Aleksandar Radojević

Aleksandar Radojević (Serbian Cyrillic: Александар Радојевић, /rəˈdɔɪ.əvɪtʃ/;^[1] born August 8, 1976) is a former professional basketball player. Standing at 2.21 m (7 ft 3 in), he plays the center position.

Early life

Radojević was born in either Herceg Novi,^[2] or Bijela,^[3] Montenegro, or Trebinje, in Bosnia and Herzegovina,^[4] all in the now former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He only started playing basketball at age 16 after playing football and water polo as a youngster.^[1]

Career

He started his career with Cetinje outfit KK Lovćen where he spent the 1995–96 season. For the next 1996–97 season he moved to Budućnost Podgorica where he sporadically played a certain amount of games.

A 7 ft 3 in center, he signed a national letter of intent to play for Ohio State University's prestigious Buckeyes in the early part of 1997. Radojevic never played for Ohio State because the NCAA declared him ineligible for accepting around $9,000 (or $13,000^[5]) to play for Budućnost in 1996.^[6] He thus ended up at a much less glamorous basketball programme of Barton County Community College where he spent the next two seasons.

After a college year at Barton County CC where he averaged over 4 blocks per game, he had reportedly been given several thousand dollars to move to Ohio State University after his freshman season which resulted in coach Jim O'Brien getting fired and Radojevic branded ineligible to play.^[4] O'Brien had given Radojević $6,700 ($6,000 of his own cash in $50 and $100 bills^[6]) in 1999,^[7] but had lied about it and tried to cover it up.^[8] O'Brien was fired June 8, 2004.^[7] O'Brien said he gave Radojević the loan in 1999 because the player's father was dying and the family had no money for medicine or the funeral.^[6]

O'Brien subsequently sued Ohio State for wrongful termination. He contended that he knew Radojevic could never suit up for Ohio State due to having played professionally, and that the loan was made for humanitarian reasons--a contention supported by Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger and lead investigator Steve Duffin. NCAA infractions committee chairman David Swank testified that O'Brien had not violated NCAA rules by making the loan. O'Brien was ultimately awarded $2.4 million in damages.^[9]

NBA

He then entered his name in the 1999 NBA Draft and was selected by the Toronto Raptors in the first round. His first season in the NBA, 1999–2000, was not a happy one—after appearing in only three games recording 2.3 ppg and 2.7 rpg he got injured and missed the remainder of the campaign. Throughout summer 2000, he played in the Rocky Mountain Revue summer league. Back with the Raptors for the 2000–01 season he fared even worse than in his rookie season as the combination of bad form and nagging injuries kept him out of the lineup completely. He did not record a single minute of action in the season before the Raptors decided to trade him to Denver Nuggets on January 12, 2001, along with Kevin Willis, Garth Joseph and a second-round draft choice, in exchange for Keon Clark, Tracy Murray and Mamadou N'diaye.

However, things did not improve much for him in Denver either as Radojević sat out the remainder of the 2000–01 season without appearing in any games for the Nuggets. On October 22, 2001, before the start of 2001–02 season, Denver shipped him off to Milwaukee Bucks along with Kevin Willis as part of a three-way trade that saw Scott Williams join the Nuggets.^[10]

His time with Milwaukee was more of the same and two months into the season he got waived without recording any minutes.

Back to Europe

In December 2001, Radojevic signed with Slovenian team Olimpija Ljubljana that competed in the Euroleague and the Adriatic League. He appeared in seven Euroleague games for them (3.3 ppg, 2.7 rpg) as well as in nine Adriatic League games (4.8 ppg, 2.9 rpg) before he was on his way out barely 3 months after arriving.

His next stop was with Basket Livorno of the Italian League where he spent the remainder of the 2001–02 season (9 games, 3.2 ppg, 2.0 rpg).

For the 2002–03 campaign, Radojević signed with Telekom Baskets Bonn of the German Bundesliga. Twenty-six years of age at this point, his stats finally somewhat improved as he featured in 26 domestic league games (8.5 ppg, 7.7 rpg) and ten ULEB Cup matches (6.2 ppg, 8.0 rpg).

Over the summer 2003 he moved to PAOK Thessaloniki of the Greek League where he spent the entire 2003–04 season.

Brief return to the NBA

He played twelve games for the Utah Jazz in the 2004–05 season.

Third stint in Europe

Radojevic played professionally in Poland for Prokom Trefl Sopot,^[4] in Greece for Olympia Larissa (2005–06 season), and in Cyprus (APOEL Nicosia, Keravnos Keo Nicosia).^[11]

International career

Radojević represented Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 2005 EuroBasket.^[12]

See also

• List of tallest players in National Basketball Association history
• List of European basketball players in the United States

References

External links

• NBA stats @ basketballreference.com