Dejan Milojević
Dejan Milojević (; born 15 April 1977) is a Serbian professional basketball coach and former player who currently serves as an assistant coach for Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA) as well as an assistant coach for the Serbian national team. Standing at , he played in the power forward position for domestic league teams FMP, Budućnost, and Partizan, as well as for Pamesa Valencia in Spain, and Galatasaray in Turkey. He was named the Adriatic League Most Valuable Player Award three times in a row. Milojević played on the Serbia and Montenegro national team, winning a  gold medal in the EuroBasket in 2001. Three years after his playing career ended in 2009, Milojević became a head coach for Mega Basket of the Adriatic Basketball Association (ABA). There he coached Nikola Jokić, a future NBA All-Star player and NBA MVP. In the 2015–16 season, he coached the Mega to their first-ever national title, the Serbian Cup, and the only ABA League finals. In 2021, he won Montenegrin League and Montenegrin Cup titles with Budućnost. Early years. Milojević was born and raised in Belgrade, and started playing basketball for Beovuk. He was quite a dominant figure  while playing in the youth system, once scoring 141 points in a single game, a still-standing record. Professional career. His professional career began in 1998 with a YUBA League club FMP from the Belgrade suburb of Železnik. While playing a couple of seasons for the club Milojević became famous for his blue-collar and never-quit style of playing. He averaged a double-double in both of his seasons with FMP and won the league MVP award in 1999. In 2000, Milojević moved to the Podgorica-based Budućnost, where he won his first National Championship in 2001. He spent  three more seasons there, improving his skills and his game every year. Already a dominating inside presence, he improved his three-point and free-throw shooting, an area in which he struggled a lot in the early years. While in Budućnost he won a couple more league MVP Awards, in 2003 and 2004. After averaging 20.5 points and 10.8 rebounds per game in the 2003–04 season, his third MVP season, Milojević signed with the three-time defending champion KK Partizan. Although Partizan underachieved in the competition, Milojević was his usual dominant self, averaging 20.8 points, 11.5 rebounds, and just over  3 steals and assists per game. He was also the key player for Partizan's other title rout in the domestic league, as they lost only one game during the playoffs. In the 2005–06 season, Milojević had another double-double EuroLeague season, scoring 16.4 points and grabbing 10 rebounds per game, also winning a couple of Player of the Week honors. From Partizan, Milojević moved to the Spanish side Pamesa Valencia, where he played two seasons, finishing his international career with the Turkish club Galatasaray Café Crown in the 2008–09 season. He moved back to Partizan in 2009, but soon  decided to end his career because of a knee injury. National team career. Milojević was a member of the Yugoslavia junior national team (representing FR Yugoslavia), together with Igor Rakočević and Marko Jarić, that won the gold medal at the 1998 European Championship for Men '22 and Under' in Trapani, Italy. Over six tournament games, he averaged 3.3 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. Milojević was a member of the Yugoslavia senior national team that won the gold medal at the 2001 FIBA European Championship in Turkey. Over three tournament games, he averaged 4.7 points and 3.3 rebounds per game . Later, he was a member of the Serbia and Montenegro national team that finished 9th at EuroBasket 2005 in his home country. Over three tournament games, he averaged 5.3 points and 2.7 rebounds per game. Coaching career. Mega (2012–2020). In October 2012, three years after retiring from the professional basketball, Milojević became the head coach of Serbian team Mega Vizura. In his first season with the team he had great success, leading his team to the semifinal of the Basketball League of Serbia, winning the place in the regional Adriatic League for the next season. In the team's first  ABA League season, he led the team to 8th place with a 12–14 record. On 1 June 2020, he ended his tenure with Mega Basket. Over 345 games during eight seasons, he had a 173–172 record. During his time with Mega witnessed eleven of his Mega players receive NBA draft selection (Nikola Jokić, Vasilije Micić, Nemanja Dangubić, Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot, Ivica Zubac, Rade Zagorac, Vlatko Čančar, Ognjen Jaramaz, Alpha Kaba, Goga Bitadze, and Marko Simonović). Milojević got his first taste of the NBA through Summer League coaching stint in the 2018 season with the Houston Rockets. Budućnost (2021). On 28  January 2021, Montenegrin club Budućnost hired Milojević as their new head coach. He signed a two and a half year contract. On 3 June 2021, Milojević won a Montenegrin Cup tournament following a 102–93 win over Mornar. Later that month, he won a Montenegrin League Championship after his team had a 3–0 win over Mornar in the 2021 Finals. He left Budućnost in June 2021 to join the Golden State Warriors. Golden State Warriors (2021–present). On 13 August 2021, the Golden State Warriors hired Milojević as an assistant coach. National teams. On 5 December 2019, Milojević was named an  assistant coach for the Serbia national team under Igor Kokoškov. In September 2021, he left the National team as the assistant coach.