A classic edition of the Eternal Derby
ABelgrade,s you approach the Štark Arena in you could already get a sense that you were walking into a storm and the biggest game that the city, the country or even the region offers.
Nothing comes close to the Eternal Derby between Red Star and Partizan, whether in basketball or soccer.
The city is most definitely split and divided between the two sets of fans, similar to Maccabi and Hapoel Tel Aviv. The history of Red Star Belgrade’s soccer team began with its establishment by a committee of Yugoslav Communists in March 1945, composed largely of communist veterans from World War II. This was in contrast to Partizan, which was founded by high-ranking generals and members of the Yugoslav People’s Army.
Crvena Zvezda, also known as Red Star, won the first of 10 consecutive championship titles after World War II and the golden age of the club began. No domestic national selection could be imagined without seven or eight Zvezda’s players and the club first played in an open-air court at the Kalemegdan fortress.
As for Partizan, it competed in the first club championship in 1946 and participated with a team consisting mostly of players from Yugoslav Army basketball team, which in 1945 won the unofficial state championship against the teams of Yugoslav republics and officially split from the army in 1953.
In basketball, while both teams play in the Euroleague, they also participate in the ABA League, which Maccabi Tel Aviv won back in 2012 when it was named the Adriatic League. For the most part, the clubs in the ABA are from the Balkans and have produced many stars, whether Serbian, Croatian or Montenegrin.
This week’s game was a part of the ABA League, as Partizan looked to avenge a Euroleague defeat at the hands of Red Star earlier in the month. However, just as it was a few weeks ago, this was yet another Crvena home game with more than 20,000 Reds strong in the stands, making it a mighty high hill to climb for those dressed in Partizan’s black-and-white.
Partizan came close in this game after falling behind early to Red Star, which was clicking on all cylinders, but the visitors chipped away to even up the contest at 86-86 with just over 10 seconds remaining.
However, on this day the hosts came
away with the win thanks to a Yago Dos Santos layup to take the victory and send the fans home happy to their hearts’ content.
The two head coaches, Ioannis Sfairopoulos for Red Star and Zeljko Obradovic from Partizan, know each other well and both have had success both domestically and across the continent.
Obradovic is arguably the greatest coach of the generation, having won nine Euroleague titles and dozens of other championships across multiple countries and competitions.
Sfairopoulos is still looking for his first Euroleague championship but has participated in the Final Four a couple of times while also having won domestic titles in Greece and with Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel.
“It’s a big tradition behind this game in the country,” Sfairopoulos said. “We all know that Serbia is a basketball country, not now but from the times that sports were invented. You understand how important this game is for the city of Belgrade and the fans for both teams. I think this atmosphere is a real Balkan atmosphere and we have it also in Greece and in Israel for some games as well.”
As the two sets of players and coaching staffs came onto the floor, cheers and jeers were yelled at the top of lungs of the fans
who jumped up and down like jack and the boxes, all 20,000 of them in fact.
Rokas Giedraitis got the proceedings underway with a triple as the opening shotclock expired as Brando Lazic and Yago Dos Santos all went from deep to give the hosts a 9-0 lead before a blink of the eye.
Joel Blomboy put down a massive off the baseline to rile the fans up even more while an active Giedraitis took the ball strong to the hoop, Dos Santos used his wheels to go coast to coast, but former Maccabi forward James Nunnally and almost Maccabi center Frank Kaminsky cut down the advantage.
But Milos Teodosic, the all-time Serbian great, came on for Sfairopoulos’s squad to a mega sized ovation and promptly hit a corner 3-pointer and then put on a magic show with a cross body pass to Dejan Davidovac to make sure Red Star would end the first quarter with a double digit 28-15 lead.
Teodosic is just one of those players who impacts the game the second he steps onto a basketball court, with or without a ball in his hands. The 36-year old guard ages like fine wine and seems to just get better as each year goes by. Now back in Serbia after many seasons abroad with the likes of Olympiacos, CSKA Moscow, the Los Angeles Clippers, Bologna and now Red Star, Teodosic has definitely been a globetrotter as his plays with the ball would be welcome on any Harlem team. There are a handful of players outside the NBA who are worth the price of admission alone and Teodosic is no doubt one of them.
Teodosic knocked down all three free throws at the end of the half to give RedStar a 55-38 advantage heading into the break, which they extended to 72-56 heading into the final frame.
Nunnally was persona non grata at Maccabi Tel Aviv by the end of his tenure in yellow-and-blue as it was a rickety and rocky one. The small forward began the season well but internal strife between him and Iftach Ziv as well as the bench boss led to a short suspension under the now Red Star coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos. Add to the fact that he was caught on video with a pair of other Maccabi players going out after the club had lost their State Cup semifinal to rivals Hapoel Tel Aviv and although they were not dressed in the game, the look was not a good one.
Sfairopoulos still exudes and oozes high class wherever he is. Along with Vassilis Geragotelis, his faithful assistant, he looked as dapper as ever on the Red Star bench just as he did on the Maccabi pine expect he traded in the blue tie for a red one like he used to wear when he was in charge of Olympiacos.
The Greek maestro was the perfect man in charge of the yellow-and-blue between 2018-2022 as he brought semblance and order back to the club that had gone through a tough run following the 2014 Euroleague Championship.
Sfairopoulos started to build the base of the team that would have a terrific season that was cut short in 2019-2020 due to COVID and then in 2022. He also picked up a trio of Israeli championships between 2019-2021 as the franchise was back to its old self, which is something that Maccabi fans will always cherish from Sfairopoulos’s time in Yad Eliyahu.
Hanga went from beyond the arc to begin the fourth quarter, Nunnally did the same, Bolomboy powered in points, Kaminsky and Punter went from deep to get to within 11-points (81-70) with 4:07 remaining in regulation time and cut it further 85-82 with 31 seconds left in the game.
After free-throws from both sides and the game even at 86-86 with 11 seconds left, Dos Santos scored an acrobatic right-handed layup, Avramovic missed a three-pointer and Nunnally’s basket was ruled to be just a millisecond after the clock hit 0:00 as Red Star escaped with a 88-86 win in as classic a derby as there ever has been.