Predrag Savović ( sr-cyr, Предраг Савовић; born 21 May 1976) is a Montenegrin 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. Among many teams in his professional career he played for

KK Partizan Belgrade Košarkaški klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Кошаркашки клуб Партизан, English: Partizan Basketball Club), commonly referred to as KK Partizan or simply Partizan, is a professional basketball team based in Belgrade, Serbia. It is ...

, the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the D ...

and Iurbentia Bilbao of the Spanish ACB.

Early life and college career

Savović was born in

Pula Pula (; also known as Pola, it, Pola , hu, Pòla, Venetian language, Venetian; ''Pola''; Istriot language, Istriot: ''Puola'', Slovene language, Slovene: ''Pulj'') is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, and the List of cities and town ...

, SR Croatia, at the time part of

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 ...

, to a family of Montenegrin descent. He attended Ivan Goran Kovačić High School in Herceg Novi,

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

. He attended the

University of Alabama-Birmingham The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a Public university#United States, public List of research universities in the United States, research university in Birmingham, Alabama. Developed from an academic extension center established i ...

(UAB) from 1997 to 1998 and then the University of Hawaii at Manoa, in the U.S., from 1998 to 2002. He holds degrees in International Business and Finance as well as Economics from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.EurocupBasketball.com Profile
/ref> He also holds an EMBA Degree from University of Deusto, Deusto Business School. Predrag was a first-team All-

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...

pick in his junior and senior seasons, the MVP of the 2002 WAC tournament, and an honorable mention All-American selection by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

. Hawaii advanced to the first round of the NCAA tournament of 2002.

Career

Savović grew up playing for Partizan Belgrade, Beovuk, and IVA Zorka Pharm Šabac. He moved to the American

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

even though he was well into his twenties.

Undrafted In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

, he signed with the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

in 2002, for whom he played during the

2002-03 NBA season The hyphen-minus is the most commonly used type of hyphen, widely used in digital documents. It is the only character that looks like a minus sign or a dash in many character sets such as ASCII or on most keyboards, so it is also used as such. ...

, making him one of only few European players at guard position by that time that made a transition from NCAA to NBA without being drafted. Last five years of his professional basketball career he has been an important member of Bilbao Basket, a member of ACB League in Spain until his retirement in 2009.

Personal life and business career

Predrag Savović is a co-founder of IBEXMONT D.O.O:, a consulting firm based in

Republic of Montenegro A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

. . He is also a Public Speaker on subject of Team Work and Team Efficiency working closely with many companies in Spain and other European countries. He is also a co-founder o
BADAIS INTERNATIONAL
a successful flower wholesale business in London UK. His younger brother, Boban, is also a retired basketball player and an assistant coach of

JL Bourg Basket Jeunesse Laïque de Bourg-en-Bresse, commonly known as JL Bourg or simply Bourg, is a basketball club based in Bourg-en-Bresse, France that plays in the Pro A. Their home arena is Ekinox, which has a capacity of 3,548 people. History In 2014, J ...

of PRO A French premiere basketball league. After some years working in Bilbao Basket he became the president of the club in December 2010 until he left the club in the summer of 2017. He held a position as a CEO of Basket Zaragoza 2002 S.A.D. professional basketball club in Spain from 2017 - 2019. From 2019 to 2021 he was employed one more time as a CEO of CD Basket Bilbao Berri S.A.D. In November 2021 he has join a team of Fintech company BRYDG CAPITAL in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

as a Business Development Manager.

References

External links

NBA.com biographyEurocupBasketball.com Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Savovic, Predrag 1976 births Living people Bilbao Basket players Denver Nuggets players Hawaii Rainbow Warriors basketball players KK Beovuk 72 players KK Partizan players KK Iva Zorka Šabac players Liga ACB players National Basketball Association players from Serbia Naturalised citizens of Spain People from Herceg Novi Sportspeople from Pula Serbian basketball executives and administrators Serbian men's basketball players Serbian expatriate basketball people in Belgium Serbian expatriate basketball people in the United States Serbian expatriate basketball people in Spain Serbs of Croatia Croatian expatriate basketball people in Serbia Shooting guards Spanish men's basketball players Spanish people of Serbian descent Spanish people of Montenegrin descent Serbian emigrants to Spain Spirou Charleroi players UAB Blazers men's basketball players Undrafted National Basketball Association players

Early life and college career

Career

Personal life and business career

See also

References

External links