Nebojša Popović

Personal information
Born	(1923-02-08)8 February 1923 Irig, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Died	20 October 2001(2001-10-20) (aged 78) Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia
Nationality	Yugoslav
Career information
Playing career	1945–1952
Number	8, 16
Coaching career	1945–1955
Career history
As player:
1945–1951	Crvena zvezda
1951–1952	Gallaratese
As coach:
1945–1955	Crvena zvezda Men
1946–1952	Crvena zvezda Women
1950–1953	Yugoslavia
Career highlights and awards
As a player: 6× Yugoslav League champion (1946–1951) As a coach: 10× Yugoslav Men's League champion (1946–1955) 7× Yugoslav Women's League champion (1946–1952) Piva Ivković Award for Lifetime Achievement FIBA Order of Merit (1997)
Career Yugoslav League statistics
Points	518 (8.9 ppg)
FIBA Hall of Fame
Medals Men's basketball Representing  Yugoslavia Balkan and Central Europe Games 1947 Albania Team 1946 Romania Team

Nebojša Popović (Serbian Cyrillic: Небојша Поповић; 8 February 1923 – 20 October 2001) was a Serbian basketball player, coach and administrator. He represented the Yugoslavia national basketball team internationally. He is the basketball legend of Red Star Belgrade. In 2007, he was enshrined as a contributor in the FIBA Hall of Fame.^[1]

Popović lived with his family in Rijeka, where he played water polo as a goalkeeper. He learned about basketball from the Yugoslav water polo and a basketball pioneer Božo Grkinić.

Popović was a co-founder of the Crvena Zvezda basketball club in 1945. He held number 1 membership card.^[1] He played for Crvena Zvezda from 1945 to 1951, he also coached men's team at Red Star from 1945 to 1955 and women's Red Star team from 1946 to 1952.^[1] In July 1950, he was a member of the Zvezda squad that won an international cup tournament in Milan, Italy.^[2]

Popović played for the Italian team Gallaratese in 1951–1952.^[1]

As a player for the Yugoslavia national basketball team Popović participated in 1950 World Championship and 1947 European Championship.^[3] He scored first point in history of World Championships as player of Yugoslavia.^[1]

He coached Yugoslavia national basketball team at the 1950 World Championship and 1953 European Championship.

Popović served as the president of the Yugoslav Basketball Federation (1985–1987) and president of the Commission for International Competition of FIBA.

Popović also worked as a journalist, contributing to La Gazzetta dello Sport for four decades.^[1]

He was the executive of Yugoslav Radio Television (JRT), the Yugoslav national TV channel. He covered four Summer Olympic Games with JRT.^[1]

• Yugoslav Men's League champion: 10 (with Crvena zvezda: 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955) as coach/player until 1951 and as coach only, until 1955.
• Yugoslav Women's League champion: 7 (with Crvena zvezda: 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952)
• FIBA Order of Merit (1997), awarded by the FIBA
• Prize “Sports & Universality”, awarded by the International Olympic Committee

• In 2015 Serbian sports drama We Will Be the World Champions Popović is portrayed by Strahinja Blažić and his wife Maja Bedeković is portrayed by Iva Babić.^[4]

• List of Red Star Belgrade basketball coaches
• Borislav Stanković
• Radomir Šaper
• Aleksandar Nikolić

• Na današnji dan: Rođen Nebojša Popović, mojacrvenazvezda.net
• Nebojša Popović - Zvezdin broj 1 za sva vremena