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Danilo Andjusic, Partizan: 'Ready to give everything for that badge'

Danilo Andjusic, Partizan: 'Ready to give everything for that badge'

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10 May 20238 Mins read

Danilo Andjusic, Partizan: 'Ready to give everything for that badge'

Returning to your hometown and playing for your favorite team is a dream of many professional players around the globe. Especially if your feelings about that connection to that team are as strong as Danilo Andjusic's are.

The Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade sharpshooter was always a die-hard fan of the club whose black-and-white jersey he is wearing this season. Born and raised in the Serbian capital, Andjusic grew up as a Partizan supporter, a love that only grew stronger as he grew older.

Andjusic has changed a dozen clubs during his professional career and never played with the same club for more than two seasons. With Partizan, however, this is his third stint.

"As soon as I got the call from Zeljko [Obradovic], I didn't have a second thought."

The 32-year-old first joined his beloved club in 2011, when he made his Turkish Airlines EuroLeague debut and spent a season and a half there, then came back again for the first part of the 2015-16 campaign. Last summer, after more than six year away, he returned for another stint, and he admits this return might have been in the cards.

"I always had a feeling that I want to come back one day," Andjusic says, adding that maybe he did not think it would be this soon. However…

"To be honest, at the end of [last] season, I started thinking about it a little bit. And as soon as I got the call from Zeljko [Obradovic], I didn't have a second thought. After we spoke, it was an easy decision.

"The best coach in European basketball history doesn't call you every time. So it was that, an opportunity to come back to my club that I love and to play in the EuroLeague."

Andjusic grew up in Belgrade's Uciteljsko naselje neighborhood, in a family full of Crvena Zvezda fans. His mother even played basketball for Zvezda. His grandfather Simo was the only Partizan fan in the family.

Andjusic began playing basketball at eight years old. As he started getting more serious about, Andjusic says he had two basketball idols: Milos Vujanic and Allen Iverson. The former was a EuroLeague star with Partizan. Danilo liked watching him play so much that his father started taking him to the games.

But Andjusic as a basketball player did not grow up with Partizan. He took a longer route to playING for his favorite club, first joining Partizan in 2011, at the age of 20. There, he met and became friends with his childhood idol, Vujanic.

"I got to know Milos when he was my assistant coach with Partizan during my first stint, and at that time we became close. It was a special thing for me to hang out with my idol, an amazing feeling," he said.

Even before he came to Partizan, Andjusic had an opportunity to play against his other idol, Iverson, as a 19-year old for Hemofarm Vrsac in the 2010-11 EuroCup season opener against Iverson's Besiktas Istanbul.

As such, basketball made some of his dreams come true very early in his professional career.

"I also have other dreams and goals that I would like to achieve before I end my career, but a lot of things until now I achieved," he says. "And I also believe when you set the goals, and when you chase them and believe in yourself, I think everything is possible."

One of those goals has certainly been to leave a mark with Partizan, and this season has been very different for Andjusic from any other season he previously spent with the club.

"I know it's sounds like a cliché, but with Partizan, you really feel that people live for the games."

Returning to the EuroLeague after eight years, Partizan turned a 4-9 regular-season start into a 20-14 record and a place in the playoffs.

And while Partizan's deciding Game 5 against Real Madrid in the Spanish capital awaits, the season is more meaningful for Andjusic not just because of the team's success, but for the very reason of him going through all of it as a family man.

"I think when you have a family you are more calm," Andjusic says. "You don't chase anything, you are not nervous as much. So yeah, I really like that feeling, especially now, when I'm in Belgrade."

Andjusic does not hide his joy knowing that his sons can watch him play in a Partizan jersey. And even though the older one is just four and the younger one not yet two, the Belgrade-born veteran guard hopes that over time they will develop the same love for the club.

"I will try to pass that feeling to them. My older son actually started doing athletics in Partizan. I'm trying to build that feeling about the club, and fans, and about everything to him.

"I should start doing the same with the younger one, too!" he adds, laughing.

The bond that Partizan fans have with the team has been on full display the entire season. The atmosphere inside Stark Arena has been lauded by visiting coaches and players alike. Attending a Partizan home game in the EuroLeague now appears on the bucket lists of many fans around the continent.

"So many people live for Partizan, and live to see us winning and to see us winning titles," Andjusic says. "I know it's sounds like a cliché, but with Partizan you really feel that people live for the games.

"And if you want to play for this club, I think you have to connect with that and you have to feel that, and show that you are ready to give everything for that badge."