Marko Simonović ( sr-cyr, Марко Симоновић, born May 30, 1986) is a Serbian 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 ...

coach and former professional basketball player. As a player, he represented the senior

Serbian national basketball team Serbian may refer to: * someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe * someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people * Serbian language * Serbian names See also * * * Old Serbian (disambiguation ...

internationally. Standing at , he played at the

small forward The small forward (SF), also known as the three or swingman, is one of the five positions in a regulation basketball game. Small forwards are typically shorter, quicker, and leaner than power forwards and centers but taller, larger, and stronge ...

position.

Professional career

Simonović began his professional career in 2003 with Lavovi 063 where he stayed for two seasons. In 2005, he then moved to Ergonom. In 2006, he moved the Belgian team Oostende, only being there for half-season. In the summer of 2006, he signed with Serbian team Hemofarm, staying with them until the summer of 2008. He then moved to the Montenegrin team

Budućnost Podgorica Budućnost means "the future" in many Slavic languages, and it may also refer to: *SD Budućnost Podgorica, a sports society from Podgorica, Montenegro ** KK Budućnost Podgorica, a professional basketball club FK Budućnost may refer to: * FK B ...

, staying with them for three full seasons. With them he won three consecutive times the Montenegrin League championship and Montenegrin Cup, from 2009 until 2011. On July 18, 2011, Simonović signed a contract with German team

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 Merced ...

. Over the season he averaged 6.7 points and 2.6 rebounds per game in the German League. In the summer of 2012, he signed a contract with Crvena zvezda. After club legend Igor Rakočević retired from the professional basketball in 2013, Simonović became next team

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. In his first season in the EuroLeague, he averaged 4.8 points and 2.9 rebounds. In August 2014, he signed with the French team

Élan Béarnais Pau-Orthez Elan Corporation plc was a major drugs firm based in Dublin, Ireland, which had major interests in the United States. It was listed on the New York Stock Exchange as ELN, the Irish Stock Exchange as ELN.I, and the London Stock Exchange as ELN. ...

. On September 30,

French Cup The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and professiona ...

game against

Orléans Loiret Basket Orléans Loiret Basket, formerly known as Entente Orléanaise and Entente Orléanaise 45 Loiret, is a professional basketball club that is based in the city of Orléans, France. "45" is the number of Loiret. The club plays in the French Pro A Le ...

, Simonović made a

buzzer beater In basketball and other such timed sports, a buzzer beater is a shot that is taken before the game clock of a quarter, a half (if the half is the second one, then, a game), or an overtime period expires but does not go in the basket until after t ...

three pointer to edge Orléans by 72–70. He led his team in scoring with 27 points, while also having 9 steals, 5 assists and 4 rebounds. On April 21, 2015, he had the best game since coming in the club, scoring season-high 31 points in an 89–96 loss to Limoges CSP. Pau-Orthez finished the season in the

French League The French League (: "French League for purging, mutual aid and European collaboration") was a collaborationist Wartime collaboration is cooperation with the enemy against one's country of citizenship in wartime, and in the words of historian G ...

in 13th place. Over 26 games played, Simonović averaged 13.4 points, and 3 rebounds on 39.6% shooting from the field. He also scored 20 and more points four times during the season. On September 30, 2015, he signed a short-term contract with Crvena zvezda. On November 19, 2015, he re-signed with the club for the rest of the season. On July 10, 2016, he re-signed with the team until the end of 2017–18 season. On July 4, 2017, Simonović signed with Russian club

Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб «Зенит» ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, acco ...

. On July 14, 2019, he left the club. On July 18, 2019, he signed a two-year contract for Slovenian club Cedevita Olimpija. On July 13, 2020, Simonović signed a two-year deal with former team Crvena zvezda. On November 15, 2020, Simonović recorded his 300 apperiences for the Zvezda. He retired as a player with Crvena zvezda in July 2022.

National team career

Simonović was a member of the senior

which took silver medal at the

2014 World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

under head coach

Aleksandar Đorđević Aleksandar "Saša" Đorđević or Sale Đorđević (Anglicized: Sasha Djordjevic; sr-Cyrl, Александар Саша Ђорђевић, ; born 26 August 1967) is a Serbian professional basketball coach and former player. He currently serve ...

and after that he was a part of Olympic team that took silver medal at the 19th Olympic Basketball Tournament at the

2016 Summer Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de ...

under the head coach

. He also represented Serbia at the

EuroBasket 2015 EuroBasket 2015 was the 39th edition of the EuroBasket championship that was organized by FIBA Europe. It was co-hosted by Croatia, France, Germany, and Latvia, making it the first EuroBasket held in more than one country. It started on 5 ...

. In the first phase of the tournament, Serbia dominated in the toughest

Group B Group B was a set of regulations for grand touring (GT) vehicles used in sports car racing and rallying introduced in 1982 by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Although permitted to enter a GT class of the World Sportscar ...

with 5-0 record, and then eliminated

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

and

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

in the round of 16 and quarterfinal game, respectively. However, they were stopped in the semifinal game by

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 ...

with 67–64, and eventually lost to the host team

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in the bronze-medal game with 81–68. Simonović was mostly used as a three-point and defensive task specialist; he averaged 2.3 points and 2.0 rebounds per game on 30.8% shooting from the three-point line. Simonović also represented Serbia at the

where they won the silver medal, after losing to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

in the final game with 96–66. At the

2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup The 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup was the 18th tournament of the FIBA Basketball World Cup for men's national basketball teams. The tournament was hosted in China and was rescheduled from 2018 to 2019, becoming the first since 1967 that did no ...

, the national team of Serbia was dubbed as favorite to win the trophy, but was eventually upset in the

quarterfinals A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

. With wins over the United States and

, it finished in fifth place. Simonović averaged 3 points and 1.6 rebounds over 7 tournament games. In September 2019, Simonović announced his retirement from the national team. However, in February 2020, Simonović was invited by new head coach

Igor Kokoškov Igor Stefan Kokoškov ( sr-Cyrl, Игор Стефан Кокошков; born December 17, 1971) is a Serbian professional basketball coach who is an assistant coach for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He had spen ...

to join the national team during

EuroBasket 2021 qualification The EuroBasket 2022 qualification was a basketball competition that was played from November 2017 to February 2021, to determine the 20 FIBA Europe nations who would join the automatically qualified co-hosts Czech Republic, Georgia, Italy, and G ...

matches against Finland and Georgia.

Career statistics

EuroLeague

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2013–14 , style="text-align:left;" rowspan=3, Crvena zvezda , 10 , , 1 , , 19.4 , , .395 , , .375 , , .667 , , 2.9 , , .6 , , .8 , , .2 , , 4.8 , , 5.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2015–16 , 27 , , 6 , , 19.9 , , .457 , , .421 , , .783 , , 1.9 , , .3 , , .5 , , .1 , , 7.4 , , 5.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , 30 , , 3 , , 26.7 , , .548 , , .390 , , .824 , , 3.6 , , .7 , , .8 , , .1 , , 12.6 , , 11.7 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan=2, Career , 67 , , 10 , , 22.9 , , .457 , , .400 , , .810 , , 2.8 , , .5 , , .7 , , .1 , , 9.4 , , 8.5

Coaching career

Following his retirement as a player, Crvena zvezda hired Simonović as their new assistant coach and a staff member of Vladimir Jovanović. On 19 November 2022, the club parted ways with his following the Jovanović departure.

Controversy

2014 Serbian League trophy incident

On 21 June 2014, Crvena zvezda

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

Simonović was part of a bizarre incident following the

Serbian League The Serbian League () is the third level football league in Serbia. It consists of four groups, namely Belgrade, East, Vojvodina, and West. The winner of each group earns promotion to the Serbian First League. History 1992–1995 In the summer ...

playoffs final game 4, a hard-fought overtime contest that saw Partizan defeat arch-rivals Red Star Belgrade for a 13th consecutive league title. The home-court loss came as a bitter pill to the Red Star team, considered by significant sections of the Serbian media and fans as title favorites capable of finally ending Partizan's 12-year domestic league domination. However, Partizan, already up 2-1 in the best-of-five series, led by Bogdan Bogdanović's 36 point performance, managed a memorable overtime away win for its 13th consecutive Serbian title. Disappointed and embittered over yet another failure to win the Serbian League, members of the Red Star ultra fan group, Delije, decided to disrupt the championship trophy presentation by storming the court, grabbing the displayed trophy, and taking it back with them into the stands among a crowd of fellow ultra fans. Simonović was soon seen entering the said crowd of Red Star fans by climbing into the stands where he proceeded to lift up the seized trophy, an act met with loud approval from the gathered fans who immediately erupted into cheers and fan songs. Many others in the arena expressed visible disapproval, among them seemingly even some Red Star players who turned away and began walking off the court. Since the trophy got damaged in the process, the championship trophy ceremony was eventually held with a smaller replica trophy presented to Partizan players and staff. Simonović later denied trying to offend anyone with his actions, claiming he entered the stands after being asked by the game's delegate to do so and try to return the trophy on the court.