Euroleague Basketball mourns Dejan Milojevic

Euroleague Basketball joins the Serbian and global basketball family in mourning Dejan Milojevic, who passed away on Wednesday.

Milojevic was a pioneer player in the new EuroLeague at the turn of the century and mentor to great players since then. His passing at age 46 was confirmed by the Golden State Warriors of the NBA, for whom he was an assistant coach, on Wednesday evening. Milojevic was on a road trip with the Warriors in Salt Lake City, Utah, when he suffered a heart attack at a team dinner on Tuesday. The NBA had postponed Golden State's next game earlier on Wednesday.

As a player, Milojevic was among the most versatile in the European elite during the first decade of the century. He played five EuroLeague seasons, three with Buducnost Podgorica and two with Partizan Belgrade, between 2000 and 2006. His 55 performance index rating for Partizan in a win over Olympiacos on Dec. 2, 2004, remains tied for the second-best performance in EuroLeague history. He also played a EuroCup season with Buducnost, in 2003-04, and another with Valencia Basket in 2007-08.

Shortly after retiring as a player, Milojevic commenced coaching in his native Belgrade with Mega Vizura, where he stayed for eight seasons and helped launch the careers of players like Vasilije Micic, a former EuroLeague MVP and two-time champion, and Nikola Jokic, the two-time NBA MVP, among many others. Milojevic returned to Buducnost in the middle of the 2020-21 season and helped the team reach the EuroCup Quarterfinals before losing the three-game series by 3 points to eventual champion AS Monaco.

May he rest in peace.