Damir Mulaomerović (born 19 September 1974) is a Croatian 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 (appro ...

coach and former player who is the current coach of KK Dinamo Zagreb.

Professional career

Mulaomerović started his career with Sloboda Dita in 1990. Not too long after the start of the

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...

, he fled to

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

and where he joined

Cibona Zagreb Košarkaški klub Cibona, commonly referred to as Cibona Zagreb or simply Cibona, is a men's professional basketball sports club, club based in Zagreb, Croatia. The club is a founding member and shareholder of the ABA League JTD, Adriatic Basketba ...

. Mulaomerović played there until the end of the 1997–1998 season. He left Cibona, to join

Fortitudo Bologna Fortitudo Pallacanestro Bologna 103, commonly known as Fortitudo Bologna and currently known as Fortitudo Flats Service Bologna for sponsorship reasons, is a basketball club based in Bologna, Italy and currently plays in the second division. H ...

. He also played with

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

. In

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, he left a big mark. He won the

EuroLeague The EuroLeague is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier and the most prestigious men's basketball league in Europe. The league consists of 20 teams, of which 16 are given lon ...

championship with Panathinaikos, in 2001–02. While he played with

PAOK PAOK (, Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινοπολιτών, ''Panthessalonikeios Athlitikós Ómilos Constantinopoliton'', ''Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans''), commonly ...

and Panellinios, he was one of the Greek League's leading assist and point scoring players. At the start of the 2006–2007 season, he had been signed by

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, ...

, in order to fill the void created in the team by

Arvydas Macijauskas Arvydas Macijauskas (born 19 January 1980) is a Lithuanian former professional basketball player. Standing at tall, he played at the shooting guard position. Widely considered one of the greatest Lithuanian players of the 2000s, he won numerous ...

' start of the season severe injury. But in Olympiacos, he did not get along with head coach Pini Gershon, and before the end of season, he got an early termination of his contract. After Olympiacos, he was signed by Bruesa GBC, on 22 January 2007, but because of an injury, he did not play as expected. During the summer of 2007, he was in serious contract discussions with Cedevita Zagreb, from Croatia, but after Cibona approached him, he did not have to think twice about which team he was to join. He signed a 1-year contract with his former team, Cibona.http://www.sportnet.hr/index.aspx?page=news&id=350077 After 9 years, he returned to

. Saying that he was, "excited about his return, and that it had always been a privilege and commitment to play for Cibona". He was brought to them by the special insistence of the new Cibona head coach, former Croatian basketball player, Josip "Joke" Vranković. He expressed his desire to finish his career with Cibona.http://www.tportal.hr/sport/kosarka/fset.html In January 2009, he joined another basketball club from the Croatian capital,

KK Zagreb Košarkaški klub Zagreb (), commonly referred to as KK Zagreb or simply Zagreb, was a professional basketball club based in Zagreb, Croatia. It competed in the ABA League and the Croatian League. In the 2011–12 season, the club competed in the ...

. Although being a veteran, he was a key player in Zagreb's first ever Croatian League championship title, won in 2011. The next season, as Zagreb was eliminated on a title defending path in May 2012, Mulaomerović announced his retirement.

National team career

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Muaomerović was born in the Bosnian city of

Tuzla Tuzla (, , ) is the List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, third-largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the administrative center of Tuzla Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it has a population of 110,979 inha ...

, which he left as a refugee at the outbreak of the

. He wanted to represent the newly formed Bosnia and Herzegovina national team, but did not receive an invitation to do so.

Croatia

Mulaomerović accepted the call-up from Petar Skansi, then senior

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

's head coach. Mulaomerović represented Croatia at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

EuroBasket 1997 The 1997 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 1997, was the 30th FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship held by FIBA Europe, which also served as Europe qualifier for the 1998 FIBA World Championship, giving a b ...

EuroBasket 1999 The 1999 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 1999, was the 31st FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship held by FIBA Europe, which also served as Europe qualifier for the 2000 Olympic Tournament, giving a berth ...

EuroBasket 2001 The 2001 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 2001, was the 32nd FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship held by FIBA Europe, which also served as Europe qualifier for the 2002 FIBA World Championship, giving a ...

and

EuroBasket 2003 The 2003 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 2003, was the 33rd FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship held by FIBA Europe, which also served as the Europe qualifier for the 2004 Summer Olympics, giving a berth ...

Coaching career

Mulaomerović started his basketball coaching career soon after his retirement from playing professional basketball, taking over as head coach his hometown club, Sloboda Tuzla, in 2013. On 7 December 2015, Mulaomerović was appointed head coach for Cibona. In June 2017 after reaching the finals of the

national league National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

and

cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

, which Cibona both lost to Cedevita, Mulaomerović parted ways with the club. In 2016 the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina named Mulaomerović as the new head coach of the senior Bosnia and Herzegovina men's national team, but Bosnia did not qualify to

EuroBasket 2017 EuroBasket 2017 was the 40th edition of the EuroBasket championship that was organized by FIBA Europe and held between 31 August and 17 September 2017. Beginning from 2017, the continental championships take place every four years with a similar ...

finals, so Mulaomerović was sacked. In August 2018 Mulaomerović took over the senior Kosovo men's national team. Two months later he became head coach for KB Prishtina, the most prominent club playing in the Kosovo Basketball Superleague. On 29 November 2019, he moved back to Sloboda Tuzla as head coach. In February 2020, ahead of the start of the EuroBasket 2022 qualifying tournament, Mulaomerović joined Croatia men's national team coaching staff under the head coach

Veljko Mršić Veljko Mršić (; born 13 April 1971) is a Croatian professional basketball coach and former player, who is currently the head coach of the KK Split, Split of the Croatian Premijer liga (Croatian basketball), Premijer liga and the ABA League. P ...

. In May 2021, Mulaomerović signed a deal with Cedevita Junior of the Croatian League as their head coach. On 24 January 2022, Mulaomerović was confirmed as the new head coach of the

Croatia men's national basketball team The Croatia men's national basketball team () represents Croatia in international basketball matches. The team is controlled by the Croatian Basketball Federation (HKS). The biggest success Croatia has achieved was at the 1992 Barcelona Olymp ...

after

resigned. Mulaomerović led the Croatia national team at the

EuroBasket 2022 The EuroBasket 2022 was the 41st edition of the EuroBasket championship organized by FIBA Europe. It was the first since it was agreed it would take place every four years, with a similar system of qualification as for the FIBA Basketball World C ...

which they exited in the

round of 16 A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

. Subsequently, he stepped down from his position.

Professional career

National team career

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Croatia

Coaching career

References

External links