Dragiša Drobnjak

Dragiša Drobnjak
Player information
birthday	5th November 1977
place of birth	Kranj, SFR Yugoslavia
size	200 cm
position	Power forward
Club information
society	KK Tajfun Šentjur
league	Telemach League / ABA League
Jersey number	25th
Clubs as active
1996–1999 KK Triglav Kranj 1999–2003 KK Krka Novo mesto 2003–2004 KD Geoplin Slovan 2004–2006 KK Union Olimpija 2006–2008 PGE Turów Zgorzelec 2008 KK Krka 2008 Alba Berlin 2008–2009 PGE Turów Zgorzelec 2009 NSB Martos Napoli 2009–2010 BASE Oostende 2010–2011 KK Krka 2011–2013 Telenet Oostende 2013–2014 KK Union Olimpija Since 2014 KK Tajfun Šentjur 00000 00000 00000 0
National team
2001-2008	Slovenia

Dragiša Drobnjak (born November 5, 1977 in Kranj , SR Slovenia ) is a Serbian - Slovenian basketball player . The former Slovenian national player initially played professionally for clubs in his Slovenian homeland, before starting in 2006 for various clubs from Poland , Italy and Belgium as well as briefly in the basketball league in 2008/09 for the then champions Alba Berlin in Germany . With the KK Krka, Drobnjak reached the finals of the ULEB Cup 2002/03 and won the title in the EuroChallenge 2010/11 . In addition to winning titles in national cup competitions, Drobnjak has won two Belgian championships with BC Telenet Oostende and six Slovenian championships with various clubs, where Drobnjak has been playing again since 2013. Most recently, Drobnjak won their first Slovenian championship with the KK Tajfun in 2015 and was once again named Most Valuable Player of the Slovenian final series at the age of 37 .

Career

Drobnjak began his professional career at his home club KK Triglav in his hometown of Kranj. At the U22 European Junior Championship in 1998, Drobnjak won a silver medal after the final defeat against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with the Slovenian youth team, who competed without Marko Milič, who was already playing in the NBA , who, like Drobnjak, comes from Kranj and is almost the same size and age . Milič's career in the NBA ended a year later in 1999 and he returned to KK Olimpija in the Slovenian capital, while Drobnjak moved within Slovenia to KK Krka from Novo mesto . The KK Krka was able to defeat the defending champion KK Olimpija, who had previously won all championships since independence in 1991, in the semi-final series of the Slovenian championship 2000, and win the title in the final series. The following two championships won again KK Olimpija each in the final series against KK Krka before it under the 2003 Croatian coach Neven Spahija was able to secure another championship after the narrow victory in the final in five games against the defending champion. KK Krka also played at the top internationally at that time and was able to prevail in the FIBA Suproleague 2000/01 under coach Aleš Pipan against the second German representative Bayer Giants Leverkusen , before they were eliminated in the round of 16 against the later finalist Panathinaikos Athens . After two victories in the qualification against the Telekom Baskets Bonn , the team reached the main round of the now united highest-ranking European club competition ULEB Euroleague 2001/02 , in which, however, they were eliminated after the preliminary round. In the following season the team in the newly refurbished played 2002-03 ULEB Cup for clubs that did not qualify for the Euro League, and reached in the first season the finals, however, against the Spanish side Pamesa Valencia were lost. The team then partially broke up, coach Spahija first went to Russia and point guard talent Aleksandar Ćapin moved to Germany, while Drobnjak moved on within Slovenia to KD Geoplin Slovan in the capital Ljubljana .

After Drobnjak with KK Krka in the first season 2001/02 of the Adriatic Basketball League (ABA-Liga) had already won a runner-up behind KK Olimpija, KD Slovan returned with Drobnjak in the 2003/04 season in the supranational league. While the KD Slovan was second to last in 2002, they reached a tenth place in 2004, but were again the weakest Slovenian team in the league. Drobnjak then moved within the capital to KK Union Olimpija, who had regained the title in the Slovenian championship after finishing fourth in the ABA league. With the KK Union Olimpija Drobnjak was also able to win the following two national doubles , as they could defeat local rivals KD Slovan in just five games in the final series of the championship. In the international competitions, however, the team remained without any particular success. In the highest-ranking European club competition ULEB Euroleague they were eliminated in 2005 and 2006 after the preliminary round and in the ABA League 2005/06 they even missed the play-off final round in tenth behind KD Slovan. Then Drobnjak moved abroad and played in the Polish PLK for Turów from Zgorzelec . This team won two runner-up championships in 2007 and 2008 with Drobnjak behind series champion Prokom Trefl . In the ULEB Cup 2007/08 , the team from the German-Polish border was also represented internationally and after only two defeats in the preliminary round reached the knockout games as group winners . Here you won two rounds and moved into the "Final Eight" tournament, in which you were defeated in the quarter-finals to the former title winner and later third MBK Dynamo Moscow . After Drobnjak had successfully qualified for the 2001 European Championship finals with the Slovenian men's selection in 2001 , but was not included in the final squad, he was now in the squad for the 2008 pre-Olympic qualification tournament in Athens . This time he failed with the selection in a qualification when Slovenia lost to Puerto Rico after successes over South Korea and Canada and missed the first participation in an Olympic tournament after independence.

At the beginning of the 2008/09 season Drobnjak was in his Slovenian homeland again under contract with KK Krka, before he got a temporary contract with the German champions Alba Berlin after a championship appearance shortly after the start of the basketball league in 2008/09 , for which he was up At the end of the year under coach Luka Pavićević, however, only had a brief assignment in the ULEB Euroleague 2008/09 and the top German division. After the rather unhappy engagement in Germany, Drobnjak moved back to the border to PGE Turów. Despite two victories over the Brose Baskets Bamberg , the Polish runner-up in the Eurocup 2008/09 did not make it into the round of the 16 best teams and in the national championship it was only the third runner-up in a row behind defending champion Asseco Prokom. Until December 2009 Drobnjak then played in the Italian Lega Basket Serie A for the first division club NSB Martos from Naples , but after the bankruptcy the team was later excluded from the league and the previous results, including Drobnjak, were taken out of the rating. At this point, Drobnjak had already moved to Belgium, where he won his first title abroad at BC BASE from Ostend with the title in the Belgian Cup competition in 2010. After being eliminated in the national play-off championship semi-finals, Drobnjak returned for one season to KK Krka, with which he defended the title in the national championship in 2011 and also won the first international club title in the EuroChallenge 2010/11 . Drobnjak had defeated his former Belgian team in the semifinals of the Final Four tournament in Ostend with Krka. For the following season Drobnjak returned to the English Channel and won with the Belgian team, now trading as Telenet, the following two Belgian championships in 2012 and 2013, the last of which in 2013 after the success in the cup competition as a double.

For the following 2013/14 season Drobnjak returned to Slovenia and played again in the capital for record champions KK Union Olimpija. After he was eliminated twice with Ostend after the first group phase of the ULEB Eurocup , he achieved the group victory with KK Olimpija in the Eurocup 2013/14 in front of the German representative ratiopharm Ulm , but in the second round you could only win one of six games. The final series of the national championship was lost in five games again against defending champion KK Krka. Then Drobnjak moved to KK Tajfun to Šentjur , with whom he won the championship preliminary round after only one defeat in 20 games. In the second round with the clubs from the ABA league Olimpija and Krka, however, it was only enough to three wins in ten games and the KK Tajfun reached the play-offs in fifth, but only lost one game. In the semi-final series they dethroned KK Krka and won the first title for the club in the final series against the previously untitled KK Rogaška. The 37-year-old Drobnjak was named Most Valuable Player of the final series. After winning the Slovenian Supercup , KK Tajfun competed with Drobnjak in the FIBA Europe Cup in the 2015/16 season , in which they won only two games against a less competitive Irish team, and in the 2015/16 ABA League for the first time in international club competitions .

Web links

Commons : Dragiša Drobnjak  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• DROBNJAK, DRAGISA - player profile on the websites of the Euroleague ( English )
• Dragiša Drobnjak - Overview of participation in international FIBA tournaments on archive.fiba.com (English)
• ABA - Player: Dragiša Drobnjak - Profile on the website of the ABA League (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dragisa Drobnjak strengthens the albatrosses under the baskets. Alba Berlin , October 17, 2008, accessed on December 12, 2015 (Medien-Info). 
2. ↑ BBL - 11683 Dragisa DROBNJAK. Basketball Bundesliga , accessed on December 12, 2015 (player profile with statistics). 
3. ^ Tajfun won the Slovenian league title. (No longer available online.) ABA League , May 28, 2015, archived from the original on December 22, 2015 ; accessed on December 12, 2015 .