By Stefan Djordjevic/ info@eurohoops.net
Petar Bozic is best known for his eight seasons (2004-2012) with Partizan Belgrade during which he became a club legend, the player with the most appearances and trophies in club history. He won 18 trophies earning by he fans the nickname ‘professional trophy lifter’. Bozic was also the captain of Partizan squad which played the 2010 EuroLeague Final Four, the only team from ABA region to do it in the modern competition format.
After finishing his playing career, Bozic joined Partizan’s legendary coach Dusko Vujosevic as an assistant and eventually got the chance at the head coach position couple of years later. He didn’t stay for long and his next stop was the USA and the Austin Spurs where he continued his career as an assistant coach.
In his first year in the States, the Spurs became the G-League champions (2018) and the will travel to Rio, Brazil, for the Intercontinental Cup. It’s an opportunity to test themselves against champions from other continents and Bozic believes this experience will be very important for the squad: “As last year’s G-League Champions it’s an honor for us to participate. I also think this experience playing against European and South American teams will be big for our development. It’s a different style of basketball than we are used to.”
Bozic is a Partizan legend, but he is also grateful to the Spurs and he considers his presence on their bench a very important stepping stone on his path to a head coaching opportunity: “As a player and assistant coach, I learned a lot about basketball. But as a head coach with Partizan, I learned that being a head coach is what I want to be. It’s what I want to do with my life. And then I came to the Spurs, an amazing organization where I think I am in the best place and environment for the improvement that I need and want. I’m not thinking about when I’m going to be a head coach again, I’m just working on developing and improving.”
As the ‘professional trophy lifter’, Bozic believes the key to Partizan’s success was “continuity, great recruiting, hard work, spending more time on the floor than anyone else, and the support of our fans, ‘the sixth man’”, and hopes that his former club will get back to prominence: “I follow my former team. I’ve been cheering for them. I think they did a great job the last couple of years in financial recovery, in making good moves by signing a lot of good talent”.
While in Partizan, Bozic was also a teammate and later the coach of Sacramento Kings guard Bogdan Bogdanovic. Putting Bogdan’s skills aside, the Spurs coach believes that his mentality is the key for success in the NBA.“I was expecting him to do big things because he has that type of personality. I think he’s a great guy, very talented and extremely competitive. I’m glad that he is proving that now.”, Bozic said.
Photo Credit: ABA Liga