Bogdan Tanjević

Bogdan Tanjević (; born 13 February 1947), nicknamed "Boša" is a Montenegrin professional basketball coach and former player.

He is best known for being KK Bosna's head coach when the club became the top-tier level European-wide champions by winning the FIBA European Champions Cup in the 1978–79 season as well as for coaching the Italian national team to the gold medal at EuroBasket 1999. He was elected to the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2019.

Early life and career Tanjević was born on 13 February 1947 in Pljevlja, PR Montenegro, FPR Yugoslavia. Four years later, in 1951, four-year-old Bogdan was brought to Sarajevo, PR Bosnia-Herzegovina due to his Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) officer father Strahinja Tanjević getting reassigned there. Growing up in Sarajevo, he spent most of his summers back in Montenegro in his grandfather's village on the slopes of the Ljubišnja mountain near Pljevlja. Attending Veselin Masleša primary school in Sarajevo, young Boša got involved with basketball at the FIS outdoor courts alongside friends such as Uglješa Uzelac and Davorin Popović.

Tanjević began playing organized basketball at the hometown Mlada Bosna Sarajevo.

In 1965, after graduating high school, Tanjević moved to Belgrade where he enrolled at the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Philosophy, studying world literature.

In spring 1964, sixteen-year-old Tanjević, still with Željezničar at the time, made the Yugoslav junior team for the European Championship for Juniors in Naples in April 1964. As the youngest player on that roster, he had to fight hard for his spot until the very last training camp game, just edging out Staša Đorđević of Radnički Belgrade for the 12th roster spot. Consisting of youngsters most of whom wouldn't later go on to notable basketball careers (Ljubiša Janjić, Anton Bračun, Ljubiša Stanković, Srđan Skulić, Miljenko Valcić, Slobodan Jelić, Tihomir Pavlović, Jurica Kosta, Danko Hočevar, Momčilo Pazmanj, and Andrej Brenk), the Yugoslav team lost 3 of its 5 games at the championship. Tanjević got very little playing time, without managing to score a single basket at the competition.

In summer 1966, 19-year-old Tanjević, now an OKK Beograd player, was selected for the Yugoslav junior team sent to the European Championship for Juniors in Porto San Giorgio on the Italian Adriatic coast in late August 1966. Unlike two years earlier when he mostly sat on the bench, this time Tanjević actually got a bit of playing time on a roster alongside players that would go on to reach great heights in the game of basketball such as Krešimir Ćosić, Aljoša Žorga, Duci Simonović, Damir Šolman, Kosta Grubor, Dragiša Vučinić, Dragan Kapičić, etc. Yugoslavia made it to the final, but suffered a 21-point blowout by Soviet Union in the gold medal game. For his part, Tanjević appeared in all five games Yugoslavia played at the championship, recording a modest output of 2.4 points per game.

Club coaching career KK Bosna In 1971, twenty-four-year-old Tanjević got named as head coach of KK Bosna, a club playing in the second-tier Yugoslav Second Federal League.

The appointment happened quite abruptly as Tanjević, an active player still, had just agreed on the terms of his transfer to KK Oriolik from Slavonski Brod. Having a whole month before going to Slavonski Brod to finalize the transfer and sign the necessary paperwork, Tanjević spent time in Sarajevo by frequenting KK Bosna's daily summer training sessions, a second-tier club with a batch of young players preparing for its upcoming Second Federal League season. Quite unexpectedly, within weeks, young Tanjević got offered the head coaching position at Bosna by the club's brass who liked the young man's vocal nature and enthusiasm. After months of wrangling during which he had to re-arrange different details of his personal and professional lives, he decided to quit playing basketball at the age of twenty-four and take the unexpected head coaching offer.

1971–72: Gaining promotion Inheriting a roster of youngsters such as nineteen-year-old Žarko Varajić, Anto Đogić, Rođeni Krvavac, twenty-one-year-old center Zdravko Čečur, Jovo Terzić, twenty-two-year-old Mirsad Milavić, Milan Pavlić, Slobodan Pejović, and Aleksandar Nadaždin, Tanjević brought in twenty-two-year-old guard Svetislav Pešić on loan from Partizan Belgrade and Bruno Soče, also arriving from Belgrade. Furthermore, the head coach sought to establish authority over players only a couple of years younger than him. To that end he re-hauled the training regiment, instituting practice sessions twice a day while introducing strict discipline.

The new approach produced immediate results as the club managed to gain promotion in Tanjević's first season. The promotion was secured in dramatic fashion in a single-game playoff against city rivals KK Željezničar because the two clubs sat atop the Second League's west division, having split the regular season home-and-away series, so it was decided that a single game (the so-called majstorica) would determine which team gets promoted. Played on 28 April 1972 in front of 7,000 spectators at the Skenderija Hall, only two weeks after the same venue hosted the iconic Yugoslav partisan film Valter brani Sarajevo premiere, the game was a tense affair. KK Bosna, that saw its 25-year-old head coach Tanjević suit up and play 20 minutes after a whole season of not playing competitive basketball, ended up winning 65–59 behind Pešić's 26 points. It was a historic success for KK Bosna that prior to Tanjević's arrival spent 16 seasons stuck in the Second Federal League, unable to overcome the last hurdle before the top-tier First Federal League.

1972–73: Delibašić signs; club's and coach's top-flight debut Over the summer of 1972, preparing for its first ever top-flight campaign, the newly promoted club pulled off a remarkable coup by bringing in eighteen-year-old top prospect Mirza Delibašić from Sloboda Tuzla, in the process beating out bigger Yugoslav clubs such as KK Partizan for the youngster's signature. The signing was preceded by a year-long recruitment courtship that culminated during the summer. Knowing Partizan already managed to get KK Sloboda's agreement to release Delibašić, Bosna management intensified their direct approach to the player on two fronts — Bosna sports society president Vukašin "Vule" Vukalović made frequent visits to Delibašić's parents cajoling them with financial terms while the team's young coach, only 7 years Delibašić's senior, essentially stalked the player during his training camp for the upcoming European Championship for Juniors in Zadar, eventually befriending and persuading him that Bosna would be the best fit for him. Furthermore, the club managed to buy out Pešić from Partizan for a DM10,000 transfer fee. The game, first ever meeting of two Sarajevo-based teams in the country's top-tier league, was played on 17 December 1972 in Skenderija's small hall in front of 1,500 spectators due to the main hall already being booked for a commercial fair. With the skillful young players on its roster led by the country's most sought-after young talent Delibašić, many expected Bosna to be more than just mere relegation battlers. Delibašić who contributed with 15.8 points per game over the 26-game season, already the target of criticism over his shaky defensive displays throughout the season, publicly admitted disappointment with the team's overall performance as well as his own in particular while expressing confidence that the team still has title potential.

1973–74: Achieving a European spot The following season, 1973–74, the team made remarkable progress with a 14–12 record that was good enough for the 4th spot (their record was identical with KK Partizan and Radnički Belgrade, but Bosna had a better head-to-head record). It was another historic result because it meant that Bosna would compete in Europe the following season for the first time in its history.

1974–75: A year-long army stint After coaching the Yugoslavia junior national team and winning gold at the European Championship for Juniors during summer of 1974 in Orléans, 27-year-old Tanjević went away to serve his mandatory Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) stint, temporarily handing the head coaching position at Bosna over to Luka Stančić from Valjevo who took over for the entire 1974–75 season.

The combination of Tanjević's absence and the pressures of playing in Europe reflected badly on team's domestic league performance as Bosna finished the season in somewhat disappointing 7th place with a 12–14 record. On the other hand, they posted notable success in the FIBA Korać Cup, making the quarterfinals where they got eliminated over two legs by Ranko Žeravica's FC Barcelona — after winning by eight points 81–73 at home behind Varajić's 24 points, Delibašić's 16 (though he fouled out in 32nd minute), Pešić's 15, and Čečur's 13 in front of a 7,000-strong raucous crowd at Skenderija on 5 February 1975, they couldn't hold on to the lead away a week later, losing by fourteen 80–66.

1975–76: Return With Tanjević's return from the army, the team also returned to form, finishing the league in 3rd spot with an 18–8 record, just behind Partizan and Jugoplastika.

Having been groomed by Tanjević over the previous years for a main role at the center position, the season saw the full maturation of lanky nineteen-year-old Ratko Radovanović who contributed with 13.3ppg, largely joining Delibašić and Varajić as the team's main offensive threats and squeezing center Zdravko Čečur out of the squad in the process. Though liking Čečur's hustle and willingness to sacrifice his body, Tanjević largely considered him a liability due to his continual lack of fitness and looked to decrease the team's reliance on him under the basket by bringing up young Radovanović who in addition to better agility also had a height advantage over Čečur.

1976–77: Letting the Yugoslav title slip Bosna led the league comfortably most of the season. With three games to go until the end, they were top of the table, two games ahead of the second-placed Petar Skansi-coached KK Split (Jugoplastika) that was coming to Sarajevo for a scheduled league game between two teams. Bosna won their previous contest in Split during first half of the season by 15 points. Going into the Sarajevo game, KK Split players seemed conciliatory, already pronouncing Bosna new champion in their press sound bytes. Bosna players, on the other hand, brimmed with confidence having just recorded a big away win versus KK Partizan, another title contender, on their home court in Belgrade.

1977–78: Yugoslav title, FIBA Korać Cup final With the pain and frustration of the previous season hanging over the team as it prepared for the upcoming league campaign, Tanjević's Bosna parted ways with center Zdravko Čečur (who had been seeing his role at the five position gradually reduced ever since the ascent of young Radovanović) and point guard Vjećeslav Tolj (local Sarajevo favourite who decided to retire). On the other hand, the squad was set to benefit from the return of shooting guard Svetislav Pešić from his year-long JNA stint.

Bosna began the league season sluggishly, losing unexpectedly in week 3 away at KK Brest Olimpija 80-76. The loss was even more perplexing considering Olympia played without its best player Krešimir Ćosić, with its young guards Jože Papič and Marko Gvardijančić outplaying Bosna's established stars Delibašić and Varajić. In the end, Yugoslav champions Bosna finished the league season with a 23–3 record, two games ahead of second-place Ranko Žeravica-coached KK Partizan's 21–5.

Simultaneously, the same two teams made the FIBA Korać Cup final played on 21 March 1978 in Banja Luka's Borik Hall—Bosna's first-ever European final. In a game of great quality in front of 6,000 fans, the score at the end of regulation was tied 101–101, requiring overtime in which Bosna succumbed 110–117 to Partizan team that got a great contribution from its stars Dražen Dalipagić and Dragan Kićanović with 48 and 33 points, respectively.

1978–79: European champion The crown of Tanjević's rich sporting career came on 5 April 1979, at Palais des Sports, in Grenoble, when KK Bosna, under his command, became the FIBA European Cup Champions (EuroLeague) champions, by winning the 1978–79 FIBA European Champions Cup.

ASVEL Tanjević signed a three-year contract with ASVEL in July 2001.

He got fired by the club president Gilles Moretton after only a season in April 2002. The dismissal led to Tanjević suing the club for breach of contract, seeking €1.5 million in damages.

National team coaching Yugoslavia Youth In 1974, KK Bosna head coach Tanjević was appointed head coach of the Yugoslavia Juniors that ended up winning the gold medal at the FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship in France.

Assistant coach Between 1977 and 1980, Tanjević was an assistant coach of the Yugoslavia national team under Aleksandar Nikolić, Petar Skansi, and Ranko Žeravica.

Head coach In 1981, Tanjević was the head coach of Yugoslavia that won the silver medal at the FIBA European Championship in Czechoslovakia.

Italy Tanjević was the head coach of the Italy national team between 1997 and 2000.

Turkey

Tanjević was the head coach of the Turkey national team between 2004 and 2013.

Montenegro Tanjević was the head coach of the Montenegro national team between 2015 and 2017.

Club titles and medals National Championships Won the 1977–78 Yugoslav National Championship with Bosna Sarajevo Won the 1979–80 Yugoslav National Championship with Bosna Sarajevo Won the 1995–96 Italian National Championship with Olimpia Milano Won the 2000–01 Yugoslav National Championship with Buducnost Podgorica Won the 2001–02 French National Championship with Asvel Villeurbanne Won the 2007–08 Turkish Super League with Fenerbahçe Won the 2009–10 Turkish Super League with Fenerbahçe

National Cups Won the 1996 Italian National Cup with Olimpia Milano Won the 2001 Yugoslav National Cup with Budocnost Won the 2010 Turkish National Cup with Fenerbahçe

International club competitions Won the 1978–79 EuroLeague with Bosna Sarajevo

Others Won the 2007 Turkish President's Cup with Fenerbahçe

National team competitions Won the gold medal at the 1974 European Junior Championship with Yugoslavia Won the gold medal at the EuroBasket 1999 with Italy Won the silver medal at the EuroBasket 1981 with Yugoslavia Won the silver medal at the 2010 FIBA World Championship with Turkey

Investments Since 2016, Tanjević has been investing in the energy sector in Montenegro via owning a partnership stake in Barsolar, a Bar-based limited liability company that lists electric power generation, transmission, and distribution as its activities. In addition to Tanjević, the other two partners with ownership stake in the venture are the former head of the Montenegrin government's Department for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Sources, Igor Kovačević and Turkish company Consus enerji isletmeciligi ve hizmetleri anonym sirketi. The privileged producer status made the company eligible for public funds earmarked by the government for support of electricity generation from sustainable and renewable sources. a basketball player herself who played for ŽKK Željezničar and ŽKK Voždovac during her career, even making the Yugoslavia national team.

Tanjević's nephew (his brother's son) Bojan Tanjević (born in 1974) is a Belgrade-born-and-raised basketball agent, formerly, until 2021, associated with the San Marino-based, Luciano Capicchioni-founded Interperformances agency. Bojan Tanjević's best-known client is Nemanja Bjelica;

In a 2013 interview for a Slovenian TV station ahead of EuroBasket 2013 being held in Slovenia, Turkish national team head coach Tanjević expressed a nostalgic sentiment towards Yugoslavia, stating: "I don't have a country anymore, because my country was Yugoslavia in every sense. Even today I think we were stronger together. My homeland has been stolen. You've got these seven countries now, but I don't have my own and neither do the two and half million of those who used to declare as Yugoslavs. And I used to be an extreme Yugoslav. Literally an extremist".

During spring 2018, Tanjević publicly voiced his support for longtime Montenegrin leader Milo Đukanović ahead of the upcoming Montenegrin presidential elections via appearing in Đukanović's campaign video: "Being a very political man ever since my youth — I'm reading all the newspapers cover to cover — and having followed the events on the territory of former Yugoslavia in the last 20 years, I think that Milo Đukanović is the best, the smartest, and the right man to be the president of the republic. To those who [negatively] bring up Mr. Đukanović's longevity on the political scene, my answer is: 'Imagine the United States of America with Barack Obama in a 16 or 24-year term instead of just 8 and image how much better the world would be. And then give a thought to why the most developed country in the world [the People's Republic of China] is currently in the process of amending its own constitution so that Xi Jinping can remain its leader'".

In late December 2019, Tanjević signed a petition calling on the European Union institutions to condemn the public demonstrations taking place throughout Montenegro against the religious law passed by the Đukanović authorities. Referring to the protests as "a Serbian attempt of returning Montenegro within the same state with Serbia" and "Greater Serbian nationalist attack that's supposed to set the stage for a new attempt of overthrowing the Montenegrin leadership after it had successfully defended itself from the joint Serbia-and-Russia-organized October 2016 coup attempt", the petition calls on the political figures in the international community to condemn "Serbian attempts at destabilizing Montenegro, a country with an unwavering direction for the civil society, Euro-Atlantic integration, protection of minorities, and good relations with its neighbours". The petition further expands to directly point the finger at Serbia's current official political leadership in Belgrade, the Serbian Orthodox Church, and the local Montenegrin oppositional parties for being the "strategists, financiers, organizers, and logistical support providers for the destabilization of Montenegro, which has once again become the victim of the regenerated policies of Slobodan Milošević". Finally, the petition places the above-mentioned institutions in the same context and continuity with the "Serb genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass war crimes, and crimes against the humanity in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo".

In late March 2023, ahead of the second round of the 2023 Montenegrin presidential election, Tanjević once again expressed public support for Milo Đukanović via appearing in his campaign video.