Ratko "Raša" Radovanović (; born 16 October 1956) is a Serbian former professional
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
player who competed for
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 Yu ...
, at the
1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...
, and at the
1984 Summer Olympics.
Early life
Born in the town of
Nevesinje within the
Herzegovina
Herzegovina ( or ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Hercegovina, separator=" / ", Херцеговина, ) is the southern and smaller of two main geographical region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Bosnia. It has never had strictly defined geograp ...
region, Radovanović, still an infant, was brought by his parents to
Nikšić
Nikšić ( cnr, Никшић, italic=no, sr-cyrl, Никшић, italic=no; ), is the second largest city in Montenegro, with a total population of 56,970 located in the west of the country, in the centre of the spacious Nikšić field at the foot ...
,
PR Montenegro
The Socialist Republic of Montenegro ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Crna Gora, Социјалистичка Република Црна Гора), commonly referred to as Socialist Montenegro or simply Montenegro, was ...
where he grew up.
A tall and lanky kid, Radovanović took up basketball in Nikšić on an informal, recreational basis in 1969. In May 1970, the senior
Yugoslav national team won the
1970 FIBA World Championship, resulting in an explosion of popularity for the sport throughout the country — a trend Radovanović followed, as he started training a lot more seriously.
It wasn't long before he got noticed by the
Bosna sports society general secretary Vukašin "Vule" Vukalović who recommended the youngster to
KK Bosna
KK Bosna Meridianbet ( bs, Košarkaški klub Bosna Meridianbet) is a professional basketball team based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the most successful Bosnian club of all time, having been the EuroLeague champion by winning the 1 ...
head coach
A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other Coach (sport), coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manage ...
Bogdan Tanjević.
Club career
KK Bosna
Radovanović arrived to Sarajevo in October 1972, having just turned 16 years of age. Though officially part of the
KK Bosna
KK Bosna Meridianbet ( bs, Košarkaški klub Bosna Meridianbet) is a professional basketball team based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the most successful Bosnian club of all time, having been the EuroLeague champion by winning the 1 ...
youth system, first team
head coach
A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other Coach (sport), coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manage ...
Tanjević would already give him an odd first team run-out during the
1972-73 season,
the club's first ever in the
Yugoslav top-tier league.
Throughout the
1973-74 season, seventeen-year-old Radovanović recorded 17 first team appearances in the Yugoslav First League, scoring a total of 43 points (2.5 points per game).
During the
1974-75 season, the eighteen-year-old's continued improvement led to a permanent move to the first team. His league scoring average over the season reached 5.8 points per game.
National team
Youth
Radovanović got picked for the Yugoslav cadet (under-16) national team at the
European Championship for Cadets, held in Italy during July 1973, making a modest contribution to Yugoslavia's bronze medal effort with 2.2 points per game.
The following summer, he made the Yugoslav junior (under-18) squad at the
European Championship for Juniors, in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
, this time playing a much larger role on a team coached by
Tanjević, his club
head coach
A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other Coach (sport), coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manage ...
at
Bosna. Radovanović contributed with 13.8 points per game, as the Yugoslav team — featuring
Branko Skroče,
Mihovil Nakić
Mihovil Nakić-Vojnović (born 31 July 1955) is a Croatian former professional basketball player. Standing at , he played as a small forward
The small forward (SF), also known as the three or swingman, is one of the five positions in a regulat ...
,
Andro Knego, and
Rajko Žižić, among others — won gold.
Senior
In July 1975, Radovanović, still only eighteen-years-old, made his full squad senior
Yugoslav national team debut in a game versus
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
at
Hala Pinki
Pinki Cultural and Sports Center ( sr-Cyrl, Културно спортски центар Пинки), commonly known as Pinki Hall ( sr-Cyrl, Хала Пинки), is an indoor multi-sports venue located in Belgrade's municipality of Zemun, Serb ...
as part of the International Cup.
Post-playing career
Right after retiring from playing basketball in 1990 in
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
, thirty-three-year-old Radovanović moved to Sarajevo with his wife and their two young children. Returning to the city where he had previously lived for eleven years between 1972 and 1983 while with
KK Bosna
KK Bosna Meridianbet ( bs, Košarkaški klub Bosna Meridianbet) is a professional basketball team based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the most successful Bosnian club of all time, having been the EuroLeague champion by winning the 1 ...
, he invested some of his money in healthcare by opening a private
dental office
Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions of ...
.
Less than two years after that, the
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...
broke out and Radovanović and his family fled to Belgrade where he has been living ever since.
FMP Železnik sporting director
In 1996, Radovanović joined the front office of
FMP Železnik FMP may refer to:
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— a club that had just finished playing its first ever season in
FR Yugoslavia
Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
's
top-tier league — in the sporting director capacity.
Working under the club's owner and president
Nebojša Čović, Radovanović handled player personnel issues — helping FMP Železnik become a noted producer of basketball talent.
In the 1996-97 season, Radovanović's first with the club, FMP Železnik won the
FR Yugoslavia Cup
The Serbia and Montenegro Cup was an association football knockout cup tournament of Serbia and Montenegro played between 1992 and 2006, after which Serbia and Montenegro became separate nations. The competition was the continuation of the old ...
competition — its very first piece of silverware. However, instead of keeping the Cup-winning squad (that consisted of somewhat older players) intact, the club decided to sell them and turn to bringing up a generation of 17 and 18-year-olds from its youth system into the first team.
With Čović's financial support, Radovanović implemented a player development system in FMP that relied on identifying and acquiring talented teenagers from all over FR Yugoslavia / Serbia-Montenegro / Serbia during early stages of their basketball development, working with them within the club's system featuring academy-like facilities at the Belgrade suburb of
Železnik where in addition to training they also lived and studied, and later selling them at a profit to bigger clubs. Players developed in the club during Radovanović's tenure include:
Miloš Teodosić (sold in 2007 to
Olympiakos for €1.2 million),
Zoran Erceg
Zoran Erceg ( Serbian Cyrillic: Зоран Ерцег; born 11 January 1985) is a Serbian former professional basketball player. He represented the Serbian national basketball team internationally. Standing at , he played the power forward posit ...
(sold in 2008 to Olympiakos for €800,000),
Aleksandar Rašić
Aleksandar Rašić ( sr, Александар Рашић; born March 16, 1984) is a Serbian former professional basketball player. He represented the Serbia national basketball team internationally.
Professional career
Rašić began his profess ...
(sold in 2007 to
Efes Pilsen
Anadolu Efes Biracılık ve Malt Sanayii A.Ş.''(lit. Anadolu Efes Brewery and Malt Industries)'' produces and markets beer and malt and non-alcoholic beverages in a wide geographical area comprising Turkey, Russia, the Commonwealth of Independe ...
for €400,000),
Dejan Musli
Dejan Musli ( sr-cyr, Дејан Мусли; born January 3, 1991) is a Serbian professional basketball player for MoraBanc Andorra of the Liga ACB. Standing at , he plays at the center position.
Professional career
FMP
In the youth Musli won ...
(sold in 2010 to
Caja Laboral
Caja Laboral Popular Cooperativa de Crédito or Caja Laboral (Workers' Credit Union) was a Spanish credit union established in 1959 as part of the Mondragon Corporation and headquartered in Mondragón, in the Basque Country (autonomous community ...
),
Miroslav Raduljica (sold in 2010 to Efes Pilsen for €600,000),
Mladen Šekularac
Mladen Šekularac ( sr-cyrl, Младен Шекуларац; born January 29, 1981) is a Montenegrin basketball coach and former professional player.
Playing career
At one point Šekularac was considered to be one of the biggest European talent ...
(sold in 2002 to
Virtus Bologna
Virtus Pallacanestro Bologna, known for sponsorship reasons as Virtus Segafredo Bologna, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna.
The club was founded in 1929, which makes it the oldest club in Italy and one ...
for €600,000),
Dejan Milojević (sold in 2000 to
KK Budućnost for €600,000),
Ognjen Aškrabić
Ognjen Aškrabić ( sr-cyr, Огњен Ашкрабић; born July 28, 1979) is a Serbian former professional basketball player.
Professional career
While playing for Dynamo Saint Petersburg, Aškrabić won the FIBA Europe League in 2005.
Nati ...
(sold in 2004 to the newly-established
Dynamo Saint Petersburg for €550,000),
Duško Savanović (sold in 2006 to
UNICS Kazan
BC UNICS (russian: БК УНИКС) is a professional basketball club in Kazan, Russia, that plays in the VTB United League, and formerly played in the EuroLeague. On February 28, 2022, EuroLeague Basketball suspended the team because of the 202 ...
for €500,000),
Vladimir Radmanović and
Mile Ilić
Mile Ilić ( sr, Миле Илић; born 2 June 1984) is a Serbian podcaster and former professional basketball player.
Known in Serbia as Jao Mile (word play referencing Yao Ming and the Serbian expression for ouch, ''jao''), the 2.15-metre-ta ...
(sold in 2001 to the
Seattle SuperSonics
The Seattle SuperSonics (commonly known as the Seattle Sonics) were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The SuperSonics competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conf ...
and in 2006 to the
New Jersey Nets
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...
, respectively, for the then fixed transfer fee of
US$350,000 that the NBA franchises were paying to European clubs for players under contract).
After fourteen years at the club, Radovanović parted ways with FMP Železnik in 2010 at the beginning of the 2010-11 season.
In August 2017, following seven years away from basketball, Radovanović almost came back to the sport as
KK Partizan's youth system director. The news of his return even got announced by the Serbian press outlets, however, nothing came of it in the end with Radovanović later revealing that negotiations with KK Partizan lasted over a month with no deal ultimately being made.
Sloboda Užice sporting director
On May 26, 2018, Radovanović became the
sports director of
Sloboda Užice, newly promoted member of the
Basketball League of Serbia
The Basketball League of Serbia ( sr, Кошаркашка лига Србије, Košarkaška liga Srbije; abbr. КЛС or KLS), is a top-tier men's professional basketball league in Serbia. Founded in 2006, it is run by the Basketball Federat ...
for the
2018-19 season.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Radovanovic, Ratko
1956 births
Living people
Basketball players at the 1980 Summer Olympics
Basketball players at the 1984 Summer Olympics
Centers (basketball)
Competitors at the 1975 Mediterranean Games
Competitors at the 1979 Mediterranean Games
FIBA World Championship-winning players
Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics
Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Yugoslavia
Mediterranean Games medalists in basketball
Olympic basketball players of Yugoslavia
Olympic bronze medalists for Yugoslavia
Olympic gold medalists for Yugoslavia
Olympic medalists in basketball
Reyer Venezia players
Serbian basketball executives and administrators
Serbian expatriate basketball people in France
Serbian expatriate basketball people in Italy
Serbian men's basketball players
Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Serbs of Montenegro
Sportspeople from Nevesinje
Sportspeople from Nikšić
Yugoslav men's basketball players
1978 FIBA World Championship players
1982 FIBA World Championship players
1986 FIBA World Championship players
KK Bosna Royal players