Dejan Koturović ( Serbian Cyrillic: Дејан Котуровић; born 31 March 1972) is a retired Serbian professional basketball player.

Playing career

Europe

During his professional career, Koturović played for Spartak Subotica,

Partizan Partizan may refer to: Sport * JSD Partizan, a sports society from Belgrade, Serbia, which includes the following clubs: ** AK Partizan, athletics **Biciklistički Klub Partizan, cycling **Džudo Klub Partizan, judo ** FK Partizan, association fo ...

, PSG Racing, Ülkerspor,

Alba Berlin Alba Berlin is a German professional basketball club that is based in Berlin, Germany. The club was founded in 1991, and is today the largest German national basketball club by membership figures. Alba Berlin hosts its home games at the Mercedes ...

, Virtus Bologna and Tau Cerámica.

NBA

After winning gold at the

2002 FIBA World Championship The 2002 FIBA World Championship was the 14th edition of the competition now known as the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the international world championship for men's basketball teams. The tournament held by the International Basketball Federation in ...

, Koturović received interest from the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

but they ended up signing Rubén Wolkowyski instead. Koturović then turned down an offer from the Toronto Raptors and signed for Virtus Bologna. On 8 October 2003, Koturović signed a free-agent contract with the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Suns are the only team in t ...

. He was planned as a temporary replacement for the injured Scott Williams. Koturović was waived on 24 October 2003 after Williams started healing faster than expected.

National team career

Koturović played for the national team of FR Yugoslavia/Serbia and Montenegro in three major tournaments: winning the gold medal at the 1995 FIBA European Championship and the

and also featuring at the 2003 FIBA European Championship.

1995 EuroBasket

As a young player on a star-studded team coached by Dušan Ivković, twenty-three-year-old Koturović did not get a lot of playing time at the 1995 FIBA European Championship where Yugoslavia went on to win gold.

2002 World Championship

Koturović did not feature in any major international tournaments for seven years until the

. Under coach Svetislav Pešić, Koturović featured in the

starting lineup In sports, a starting lineup is an official list of the set of players who will participate in the event when the game begins. The players in the starting lineup are commonly referred to as ''starters'', whereas the others are ''substitutes'' o ...

, shining in the semifinals against New Zealand where he led the team in scoring with 18 points. Yugoslavia went on to beat Argentina in the final with Koturović averaging 12.8 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in the tournament.

2003 EuroBasket

One year after winning the World Championship in Indianapolis, Koturović again answered the national team call-up, this time under the new Serbia and Montenegro banner at the 2003 FIBA European Championship in Sweden. In mid August 2003, just weeks before the tournament, during an exhibition game against Greece, Koturović reportedly showed insubordination to coach Duško Vujošević for which Vujošević expelled him from the team and called up

Đuro Ostojić Đuro Ostojić (born 17 February 1976) is a Montenegrin retired professional basketball executive and former player who is a general manager for Studentski centar. At , he played the center position. Professional career In his professional caree ...

as a replacement. This resulted in a public row between the two. Vujošević and Koturović soon made up publicly with Koturović being reinstated in the team and eventually even making the final 12-man roster Vujošević took to the tournament. After losing to Russia, then beating outsiders Sweden, and losing to Spain in its 4-team preliminary round robin group, Serbia and Montenegro barely beat Turkey to make the quarterfinals where they lost to

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

. The team eventually placed sixth in the tournament, a result seen as disappointing in the country after two straight major tournament wins— EuroBasket 2001 and

. The mending of fences between Vujošević and Koturović would prove only nominal as, right after the tournament ended, Koturović blasted Vujošević publicly for the team's disappointing result.

Personal life

In September 2014, Koturović was arrested at the Greece–

Macedonia Macedonia most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a traditional geographic reg ...

border trying to enter Macedonia with a used

Honda CR-V The Honda CR-V (also sold as the Honda Breeze in China since 2019) is a compact crossover SUV manufactured by the Japanese automaker Honda since 1995. The early model was built using the same platform as the Civic. Honda began producing the CR ...

vehicle he had purchased without awareness that it was stolen. In early October 2014, he was sentenced to three months in prison which he served in Macedonia. Koturović holds an Italian passport. In recent years, he has been a shamanic practitioner.