Basketball club Dunav is the first club from Serbia, which will play in the European North Basketball league.
Dunav is named after the mighty Dunav river – Danube in English, Donau in German – which flows 588 kilometers through Serbia.
This important waterway connects Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine.
Serbia`s capital Belgrade – Beograd in Serbian – is located on the high right bank of Dunav, at its confluence with Sava river.
There are famous outdoor basketball courts in a historic Kalemegdan fortress, overlooking the confluence of Sava and Dunav rivers – literally a birthplace of the Serbian basketball.
Stari Banovci are located upriver from Belgrade, around 20 kilometers north of historic Zemun neighbourhood.
BC Dunav – also KK Dunav – was founded in 1976 by a young group of enthusiastic people after Yugoslav basketball successes.
Yugoslavia won the 1970 FIBA World Cup, held at Sarajevo, Split, Karlovac, Skopje and Ljubljana – it was the first ever FIBA Word Championship hosted outside South America.
The Yugoslav team played at the five consecutive World Cup finals (Brazil 1963, Uruguay 1967, Yugoslavia 1970, Puerto Rico 1974 and Philippines 1978), setting example for the future generations.
Dunav was reorganized and became a professional club in 2000.
The club won the First Regional league in 2015 with a 24-0 record and entered the Second league of Serbia.
In its first season in the Second league, Dunav finished at the second place with a 21-5 record and earned a promotion to the First league – Košarkaša Liga Srbije www.kls.rs .
KLS has 16 teams as of autumn 2022 – Dunav, Dynamic Balkan Bet, Metalac, Spartak Office Shoes, Zlatibor Gold Gondola, Vojvodina, Sloga, Vršac doo, Sloboda, Novi Pazar, Kolubara LA 2003, OKK Beograd, Tamiš, Zdravlje Leskovac, Čačak 94 Quantox and Mladost MaxBet.
The top teams qualify for the Superleague where they get a chance to play against EuroLeague clubs Partizan Belgrade and Crvena zvezda Belgrade.
Meanwhile, top Serbian teams also play at the AdmiralBet ABA league – or Adriatic league – Borac Mozzart from Čačak, FMP Meridian from Belgrade, Mega Mis from Belgrade, Crvena Zvezda mts and Partizan Mozzart Bet.
The King of Euroleague – Željko Obradović from Čačak – won the FIBA European league in 1992 with Partizan Belgrade.
Obradović coached at Joventut Badalona (1993-1994), Real Madrid (1994-1997), Benetton Treviso (1997-1999), Panathinaikos Athens (1999-2012) and Fenerbahce Istanbul (2013-2020), winning countless titles in the way.
On June 25, 2021, Obradović signed a three year contract with Partizan Belgrade, returning to his former club after 28 years.
It was the same year, when Dunav started official cooperation with Partizan Belgrade.
In the years prior to this event, Dunav was a participant of the Final Eight National Cup of Radivoj Korać, meeting Partizan Belgrade in the quarter-finals.
Dunav reached the Superleague – the final stage of the Serbian league – in 2018 when it played in one group with Crvena zvezda.
The club also has a youth system with seven coaches and over 150 children.
Milivoje Lazić is the head coach of Dunav.
Lazić was born in Ljubljana and after a breakup of Yugoslavia moved to Belgrade.
He was an assistant coach in FMP (2005-2010), Partizan (2010-2011) and Crvena zvezda (2011-2012), where he worked with famous Svetislav Pešić.
Lazić became the head coach of Crvena zvezda after Pešić`s departure but got fired in the autumn of 2012 after two losses at the start of the Adriatic league.
He served as the interim head coach of Partizan in October-November 2020 and became the head coach of Dunav in September 2021.
Lazić is a two time Adriatic league champion (2006, 2011), a Serbian league champion (2011) and a two time Korać Cup winner (2007, 2011).
Dunav`s key players are Aleksandar Miljković and Milan Vulić.
Miljković is a top level defensive player and a Dunav captain for the last 10 seasons – he led the club from the third to the first league.
Vulić is a shooting guard who last three seasons played for the Adriatic league club Igokea from Aleksandrovac, Bosnia.
There are many young and talented players in the team, like Mihailo Petrović, Nikola Radovanović, Marko Vukčević, Viktor Mikić and Alp Oktay.
Point guard Petrović was a member of Partizan U19 team from 2019-2021 and played at the ABA U19 league.
Small forward Radovanović (2019-2021), power forward Vukčević (2020-2021) and a 2005 born center Mikić (2021-2022) also played for the Partizan U19 team.
Point guard Alp Oktay – born in 2001 – last three seasons played for Bakirkoy Basket in Istanbul and may join Partizan after a one year with Dunav.