting is a potential defeat. There are no matches played in "lera", especially at that time of the ACB leagues.

"The TAU was strong as a country, we went to Seville and almost chuckled as we got it," Barca still had this fierce frustration, seven lost Champions Cup finals, F4 on home ground, expectations of all, great pressure, we were not the best team on F4, But when we were dense, we knew what to do. "After finishing a job in Barcelona, ​​he returned to a country whose lifestyle simply loved, the last stop - Rome.
"I could physically play for a long time, I was always in training, so I did not hurt, but it just ran out of motives." I was used to playing all the games with 100 percent of opportunities, which was not the case at one time in Rome. I've been playing for another four to five years, I'm running around and I'm putting in some baskets, but I would not be honest with myself and the people who are watching. I've always tried to be a winner. "

When he played the last match, 10,000 people in Rome applauded 10 minutes.

His dribbles against Nocionia and Anthony will be remembered, his ability to hit two throws at the greatest pressure, to always create himself a space for a shot or to share lucid assistance. Most importantly, it will be remembered that he was a born winner.

Dejan Bodiroga - atypical maestro ...