Teoman "Teo" Alibegović (born January 11, 1967) is Bosnian-Slovenian former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player,

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

, and manager. With 990 points scored, he is the second all-time top scorer of the senior

Slovenian national basketball team The Slovenia men's national basketball team ( sl, Slovenska košarkarska reprezentanca) represents Slovenia in international basketball competitions, and is managed by the Basketball Federation of Slovenia. Since the independence of Slovenia in ...

Early years

Alibegović was born in

Zenica Zenica ( ; ; ) is a city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and an administrative and economic center of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Zenica-Doboj Canton. It is located in the Bosna (river), Bosna river valley, about north of Sarajevo. Th ...

, SR Bosnia-Herzegovina,

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...

. Later, he moved with his family to Jesenice,

SR Slovenia The Socialist Republic of Slovenia ( sl, Socialistična republika Slovenija, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Slovenija, Социјалистичка Република Словенија), commonly referred to as Sociali ...

, where he attended primary school, and started playing basketball with the junior teams of KK Jesenice. In 1982, he joined KK Olimpija's youth categories. After two years, he moved from Ljubljana to

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

, where he played for what was then one of the top clubs in the

Yugoslav First Basketball League The First Federal Basketball League () was the highest tier level men's professional club basketball competition in SFR Yugoslavia. Founded in 1945 and folded in 1992 (1991-92 Winer Broker YUBA League), it was run by the Basketball Federation o ...

KK Bosna KK Bosna Meridianbet ( bs, Košarkaški klub Bosna Meridianbet) is a professional basketball team based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the most successful Bosnian club of all time, having been the EuroLeague champion by winning the ...

College career

In 1988, Alibegović began attending

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

. After 3 years, he graduated with degrees in business and communication.

Professional career

The

Quad City Thunder The Quad City Thunder was a Continental Basketball Association franchise that was based in the Quad Cities of Illinois and Iowa. They played in the CBA from the 1987–88 season until the CBA folded in 2001. The Thunder were successful on the co ...

selected Alibegović in the 1991

Continental Basketball Association The Continental Basketball Association (CBA) (originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association) was a men's professional basketball m ...

(CBA) draft, but he never played for them. However, in his first pro season, he played with the CBA team Yakima Sun Kings. Teo joined the Italian club Fortitudo Bologna, at the end of the 1991–92 season. From 1993 to 1996, he played with the German club

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 ...

, helping them win the FIBA Korać Cup championship. Before the 1996–97 season, he signed with Turkish club Ülkerspor, but after six months, he was back in Italy, this time with

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...

. The next season, 1997–98, he played with Cáceres CB in Spain. For the 1998–99 season, he returned to Trieste. From 1999 to 2002, he played for the Italian club

Snaidero Udine Pallalcesto Amatori Udine, better known by the sponsorship name Snaidero Udine, was an Italian professional basketball club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia. In 2011, following the dissolution of the club, a new team, APU Udine, was founde ...

. In his last pro year, he played in Greece, playing with Ionikos NF.

National team career

At the youth level, Alibegović played for the Yugoslavia Under-18 and Under-19 national teams, which won the

1986 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship The 1986 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship was an international basketball competition held in Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the ...

, and the

1987 FIBA Under-19 World Cup The 1987 FIBA Under-19 World Championship (Italian: 1987 Campionato del mondo FIBA Under 19) was the 3rd edition of the FIBA U19 World Championship. It was held in Bormio, Italy from 29 July to 5 August 1987. Yugoslavia won their first and only ...

. Alibegović was a member of the senior men's

, from 1991 to 2001. With Slovenia, he played at four

EuroBasket EuroBasket, also commonly referred to as the European Basketball Championship, is the main international basketball competition that is contested quadrennially, by the senior men's national teams that are governed by FIBA Europe, which is the E ...

s (

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

). With Slovenia's senior national team, he played in 52

games A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such ...

, and scored 990 points, which made him the all-time top scorer of Slovenia's senior national basketball team.

Coaching career

Before the 2003–04 season, Alibegović was appointed the

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

Udine Udine ( , ; fur, Udin; la, Utinum) is a city and ''comune'' in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (''Alpi Carniche''). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with t ...

. In 2005, he was the

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of Fortitudo Bologna. He was the head coach of Leagea Scafati, from December 2006 to November 2007. From 2008 to 2010, he was head consultant of

Personal life

Alibegović has three sons: Mirza (1992), Amar (1995), and Denis (1999), who are also basketball players. Mirza played for

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...

in Italy, where Denis played for the Stella Azzurra Roma youth teams. Amar also played for the Roman side teams, before he chose to play

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

with the

St. John's Red Storm The St. John's Red Storm is the nickname used for the 17 varsity athletic programs of St. John's University, in the U.S. state of New York. St. John's 17 NCAA Division I teams compete in the Big East Conference, with the exception of the fenci ...

. Amar now plays professionally in Italy. His nephew

Luka Garza Luka H. Garza (born December 27, 1998) is an American-Bosnian professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA), on a two-way contract with the Iowa Wolves of the NBA G League. He played c ...

played for the

Iowa Hawkeyes The Iowa Hawkeyes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. The Hawkeyes have varsity teams in 22 sports, 8 for men and 14 for women; a 15th women's sport will be added in 2023. The teams partici ...

, and was a first-team All-America and Big Ten Conference Player of the Year in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

. Luka Garza was selected in the

2021 NBA draft The 2021 NBA draft, the 75th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual draft, was held on July 29, 2021, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. With the first overall pick, the Detroit Pistons selected Cade Cunningham. The NBA us ...