Dejan Bodiroga

Dejan Bodiroga (Serbian Cyrillic: Дејан Бодирога; born March 2, 1973) is a retired Serbian professional basketball player. Listed at 2.05 m (6 ft 8 ³⁄₄ in) and 110 kg (243 lbs.), he mainly played the small forward position. His versatility however, would often allow him to assume a point forward role, as well as both guard positions. A Euroleague icon of the early part of the 2000s, Bodiroga proved himself to be a symbol of excellence by lifting consecutive Euroleague trophies with Panathinaikos and FC Barcelona, winning the Euroleague Final Four MVP both times. Among many other awards, Bodiroga was named to the 50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors and the Euroleague 2001–10 All-Decade Team.

Bodiroga led Yugoslavia to two FIBA World Cup titles in 1998 and 2002, earning MVP honors in the former. In addition, he won three FIBA EuroBasket gold medals (1995, 1997, 2001) and a bronze (1999), as well as an Summer Olympic Games silver medal in 1996.

Club career

Yugoslavia

Bodiroga first started playing structured basketball at the age of 13. He enrolled in Zrenjanin's Mašinac (Servo Mihalj) basketball section, under supervision of local basketball enthusiast Rade Prvulov. At the age of fifteen, he sprung up to 2.05m, and was quickly incorporated into the first team squad, coached by Miodrag Sija Nikolić, a former OKK Belgrade and SFR Yugoslav national team player in the 1960s.