Dejan Milojević
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dejan Milojević (born on April 15, 1977 in Belgrade, Serbia) is a basketball player currently playing for Spanish team Pamesa.
Milojević was born and raised in Belgrade, and started playing basketball for a small club named Beovuk. He was quite a dominant figure while playing in youth leagues, once scoring 131 points in a single game, a still-standing record.
His professional career began in 1998 with a first division club named FMP from the Belgrade suburb of Železnik. While playing a couple of seasons for a club well-known for its working with young players, Milojević, standing at 6’7’’, 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 Budućnost Podgorica in Montenegro, 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, ana area in which he struggled a lot in 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 2003-04, his third MVP season, Milojević decided he wanted to play some Euroleague basketball against the best players on the continent, so he signed with the three-time defending champion Partizan Belgrade. Although Partizan underachieved in the competition, Milojević was his usual dominant self, averaging 20.8 ppg, 11.5 rpg, and just over 3 steals and assists per game. He was also the key player for Partizan’s another title rout in the domestic league, as they lost only one game during the playoffs.
In 2005-06 season, another pretty bad year for Partizan in the Euroleague, Milojević had another double-double Euroleague season, scoring 16.4 ppg and grabbing 10 rebounds per game, also winning a couple of Player of the Week honors.
As far as the national team in concerned, Milojević won the gold medal in 2001 Eurobasket in Turkey, and played for the national team in a few more occasions.
Not only the most consistent and the best player Serbian league had in a long time, Dejan Milojević is also widely popular among fans, which is not a strange thing since he is always the first guy on practice, he will dive for every loose ball, even with his team up 20 or more points, and he has been the best example for young players for years.
