Chronology of the fall

Passionate sports fans they will tell you how they are guided by a specific calendar according to which the year does not last from January to December, but from the beginning to the end of one season of their beloved club. Unlike people who are not passionate fans, they will organize their vacations according to the obligations of their beloved club, and often use their days off to heal the sadness of heartbreaking defeats or recover from a hangover after big victories.

However you calculate the time, June 2025 does not seem so far away. However, for the fans Partizan this time reference seems to be from the distant past, another century or a past life. Led by the most trophy-winning coach in the history of European basketball, in the middle of the previous calendar year, their pets gave them two trophies and several memorable evenings.

Excellent results were followed by successes off the field - a three-year license to play in the Euroleague was secured, and in those days the club signed the loudest reinforcement in the club's history, a former NBA star who successfully wore the Barcelona jersey in previous seasons. Partizan acted as a stable and harmonious unit that has an excellent starting point and a bright future. But, as the legendary coach Duško Vujošević likes to say, "happiness in sports lasts like a cat's husband", while every difficult period seems like an eternity.

The black and whites started the current season with a lot of turbulence, and the situation culminated with the departure of Željko Obradović from the bench of his beloved team. If at that time it could be said that it was a crisis, less than two months later it can be stated that Partizan is in despair - the atmosphere around the club is toxic, the relationship between players and fans is irreparable, and the results are disastrous. On the one hand, Partizan's current troubles are easy to explain, because the causes are numerous and obvious, but it is difficult to rationalize the scale of the abyss into which the club fell, which only a few months ago boldly announced the fight for the playoffs in the elite European competition.

In the following lines, we will try to summarize what all contributed to the fact that Partizan currently represents the last ranked team in the Euroleague.

photo: phonet

THE SEASON WHEN ŽELJKO GONE

The Black and Whites rounded off the previous season by winning the ABA and Basketball League titles of Serbia, while they ended their Euroleague adventure in an unsatisfactory, but not embarrassing, 12th position in the second strongest league in the world. The basketball players of the Serbian giant were in competition for a place among the ten best teams until the very end of the regular part of the Euroleague, but the fans did not give up on their pets even when they missed the playoffs. They filled the hall even in matches that had no result, and their heroes repaid them in the best possible way by winning two trophies in one season for the first time since 2012/13. season.
The backbone of the trophy squad has been preserved, and Partizan, as rarely in its long and rich history, had the whole summer to strengthen something that was already giving obvious results with a few real moves. Therefore, it was reasonable to expect that in the new season they will not go below the 12th place from the previous one, and that the reinforced and carefully selected team of Željko Obradović can only be better in the coming period. However, problems were waiting just around the corner.

Already the first preparatory games showed that the most expensive acquisition in the history of the club - Jabari Parker - is in a rather neglected physical condition, while the search for a quality solution in the center position broke through all acceptable deadlines. Dissonant statements came from the club - while president Ostoja Mijailović announced an attack on the very top of the Euroleague and boasted of a budget of 27 million euros, coach Obradović talked about logistical failures and huge challenges in the preparatory period, which he said was the second most difficult in his long career.

The black-and-whites entered the season with an incomplete team and tired from a marketing-successful trip to Australia, only for the precipitous fall to begin with an injury to Karlik Jones. The black and whites could not manage without a playmaker who brought structure and meaning to Partizan's attack, and the situation soon became so hopeless that even an expert with experience and knowledge like Obradović could not see how to proceed. Not wanting to start a complete overhaul of a team that was seen to have no bright future, Željko Obradović decided to retire from the position of head coach.

The problem is that there was no serious coach who would take on a thankless job in sight. If, here and there, someone appeared who would think about the offer, with just a little research he could conclude that this engagement is from the category of undesirables. It is often said in sports that the best timing for a coach to take over a team is when it is in a big result crisis, but the crisis in Partizan was not only of a result nature - the fans were dissatisfied with the game and the performance on the field, but they were really outraged by the way the club said goodbye to the greatest coach in the history of European basketball, at the same time the man who brought Partizan the biggest trophy in history, the title of European champion.

Replacing Željko Obradović, in full capacity and in every respect, is practically impossible. To begin with, Partizan is financed to the greatest extent by the money of its fans, who filled the club's budget by buying overpriced season tickets in previous seasons. This was not an indicator of well-being in society, but of irrational fan motivation that forced people to believe that with Željko everything is possible, and that Europe will be conquered again. Željko Obradović represented Partizan, which is not afraid to dream big, and this was something that the inflammable fan base longed for.

The only two coaching names that would cause similar euphoria among Partizan supporters are Aleksandar Đorđević and Andrea Trinkieri, but the aforementioned two strategists, according to numerous sources, did not even consider succeeding Obradović on the black and white bench. Given the great respect they enjoy among the black and white world, they probably wondered why they would question their status in a season that, no matter how it ends, will be remembered as the season in which Željko Obradović resigned for the first time in his career.

FREE FALL

Club president Ostoja Mijailović soon found out that high-quality, freelance basketball coaches do not grow on trees. With each new day, his negotiating position became weaker and weaker - he could not replace Željko Obradović with a strategist of modest reputation and biography, while at the same time the coaches became more and more familiar with the events through the huge amount of dirty laundry that was constantly brought out of the club. It was learned, for example, that Obradović and Mijailović did not have any communication in the previous months, but also that the president of the club made certain personnel decisions on his own. On the other hand, Mijailović criticized the tandem in charge of sports matters - coach Obradović and sports director Savić - for certain choices in the transition period and the bringing of expensive players who did not justify large investments.

All this gave the coaches the opportunity to increase their demands, either financially or in terms of the length of the contract. Why would anyone question their reputation and accept a business that is doomed to failure, without receiving a lot of money and/or a lot of time for such an adventure?

In the meantime, the thankless task of leading the black and whites in the transition period was entrusted to Obradović's assistant, Mirko Ocokoljić. Although he was greeted with thunderous whistles at the game against Bayern, in a short time he won the sympathy of the fans who saw in him the ideal man to lead the club into somewhat calmer waters and bring the nightmarish season to an end. Four consecutive victories helped Ocokoljic in this, especially the one that was achieved after a great reversal against Crvena zvezda.

However, the team soon began to show less and less discipline in the game, and the results became worse and worse, so a new result crisis forced the club leaders to finally end the search for a new head coach. The job was given to Gioan Peñaroja, who during his career led serious teams such as Barcelona, ​​Valencia and Basconia, but whose previous engagements did not end brilliantly, so the basketball public welcomed the second foreign coach in the history of Partizan with mistrust.

The next period showed that there were reasons for skepticism. Under Peñaroja's coach, Partizan suffered five consecutive failures in the Euroleague, which extended the black streak to seven straight defeats, and knocked the Belgrade giants to the last place in the table. The fact that Partizan suffered all seven mentioned defeats with a double-digit margin, with a total margin that is the worst in the history of the Euroleague, and at the same time some negative records in the 80-year long history of the club were broken - the defeat against Žalgiris (68:109) is the third most convincing in the history of Partizan, the defeat against Olympiakos (66:104) is the most convincing ever on the home field, while against Maccabiah received the most points at home (112).

More than the defeats themselves, the fans are depressed by Partizan's game, which shows no signs of improvement even after a month of work by the new coach. The black and whites have the worst defense in the Euroleague, and in four of the previous six games they conceded more than 100 points, while the last seven defeats were recorded with a total of 170 points difference. Problems that existed before - such as bad selection of fouls or big drops in the game - were not addressed in any way, and they were followed by terrible shot selection, indiscipline in defense and selfishness in attack. Fans have a hard time putting up with the pale and disinterested editions of their former favorites, so there are fewer and fewer people in the stands, and as already said in one of the previous paragraphs, this club has learned to function from the unconditional support and monetary donations of its fans.

photo: Tanjug

IS THERE HOPE

Despite the numerous problems with injuries, the toxic atmosphere in the club and in the stands, there is far more quality in this Partizan lineup than the current position in the table shows. The Belgraders obviously made huge mistakes with this year's loudest reinforcements (Sheik Milton, Jabari Parker), and they didn't particularly make a name for themselves with the additional selection (Nick Kalates, Bruno Fernando, Cameron Payne, Tonye Dzekiri), but few could have guessed that this team, instead of the Euroleague playoffs, would fight for as honorable a defeat as possible.

The Euroleague season is irretrievably lost, and the black and whites are left with participation in the ABA League, the Basketball League of Serbia and the Radivoje Korac Cup. However, the impression is that Partizan fans can't wait for the nightmarish season to end, and that they would be more happy about the changes in the complete club structures than the trophies in the mentioned competitions. The atmosphere has been damaged to such an extent that it is almost impossible to imagine a scenario in which Ostoja Mijailović continues to lead a club with successes on the sporting and financial front. There is a noticeable trend of decreasing attendance at Partizan matches, which will certainly be felt through lower income from ticket sales, and consequently also on the club's budget in the future.

An additional problem is the fact that the black and whites have a lot of financial obligations in the upcoming seasons - they have to pay for participation in the Euroleague for two more years, and a few players have million-dollar contracts that are valid for the next period as well. Therefore, the logical question arises as to whether there is even a person who would tackle the problems and challenges, with the numerous political pressures and lateral blows that go with the job description of the president of KK Partizan. The next period will give us the answer, but the history of this club has shown that the formula for healing is as follows - it is necessary for black and white to change almost the entire playing staff and find players that the audience will love, and then a quality coach who will restore the sense of community, hope and competence to the fan army. In the end, or more precisely at the beginning of everything, Partizan needs a man who is respected enough in the world of sports and capable enough in the world of business, and as little "dirty" as possible in the world of politics, in order to stand at the head of the entire project with his authority and influence.