Coming from a basketball family, Crvena Zvezda forward Dejan Davidovac is living his dream, playing the sport he loves for his favorite club.
Dejan Davidovac, Crvena Zvezda: 'We are a basketball family'
Interviews
4 Mins read
Every time Dejan Davidovac gets ready to put on a Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade jersey, it feels as it is in his DNA to do just that. And that's not just because his body frame combined with his understanding of the game allows him to play any position, from 'one' to 'four'.
The 28-year-old is a Crvena Zvezda fan through and through because of his late grandfather and a basketball player because of his father and older brother. Davidovac is simply living his dream by playing the sport he loves for his favorite club.
"I was little, so little, when my grandfather took me to a Zvezda soccer game," Davidovac smiled. "He brought me to the game, and I started to be like a part of this club."
His grandfather Bozidar was a soccer player in his youth and a Zvezda die-hard: "I was too young to remember it, but Zvezda is in my heart since then."
The journey how he got to wear the Zvezda basketball jersey, however, started a few years later, in his hometown of Zrenjanin.
"I'm the last in my family who started to play basketball, and maybe, the best," Davidovac laughed.
His father Dragoslav was a player and his brother Bojan, who is five years older, started practicing at a young age, too.
"We are a basketball family," Davidovac said, adding "I heard about my father. He was talented. He was good. But he had some injury and he just stopped playing."
His brother began practicing basketball when he started elementary school, and Dejan did the same.
"I just followed him. I just started to play basketball because of him", Davidovac explained. "I started at the same age when he started. Like a copy-paste."
The two brothers had a rivalry like any brothers have, competing every step of the way.
"He was stronger, he was higher, everything. I was younger and [thinking] I cannot let him beat me," the Zvezda forward recalled. "So, the normal things between the brothers. And when we became equal, we just stopped", Davidovac laughed.
Davidovac stood out with talent, and as time passed, he needed to move to bigger things. It led him to Serbian clubs known for developing talent, first to Vrsac, a town about an hour and a half away, before he joined FMP Zeleznik in the Serbian capital. After two years there, he joined Crvena Zvezda in 2017.
"Zrenjanin is a small city, small club, and that was the first step of my career to move from my hometown. It was a little bit tough, especially for my mother," Davidovac said. "After that for me, it was just going step by step, playing in all leagues. I took it easy, I was patient, and I reached the EuroLeague, the best level in Europe."
And every step of the way, his mother Svetlana, his father and his brother were always there for him. From the day he started playing basketball, to leaving home for the first time as a teenager, to this day when he is in his fifth EuroLeague season, as a Basketball World Cup silver medalist with the Serbian national team.
"I learned from my family to never give up. They supported me, and they pushed me, and that's the best thing for me. To have somebody like that behind me, that's maybe the most important in my career", Davidovac said.
And as far as that rivalry with his brother, who had a professional career of his own and played in the French lower divisions as well as for a couple of Serbian lower-division clubs, it's been put to a stop.
"That's maybe the best thing. No more fighting, no more rivalry, no more anything, we just stopped. He is just a big support. I know he is proud of me and he's an important person in my life for sure", Davidovac concluded.