Milan Mačvan (; born 16 November 1989) is a Serbian politician and 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 (appro ...

player serving as the deputy mayor of

Šabac Šabac ( sr-Cyrl, Шабац, ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative centre of the Mačva District in western Serbia. The traditional centre of the fertile Mačva region, Šabac is located on the right banks of the river ...

since 19 January 2024. Standing at , he played at the

power forward The power forward (PF), also known as the four, is one of the five traditional Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. Traditionally, power forwards have played a role similar to center (basketball), centers and are typi ...

position. He also represented the Serbian national basketball team internationally. He was selected by the

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers, often referred to as the Cavs, are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Divis ...

with the 54th overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft.

Early life and career

Born to a professional basketball player father who had been playing for in the First B Federal League (second-tier basketball league in Yugoslavia), infant Mačvan fled the town of his birth with his mother for

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; #Name, see below for other names) is the List of cities in Serbia, second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pannoni ...

due to the disintegration of SFR Yugoslavia and the outbreak of war in SR Croatia. The family soon returned to Vukovar where the youngster took up organized youth basketball at KK Borovo at age 5 but shortly following the war moved back to Serbia, settling in

Bačka Palanka Bačka Palanka ( sr-cyrl, Бачка Паланка, ; ) is a town and municipality located in the South Bačka District of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. It is situated on the left bank of the Danube. In 2022 the town had a total ...

. After being noticed by coach Milovan Bulatović at a basketball camp in

Požarevac Požarevac ( sr-cyr, Пожаревац, ) is a list of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative centre of the Braničevo District in eastern Serbia. It is located between three rivers: Danube, Great Morava and Mlava and below the hill Čač ...

, fourteen-year-old Mačvan joined the FMP youth system in 2004. Initially coached by Bulatović, the teenager kept progressing within the FMP youth ranks—moving to the next age group, under-19, coached by Slobodan Klipa. Before even getting an opportunity to play full squad basketball at FMP, Mačvan started turning heads via successful appearances at junior and cadet European and World championships as part of the Serbian national youth teams.

Club career

FMP

In fall 2007, ahead of the 2007–08 season, having passed through multiple youth system age groups at KK FMP, the 17-year-old was attached to FMP's full squad under head coach

Vlada Vukoičić Vladimir "Vlada" Vukoičić (; born 2 June 1973) is a Serbian basketball coach for the Qingdao Eagles of the Chinese Basketball Association. Coaching career Vukoičić was 19 years old in 1994 when he began working as coach in KK FMP (1991–201 ...

. He appeared in five

Adriatic League The ABA League, renamed the ABA League First Division in 2017, is the top-tier regional men's professional basketball league that originally featured clubs from former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, ...

games for them before transferring to KK Hemofarm in mid-December 2007.

Hemofarm

Mačvan did not have a professional contract during his time at Železnik due to being underage; however, once he turned eighteen in November 2007, he turned down the option of signing one at Železnik and somewhat surprisingly chose to do so with rival KK Hemofarm, which paid Železnik a

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

150,000 transfer fee for his services. The biggest reason behind his decision to sign with Hemofarm rather than remain with Železnik was wanting to be with Hemofarm's head coach Miroslav Nikolić who had also coached Mačvan in the Serbia under-19 team that won the 2007 FIBA Under-19 World Championship. Signing a four-year contract with Hemofarm on 18 December 2007, Mačvan joined a young squad featuring talented 19-year-olds Stefan Marković, Boban Marjanović, and Petar Despotović. A couple of months later, during spring 2008, coach Nikolić resigned his post at Hemofarm after a string of poor results, and the club brought in Vlada Vukoičić, Mačvan's coach at Železnik, who had gotten fired there in the meantime. On 11 April 2009, 19-year-old Mačvan appeared at the 2009

Nike Hoop Summit The Nike Hoop Summit is an international basketball all-star game sponsored by Nike, Inc., Nike, held once a year, which features the USA Basketball Men's Junior Select Team against a World Select Team of international players. The players demons ...

game at Portland's Rose Garden alongside prospects such as Donatas Motiejūnas, Nikos Pappas, and Kevin Séraphin. Playing on Team World, they faced Team USA featuring

Xavier Henry Xavier Henry (; born March 15, 1991) is an American former professional basketball player. He played one year of college basketball with the Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball, Kansas Jayhawks before he was drafted in the 2010 NBA draft by the Mem ...

, John Henson, John Wall, Avery Bradley, and

Mason Plumlee Mason Alexander Plumlee (born March 5, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He primarily plays the forward and center positions. As a freshman in 2009–10, he was ...

. Mačvan was the game's MVP with 23 points, 14 rebounds, and 6 assists leading the World team to their first win over the USA team since 1998.

Maccabi Tel Aviv

On 17 December 2010, Mačvan signed a five-year contract with

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 ...

contenders Maccabi Tel Aviv. Macvan played at the 2010–11 EuroLeague Final, Scoring 3 points and grabbing 4 rebounds in 12 minutes.

Loan to Partizan

On 18 October 2011, Mačvan signed a one-year loan deal with

KK Partizan Košarkaški klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Кошаркашки клуб Партизан, lit=Basketball Club Partizan), commonly known as Partizan Belgrade, or as Partizan Mozzart Bet for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball Sports cl ...

. Over 10 EuroLeague games, he averaged career-high 15.3 points and 8.2 rebounds per game.

Galatasaray

On 30 July 2012, Mačvan signed two-year contract with Turkish team Galatasaray Medical Park who also competed in the

. Mačvan's former club Maccabi Tel Aviv received a €250,000 transfer fee from Galatasaray for the player's services.

Return to Partizan

On 17 October 2014, Mačvan signed a contract with his former club

until the end of season.

Olimpia Milano

On 15 July 2015, Mačvan signed a two-year contract with the Italian club EA7 Emporio Armani Milano. In November 2015, he broke his right hand, and was expected to miss six weeks of action.

Bayern Munich

On 21 July 2017, Mačvan signed a two-year deal with German club Bayern Munich.

Alvark Tokyo

In July 2019, Mačvan signed for Alvark Tokyo of the Japanese B.League. On 1 June 2020, Mačvan announced his retirement from his basketball career at age 31.

Career statistics

EuroLeague

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2010–11 , style="text-align:left;", Maccabi , 12 , , 1 , , 9.0 , , .438 , , .200 , , .813 , , 1.7 , , .4 , , .2 , , .3 , , 3.5 , , 3.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2011–12 , style="text-align:left;", Partizan , 10 , , 9 , , 31.6 , , .558 , , .375 , , .833 , , 8.2 , , 2.2 , , 1.0 , , .1 , , 15.3 , , 15.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2013–14 , style="text-align:left;", Galatasaray , 26 , , 6 , , 19.5 , , .476 , , .325 , , .759 , , 4.5 , , 1.0 , , .3 , , .3 , , 6.8 , , 9.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2015–16 , style="text-align:left;",

Milano Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nearly 1.4 million, while i ...

, 6 , , 4 , , 20.0 , , .463 , , .364 , , .900 , , 4.3 , , 2.0 , , .8 , , .0 , , 10.0 , , 14.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;",

, 28 , , 24 , , 22.2 , , .534 , , .375 , , .795 , , 4.4 , , 1.4 , , .4 , , .0 , , 8.4 , , 10.0 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 86 , , 44 , , 19.4 , , .498 , , .341 , , .806 , , 4.6 , , 1.2 , , .4 , , .2 , , 8.0 , , 9.8

National team career

Youth level

Even before getting the first-team action on the club level with FMP, Mačvan began playing international competitions for Serbian national youth teams. In 2007, 17-year-old Mačvan had a busy and successful summer. First, in mid-July, he led the Serbian under-19 team to victory at the Under-19 World Cup in

, earning the MVP honours in the process. In the final, Serbia defeated the United States team featuring

Stephen Curry Wardell Stephen Curry II ( ; born March 14, 1988) is an American professional basketball player and point guard for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "Chef Curry", he is widely regarded as the ...

and

DeAndre Jordan Hyland DeAndre Jordan Jr. (born July 21, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one season of college basketball for the Texas A&M Aggies men's basketball ...

. Then, only ten days later, Mačvan was included by head coach Dejan Mijatović on the Serbian under-18 team, leading it to gold at the Under-18 European Championship in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, with a team-best 19.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game over 8 games. For his efforts, at the end of 2007, Mačvan received the Golden Badge Award as the Best Young Athlete of the Year in Serbia given by ''

Sport Sport is a physical activity or game, often Competition, competitive and organization, organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The numbe ...

'' newspaper. In early August 2008, 18-year-old Mačvan played for the Serbian under-20 team at the 2008 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. Coached by Slobodan Klipa, this time around, Mačvan's stats weren't as dominant as the duo of Miroslav Raduljica and Marko Kešelj took over the leading roles in the beginning stages of the tournament. However, as the matches progressed, Mačvan started regaining top form and made a huge contribution in the final versus Lithuania, leading the team with 31 points. He finished the tournament with 16.9 points and 6.6 rebounds per game over 8 games.

Senior level

EuroBasket 2009

In late summer 2009, coming off a great club season at Hemofarm as well as helping Serbia win the 2009 Universiade

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

on home soil in early July, Mačvan made the Serbian national team 12-man roster head coach Dušan Ivković took to

EuroBasket 2009 The 2009 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 2009, was the 36th FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship held by FIBA Europe. The tournament, which was hosted by Poland, began on 7 September and concluded with the ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. Being on a young squad whose oldest members were 26-year-olds Bojan Popović and

Nenad Krstić Nenad Krstić ( sr-Cyrl, Ненад Крстић, born July 25, 1983) is a Serbian basketball executive and former professional player. Krstić represented and captained the Serbian national basketball team internationally. Standing at 2.12 m ...

, 19-year-old Mačvan was the squad's youngest player. Despite the player's youth and inexperience at the big stage, coach Ivković gave Mačvan decent minutes off the bench at his major tournament debut game versus world champions, Olympic silver medalists, and EuroBasket runners-up

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

that Serbia surprisingly won 66-57 while Mačvan contributed with 8 points and 3 rebounds in 17 minutes of action, hitting two clutch three-pointers in the third quarter, incidentally his only field goals of the contest. The group stage continued with a loss versus Slovenia and this time Mačvan got 18 minutes backing up Novica Veličković at the

position as his scoring output dropped off to 4 points. In the second group stage outings — wins against host Poland followed by a loss to Turkey — Mačvan's playing time decreased, before getting a slight bump versus Lithuania in the closing group stage contest while his scoring contribution became almost negligible. At the first single-elimination stage, quarterfinal win versus Russia, the youngster's game saw a slight boost with 5 points, though this was followed by a complete omission in the hard-fought semifinal overtime win versus Slovenia as Ivković preferred the more experienced Veličković. In the final the next day, tired and emotionally spent Serbian team lost big to Spain with young Mačvan getting little opportunity to play. Mačvan played at the

2010 FIBA World Championship The 2010 FIBA World Championship was the 16th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship contested by the List of men's national basketball teams, men's national teams. The tournament ran from 28 August to 12 Septem ...

in Turkey, and at the EuroBasket 2011 in Lithuania. In early July 2013, despite receiving a call-up for

EuroBasket 2013 EuroBasket 2013 was the 38th edition of the EuroBasket championship that was organized by FIBA Europe. It took place from 4 September until 22 September 2013 in Slovenia. The number of participating teams was 24. France men's national basketball ...

, twenty-three-year-old Mačvan didn't show up at the Serbian national team training camp.Ivković ne zna zašto Mačvan nije došao, Micov ne ide sa "orlovima" na pripreme!
''Blic'', 8 July 2013 Asked by the Serbian media about the reasons for Mačvan not being there, head coach Ivković said he didn't know them and revealed that the "coaching staff's attempts to reach the player in order to see what's going on were unsuccessful". As a result of Mačvan's failure to show up, Ivković decided to make two subsequent call-ups, to 20-year-old

Nemanja Krstić Nemanja Krstić ( sr-cyr, Немања Крстић, born March 2, 1993) is a Serbian professional basketball player for Kapfenberg Bulls of the Austrian Basketball Superliga. He also represent the Serbian national basketball team in the intern ...

and 21-year-old Nikola Kalinić both of whom went on to make the final 12-man roster and make their competitive debuts for the national team. In early June 2014, the national team's newly appointed head coach Saša Đorđević announced Mačvan alongside 28 other individuals on the preliminary list of players he was considering for the 12 final roster spots at the 2014 FIBA World Cup. On 1 July, announcing the official call-ups for the start of the training camp, Đorđević crossed out 9 names from the preliminary list including Mačvan's, saying the 24-year-old got excluded for tactical reasons while adding he had "an unfocused season t Galatasaraywithout a specific position".Đorđević skratio spisak za SP
B92, 1 July 2014 Two days later when Novica Veličković, one of the 20 players who received call-ups, announced he wouldn't be showing up to training camp due to knee injury, agitated Đorđević criticized him in the media: "I'm blindsided and disappointed by Veličković's unfair move. We've been in constant contact before the call-up list had been announced and not once did he mention anything about an injury... More than anything else he owes an explanation to Duško Savanović and Milan Mačvan, two players that weren't called-up because I gave Veličković the advantage over them. If you're wondering if I'll now be calling-up either Savanović or Mačvan, I won't be. My face is way too red in front of them over this to do that now".

2016 Olympics

In mid June 2016, shortly after getting a national team call-up ahead of the Olympic Qualifying Tournament, Mačvan broke his pinky toe, an injury that required a

cast Cast may refer to: Music * Cast (band), an English alternative rock band * Cast (Mexican band), a progressive Mexican rock band * The Cast, a Scottish musical duo: Mairi Campbell and Dave Francis * ''Cast'', a 2012 album by Trespassers William ...

. The injury prevented him from taking part in the Qualifying Tournament at home in Belgrade that Serbia managed to win and qualify for the Olympics. Despite the injury, national team head coach Đorđević did not write Mačvan off; instead waiting for his injury to heal and eventually picking the power forward for the final 12-man squad taken to the Olympics. Mačvan represented Serbia at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

where they won the silver medal, after losing to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in the final game with 96–66.

EuroBasket 2017

Mačvan also represented and captained Serbia at the

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 ...

where they won the silver medal, after losing in the final game to Slovenia. Over 9 tournament games, he averaged 10.8 points, 4 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game.

Post-playing career

On 6 August 2020, the

announced that they had hired Mačvan as a sporting advisor to the club president. In November 2020, he left his KK Partizan post. Mačvan has been producing

hazelnut The hazelnut is the fruit of the hazel tree and therefore includes any of the nuts deriving from species of the genus '' Corylus'', especially the nuts of the species ''Corylus avellana''. They are also known as cobnuts or filberts according to ...

s since 2016, then

cherries A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The name ...

, and then entered the world of

tillage Tillage is the agriculture, agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical wikt:agitation#Noun, agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of manual labour, human-powered tilling methods using hand tools inc ...

Political career

Mačvan is aligned with the ruling populist

Serbian Progressive Party The Serbian Progressive Party (, SNS) is a major populist, catch-all party, catch-all List of political parties in Serbia, political party in Serbia. It has been the Ruling party, ruling party since 2012. Miloš Vučević, the former prime mi ...

(SNS) and was elected to the Šabac City Assembly following the 2023 local elections. On 19 January 2024, Mačvan was elected deputy mayor of Šabac.

Personal life

Mačvan was born in

Vukovar Vukovar (; sr-Cyrl, Вуковар, , ) is a city in Croatia, in the eastern Regions of Croatia, regions of Syrmia and Slavonia. It contains Croatia's largest river port, located at the confluence of the Vuka (river), Vuka and the Danube. Vukova ...

, into an ethnic Serb family. At three years of age (1992–93), together with his family, he left the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

- stricken Vukovar for Serbia, living in

with his mother for a period. At six years of age, he returned briefly to Vukovar, where he started playing organized basketball with KK Vukovar. The family then moved to

in northern Serbia. His family has the ''slava'' (feast day) of Miholjdan ( St. Cyriacus the Anchorite) 12 October, and he has said that he believes in God and goes to church. He has a younger sister, Jelena (born 1995), who briefly played volleyball.