Nenad Čanak ( sr-cyr, Ненад Чанак, links=no; born April 24, 1976) 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 (appro ...

coach and former player. He is currently the head coach for Lietkabelis Panevėžys of the

Lithuanian Basketball League Lithuanian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Lithuania, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe ** Lithuanian language ** Lithuanians, a Baltic ethnic group, native to Lithuania and the immediate geographical region ** L ...

(LKL) and the EuroCup.

Professional career

Čanak started his career in Partizan making his debut in the 1993–94 season. After that in the period between 1995 and 1999 Čanak was in the lines of the Serbian club Spartak Subotica. Then he came back again to wear the jersey of Partizan until 2003, demonstrating very good skills and participating in three tournaments – the

YUBA League The YUBA League was the top-tier men's professional basketball league in Serbia and Montenegro (previously FR Yugoslavia). Founded in 1992 and folded in 2006, it was run by the Basketball Federation of Serbia and Montenegro. The name ''YUBA Le ...

, the

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, ...

and 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 ...

. In 2002 he made a double-double, winning both the national championship and the Cup of FR Yugoslavia. The career of the forward continued in NIS Vojvodina (2003–2004) and in the Greek Makedonikos (2004–2005). He has registered participation in all club tournaments in Europe – FIBA Europe League with Vojvodina, and

ULEB Cup EuroCup Basketball, commonly known as the EuroCup and currently called BKT EuroCup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual professional basketball club competition organized by Euroleague Basketball. The league is regarded as Euroleague Basketbal ...

with Makedonikos and

Alba Berlin Alba Berlin is a 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 Uber Arena and c ...

. In the summer of 2005, Čanak signed a contract with ALBA Berlin. During his first season in Germany he scored an average of 9,3 points, 3,2 rebounds and 1,3 assists in 43 games of the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

and an average of 8,3 points, 4,1 rebounds in 10 games in the ULEB Cup competition. In April 2007, Čanak suffered an injury and had been recovering in the next two months. In the 2006–07 season he took part in 11 games of ULEB and made an average of 5,6 points and 2,0 rebounds per game, while in the Bundesliga he had 33 games with 4,8 points per game. While wearing the jersey of Alba Berlin, he won the

German Cup The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English, is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundes ...

in 2006. In the 2007–08 season he played with Bulgarian club

Lukoil Academic BC Academic Metropol Region () is a reestablished Bulgarian professional basketball club based in the capital Sofia. In April 2022, Academic has been reborn and rebranded by the new owners, the German-Bulgarian ex-professional basketball players ...

. Čanak helped Lukoil to reach the ULEB Cup Last 16 and record an unprecedented undefeated domestic season, sweeping through the

Bulgarian Cup The Bulgarian Cup () is a Bulgarian annual football competition. It is the country's main cup competition and all officially registered Bulgarian football teams take part in it. The tournament's format is ''single-elimination'', with all matche ...

, regular season and playoffs for a 44–0 record. Čanak averaged 8.1 points and 3.8 rebounds off the bench in 10 ULEB Cup appearances and 12.4 points and 4 rebounds per game in the Bulgarian League. In 2009, he played in Ukraine with Khimik and Gryfony Symferopil. In the 2009–10 season he had a short stint with Tamiš before he moved to the Hungarian team

PVSK Panthers PVSK-Panthers, for sponsorship reasons known as PVSK-Veolia or simply Pécs, is a men's basketball club based in Pécs, Hungary. It was the oldest non-Budapest based basketball club playing in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I/A, the first division of Hun ...

. In the 2010–11 season he played in Cyprus with

AEK Larnaca AEK Larnaca FC (, "Athletic Union Kition (ancient state), Kition of Larnaca") is a Cyprus, Cypriot professional association football, football club based in Larnaca. The club was formed in 1994 after a merger of two historical Larnaca clubs, EP ...

and his last team was Železničar Inđija in 2011–12.

Coaching career

From 2012 to 2016, Čanak worked as an assistant coach of

Dejan Milojević Dejan Milojević ( sr-Cyrl, Дејан Милојевић; 15 April 1977 – 17 January 2024) was a Serbian professional basketball player and coach. At the time of his death, he was an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors of the Nation ...

in Mega Basket. In the 2016–17 season he served as an assistant coach of

Aleksandar Džikić Aleksandar Džikić ( sr-Cyrl, Александар Џикић; born 23 March 1971) is a Serbian professional basketball coach and current head coach of Georgia men's national basketball team. Coaching career Early career KK Partizan youth syst ...

in Partizan, and actually made his debut as a head coach in Džikic's absence, including leading the team to the 2017 Serbian Cup final. His first job as a head coach was in Spartak Subotica in the 2017–18 season. On 14 December 2017, Čanak was named as the head coach of Partizan. He resigned as the head coach of Partizan in October 2018. On 1 November 2018, Čanak became the head coach for Lietkabelis Panevėžys of the

(LKL). With Lietkabelis, Čanak became the most successful coach ever for the team - taking over a largely under-achieving team, Čanak went on to win bronze medals in the Lithuanian Basketball League in 2020, 2021 and 2023, along with a shocking finals appearance in 2022, finishing with silver. Lietkabelis also managed to reach the finals of the

King Mindaugas Cup Karaliaus Mindaugo taurė (English: King Mindaugas Cup) is an annual national domestic basketball cup competition between Lithuanian professional teams. It is organised by the Lithuanian Basketball League (Lietuvos krepšinio lyga – LKL). The to ...

, the national Cup tournament, in 2021 and 2022, taking silver, and won the bronze medals in 2020 and 2023, as well as helping Lietkabelis reach the first ever playoff competitions in club history, by reaching the playoffs of the EuroCup, in 2022 and 2023. On 19 June 2023, Čanak signed with

Türk Telekom Türk Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. () is a state-owned Turkish telecommunications company. Türk Telekom was separated from Turkish Post (PTT) in 1995. Türk Telekom Group provides integrated telecommunication services for PSTN, GSM, and wideband I ...

of the

Basketbol Süper Ligi The Basketball Super League (; TBSL), also known as the Türkiye Sigorta Basketbol Süper Ligi for sponsorship reasons, is the top men's professional basketball division of the Turkish basketball league system. It replaced the former Turkish Bas ...

(BSL). On 24 October, he parted ways with the club. On 27 October 2023, Čanak returned to Lietkabelis Panevėžys. With Lietkabelis, Čanak again finished with bronze medals in the Lithuanian Basketball League in 2024, and won silver in the

Coaching record

EuroCup

, - , align="left" rowspan=2, Partizan , align="left", 2017–18 , 2 , , 0 , , 2 , , , , align="center", Eliminated in regular season , - , align="left", 2018–19 , 4 , , 1 , , 3 , , , , align="center", ''Parted ways'' , - , align="left" rowspan=3,

Lietkabelis BC Lietkabelis (), commonly known as Lietkabelis Panevėžys, also known as 7bet-Lietkabelis for sponsorship reasons, is a Lithuanian professional basketball club based in Panevėžys, Lithuania, participating in the Lietuvos krepšinio lyga, Lit ...

, align="left",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, 10 , , 2 , , 8 , , , , align="center", Eliminated in regular season , - , align="left", 2021–22 , 17 , , 9 , , 8 , , , , align="center", Eliminated in eighthfinals , - , align="left",

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, 19 , , 10 , , 9 , , , , align="center", Eliminated in eighthfinals , - , align="left" ,

, align="left" rowspan=2, 2023–24 , 3 , , 1 , , 2 , , , , align="center", ''Parted ways'' , - , align="left" ,

, 14 , , 6 , , 8 , , , , align="center", Eliminated in regular season , -class="sortbottom" , align="center" colspan=2, Career, , 69, , 29, , 40, , , ,

Domestic Leagues

, - , align="left" , Spartak , align="left"rowspan=2, 2017–18 , 11 , , 7 , , 4 , , , , align="center", ''Parted ways'' , - , align="left" , Partizan ( KLS) , 14 , , 11 , , 3 , , , , align="center", Lost in

semifinals 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 ...

, - , align="left" , Partizan , align="left" , 2017–18 , 11 , , 6 , , 5 , , , , align="center", 5th place , - , align="left" , Partizan , align="left" , 2018–19 , 5 , , 2 , , 3 , , , , align="center", ''Parted ways'' , - , align="left" ,

, align="left" , 2018–19 , 41 , , 23 , , 18 , , , , align="center", Lost in 3rd place series , - , align="left" ,

, align="left" , 2019–20 , 24 , , 16 , , 8 , , , , align="center", 3rd place , - , align="left" ,

, align="left" ,

, 46 , , 28 , , 18 , , , , align="center", Won in 3rd place series , - , align="left" ,

, align="left" , 2021–22 , 42 , , 30 , , 12 , , , , align="center", Lost 2022 Lithuanian League Finals , - , align="left" ,

, align="left" ,

, 45 , , 29 , , 16 , , , , align="center", Won in 3rd place series , - , align="left" ,

, align="left" , 2023–24 , 4 , , 2 , , 2 , , , , align="center", ''Parted ways'' , -class="sortbottom" , align="center" colspan=2, Career, , 243, , , 154, , , 89, , , ,

References

External links