DEJAN MILOJEVIC’S ERA IN MEGA ENDS, NEW COACH IS VLADIMIR JOVANOVIC

The era of Dejan Milojevic on the bench of Mega Bemax is over and he will be replaced by Vladimir Vlade Jovanovic, who signed a two-year contract with the club.

As it was announced at the press conference at the end of the Super League last year, the 2019/20 season was the last for Dejan Milojevic at the head of Mega’s coaching staff. After the end of a great playing career, in 2010 he became the Sports Director of Mega. With eight years spent at the helm of Mega, Milojevic is one of the coaches with the longest-standing run in any of the European teams. After great successes and rises with Mega, Vladimir Jovanovic will succeed him.

In addition to the new coach of Mega, Dejan Milojević also attended the signing of the contract in the Mega Factory hall where he symbolically handed the coaching board to Vladimir Jovanovic and wished him luck, which showed that Mega with this gesture, unseen in circumstances in basketball, is different compared to the other clubs.

General manager Goran Cakic, on behalf of the club, expressed satisfaction that Mega will be led from the bench in the coming years by Vladimir Jovanovic, who has extensive coaching experience behind him. He was born on July 4, 1973 in Cačak. In 2010, he became the coach of Partizan and in the next two seasons he won five trophies, one Adriatic League, two titles in Serbia and two Radivoje Korac Cups. After Partizan, he continued his career abroad. Jovanovic successfully led both the U18 and U20 national teams of Serbia, winning two gold medals with the national team at the U18 European Championships, in 2009 in France and in 2017 in Slovakia:

– We are very pleased that the new coach of the team will be Vladimir Jovanovic, who in his career so far, in addition to club successes, has also had excellent results in working with young players. Our ambitions coincided, it is up to us to continue to provide excellent conditions for working and progress of the players. We have full faith that we will continue to create future great basketball names of NBA and European basketball with Vladimir Jovanovic,

said the General Manager of Mega Bemax, who recalled the dimmeasurable contribution of Dejan Milojevic in the development of the club over the past 10 years, announcing that the club will see off Deki in a special way, about which the public will be informed in the next few days.

The new coach of Mega Bemax, Vladimir Jovanovic, pointed out that he is glad that his sports paths crossed with Mega:

– My beginning as a coach was related to working with young players. Later, I affirmed myself in working with young people through national team actions, and Mega has been known for a decade and more for promoting very young players who later play very notable roles in big teams and who reach the NBA league. From what I did, what I was educated for, the way I viewed basketball, this is practically an opportunity where we are all on the same wavelength.

About the first steps on Mega’s bench, Jovanovic emphasized:

– The situation in the world is unusual with a sudden break of two months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and that put a special task for all of us, not only in the club but also in the world, on how to get to the season. In preliminary conversations with the coaches, we came to the conclusion that we will use this post-competition period to improve the playing qualities of the players, both physical and basketball. When I start working officially, when I see the team, I believe that together we will easily reach a solution, maybe much easier than some other teams, having in mind how many young players we have.

When asked what kind of Mega we can expect next season, Jovanovic pointed out that she must be intense in every segment of the game:

– I have experience with some Mega players that we went through national team’s actions together. Dejan Milojevic had great success with the team, many quality players came out of that system. It is certain that we will force the system that has been so far and which has shown success. Mega, being a young team, has to be intense in every segment of the game, no matter what the basketball element is. It can be rebound, defense, speed … Whatever we reach for, I will try to be intense because that youth cannot always guarantee you the right basketball solutions at this moment of their careers, which are at the very beginning. Mistakes will be an integral part of the game, but regardless, the intensity and desire must be constant.

Photo: Mega Bemax/Ivica Veselinov