KK Partizan - Borac Čačak 102:77 (superliga, round 1)

After ABA League/Adriatic League there was a two-month-long gap until the Serbian domestic league to start.
Though we didn’t have any time to get bored in between.
The leading news of this period was the verbal karate between FIBA and the basketball associations around Europe.

I try to make just a short summary about it: it all started with FIBA declaring that they were not willing to acknowledge Euroleague as an official competition. (This is not a fresh fight, it started long ago and it will surely not end in the near future. There are definitely clashes of interest in the background, but that should be the topic of another blogpost.) As ABA League is tied to Euroleague, FIBA declared, they would not acknowledge ABA League either as an official competition series. 
What is more, they also declared, all those nations which enter ABA League or Euroleague, their national teams will be banned from every international competition (EuroBasket, world championship, Olympic Games) - countries like Serbia, Spain, Russia, Lithuania or Slovenia (in the meantime Croatia confirmed that they would co-operate with FIBA, at the same time they would turn away from ABA League). As for Serbia, right now it seems that the Serbian Basketball Association will choose ABA League and Euroleague vs. the national team.
My very own two cents: no right decision can be brought in this situation. The KSS can only decide which finger they should push into their eyes.

Partizan had their very own private warfare with KSS in the meantime. As we found out, Partizan may enter the Eurocup-series next season with a little luck (if we can get the wild card). Yet KSS declared, if Partizan entered Eurocup, we would get banned from the Serbian domestic league.

Don’t ever ask me why. There is probably FIBA in the background of this decision, but I (still) can’t see through the why’s and how’s. If anyone has any information about it, you can write it to the comment section below. Thanks in advance.

KK Partizan’s sports director Dragan Todorić had a clear-cut reaction on it. He sent both KSS and FIBA straight to hell, and he added, if Partizan gets the wild card, then we will enter Eurocup, even if green snow falls on Belgrade in the middle of the summer.
And if this was still not enough, KK Partizan’s president Nikola "Pekmen" Peković had a controversial interview in the media.

Let’s get it straight: Pekmen licked the current Serbian government’s ass clear. It means, well... if you don’t know what it means, then I don’t know where you have been in the past two years.

After all these Serbian superliga could finally get a start yesterday, and Partizan had an easy training game with Čačak.
The match had to be played behind closed doors, from a nobody-remembers-when-and-what-happened punishment by KSS. But on the stands you could still see two old friends.

Saša Pavlović and Nemanja Bezbradica

(photo: sportskacentrala.com)

All the flags with the team’s former championship titles and victores disappeared. This only Serbian flag was hung there - the others were gone almost surely as the result of the fight between ABA League/Euroleague and FIBA

(photo: Twitter)

During the national anthem

(photo: Twitter)

The beginning of the game was a bit tough, Borac got a free throw in the very first minute (0:1), then they jumped to 8:12. It didn’t last long, we equalized (12:12, Koprivica had such a great game, why does this kid not get more chance to play?).

Miloš Koprivica with the ball

(photo: Facebook/KK Partizan)

Then it soon turned into 26:18.
This was that moment, too (2 and a half minutes were left from the first quarter) when Novica Veličković, who returned to Partizan a few weeks ago, entered the court.

(photo: Facebook/KK Partizan)

We soon reached the two-digit difference (28:18, Wilson). We practically won the match at this point. The quarter ended with 37:26.
The second quarter was even smoother. 43:26 (Veličković), 47:30 (Jones), 49:34 (Vitkovac).
And then came Petar Aranitović.
The kid washed off team Čačak from the court. He scored 9 points within 1-2 minutes (58:34). He was at everywhere, caught the ball and threw it into the ring every single time (even Murić’s rebound). At the end he closed the first half with such a 3-pointer that should be taught at academies (63:36).

The second half was just a formality. There’s not much to say about it. We were just throwing the ball into the basket, Team Čačak was nice to us, they just let us play around.

They deserve a hats-off though. It was a fair play game with them, and they fought as much as  they could, despite Partizan’s obvious advantage.

No highlights, I found none official. Yet here is the entire game, you can watch it again, if you’d like.

KK Partizan: Cvetković, Aranitović (14), Jones (12), Murić (11), Marinković (10), Veličković (9), Vitkovac (5), Koprivica (9), Milutinović (5), Williams (10), Vrabac (6), Wilson (11)

Borac Čačak: Čarapić (6), Mitrović, Popović, Mićović (13), Bojić (2), Avramović (27), Bojović (2), Radonjić (19), Stanojević (1), Radović, Stevanović (3), Mišković (6)

League table will be brought later.
Update: championship standings after the 1st round

Group A:
1. CZ 2 points
2. FMP 2 points
3. Metalac 1 point
4. Tamiš 1 point

Group B:
1. Mega Leks 2 points
2. Partizan 2 points
3. Borac 1 point
4. Konstantin 1 point

KK Partizan - Levski Sofia 94:66 (Adriatic League)

That's how the match started.
Yes, dear fans, readers and visitors, Grave Diggers applaused Bulgarian players. No booing, no whistles. Only fair play, the most noble type.

Levski's trainer, Konstantin Papazov was amazed by this welcome, and he spoke it at the press conference after the match. This gesture from fans was indeed chivalrous, especially after the first match in Sofia, where fans clashed and the sports hall was destroyed.

Newcomer Božo Đumić was there watching

(photo: Twitter)

The match started with a bad omen. Same day, in the afternoon basketball president Todorić had a car accident. He was even taken to hospital to get medical attendance. But for the match he was already out, wearing a brace-alike thing around his neck (sitting next to Đumić). He made it.

(photo: kurir.rs)

It was at the beginning of the match, Milosavljević threw the ball and Milutinov dunked it into the ring with an alley-oop trick. Partizan’s bench jumped up like one man and cheered.

Still the first quarter was not a reason to be satisfied. Levski sped up the pace, they did not let control slip out of their hands, no matter how much Mačvan and Milutinov were threwing baskets. We could equalize only 20 seconds before the end buzz, to 22:22, after Dallo made a miracle.

Levski was leading for the whole period, our defense had more holes than an Emmenthaler cheese. At a point cameras focused on Duško Vujošević as he was shaking his head.
In the second quarter we picked ourselves together slowly but surely. Dallo had a great moment in the beginning (24:24), then we took the lead, thanks to Marinković (26:24). A lot of chances were missed out on both sides (too much fumbling, for both us and them), but our defense line started to make a shape, we blocked with more and more self-confidence the attempts of the opponent. Tepić made the difference to two-digit (40:29), then it was Edo Murić Time.

Levski scored a lot of 3-pointers, they reduced the difference to 44:39. Saša Pavlović set the half-time result 17 seconds before the end (46:39).
We kept things under our control in the third quarter, too. Bezbradica scored (50:39), Levski again tried with 3-pointers, but there was still a firm difference (59:50). We also scored some 3-pointers, first Andrić (62:50), then Marinković (65:50). Bulgarians reduced it to 66:58 and it was only 35 seconds left, when we set the two-digit difference back (68:58).
The last quarter was a festival. Like, when Murić bit himself onto the opponent player, made a fantastic steal and demonstrated the greatest scene of the match, for the joy of the audience.

Levski was fighting hard and brave, but we swept them off for the end. At the very end the team was joined by Ioannis Kouzeloglou, the young Greek, who immediately scored his first basket. And then, his first 3-pointer. With that he set the final result of the match.

(photo: Twitter)

Kouzeloglou was still standing on the parquet after the match, surrounded by fans, giving autographs

(photo: Twitter)