In probably the most traumatic week of the most traumatic season in its 80-year history, fans of the basketball club Partizan have seen off into eternity the architect of the champion (creative and ethical) DNA, welcomed the return of the first foreign captain in the club's history, celebrated for the third time in the season against the city rival... and presented a unique monograph - "The First 80 Years".
The work of Vladimir Sibinović and Milenko Janjić is a major publishing venture halfway between an encyclopedia and bildungsromana. The book presents Partizan's "biography on 380 pages and describes the development path from the beginnings from the ashes, blood and mud of the National Liberation War, through the New Belgrade "Sports Hall", the Belgrade Basketball Festival, the Fuenlabrada exile, to the trophy giant, who is known to everyone and probably the most loved basketball club east of Boston.
You can shop in Partizan's shop for nine thousand dinars, and that's not a lot of money when you know what's inside.
Photo: TimeThe monograph is the work of Vladimir Sibinović and Milenko Janjić
Hall of Fame
In the first half of the presentation of the monograph, in the Mala Arena, on the eve of the Euroleague match with Baskonia, there was an empty seat in the first row of the audience for the man who indirectly wrote about 40 percent of the content of this book.
Despite the applause for Dulet, Reba, Praja, Haris, Miloj and other absentees, a rarely seen public gathering took place. Walking Hall of Fame, who carries the history of the club and the continuity of top basketball in this region. From Kićanović to Salet Đorđević, from Miško Marić to Mića Berić, from Radošević to Vilfan, Faret "General" and Saša Pavlović... to Aleksandar Džikić and many others. That list of great men does not fit into a short text, so I will stop listing them here.
According to one of the authors, everyone who wore the KK Partizan jersey rose to the rank of superheroes, regardless of the number of trophies or representative performances they recorded.
In terms of research, the monograph opens up new images and insights to Partizan and the wider audience. Even those who remember everything well, will learn some spicy details from the club's tour of France (winter 1952-53), more about Baca from Jacksonville or the fact that the scorer of the first three-pointer in Partizan's history (after OI '84 in Los Angeles) was Toza Zorkić.
Thematically, this is the first publication that comprehensively deals with Partizan's basketball history in the 21st century. Genre-wise, as already noted, it sits somewhere between a luxury encyclopedia (a selection of more than 500 exquisite photographs!) and a work of art…
Authors Sibinović and Janjić belong to different generations of basketball fans, but for the purposes of this stylistic exercise, they played a perfect pick-and-roll. Thanks to Marko Lovrić's proofreading and proofreading, their play in transition is fluid.
Although it can be consumed on the fly, it elegantly transports the plot from the realm of oral tradition and analog archival material to our days, loaded with digital content, statistics and modern basketball terminology.
Photo: Milenko JanjićCapital work for every partisan
All scores and points ever
Important in today's fast-paced world - the book is the result of 16 months of thorough and responsible work. A result without pathos, pseudo-history, pink glitter and false gilding.
The history of the great Partizan was built equally by Gan and Kecman. The authors do not hide from the "trauma called Bursa", nor from the "curse of Smith Nolan". "Four-steppers", "charismatic Italian", "betrayed deals", "invisible adversaries"... it's all in this book, and it's all Partizan.
In addition to the two authors and proofreaders, the meticulous statisticians Dragan Martinović and Ognjen Marinović deserve special congratulations (and thanks from the fans), who provided the most comprehensive register of Partizan basketball players, matches and results.
The most beautiful things arise from selfless, fanatical love, dedication, energy of "ordinary fans". And Dule would certainly be proud of what he is and who he left behind.
