DATE OF BIRTH: 18.08.1992
PLACE OF BIRTH: BELGRADE, SERBIA
NBA DRAFT: 27TH PICK, FIRST ROUND, 2014
TEAM: ATLANTA HAWKS
Bogdan Bogdanović is a Serbian basketball player and permanent member of the Serbian senior national team. He was selected as the 27th pick in the 2014 NBA draft. He currently plays in the NBA for the Atlanta Hawks.
Career MOMENTS
2011 – Silver medal at the World U-19 Championships in Latvia
2011 & 2012 – Won the Serbian National Basketball Cup (Radivoje Korac Cup)
2011 & 2013 – Champion of the Adriatic League (ABA League)
2011 – 2014 – Champion of the Serbian League
2014 – Playoff MVP of the Serbian League
2014 – All-Adriatic League Team (ABA League)
2014 – Silver medal at the World Basketball Championships in Madrid
2014 & 2015 – Title of “Euroleague Rising Star”
2016 – Silver medal at the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro
2016 – Turkish Cup Final MVP
2016 – Turkish SuperCup, Turkish Cup
2016 & 2017 – Turkish League Champion
2017 – Silver medal at the European championship
2017 – Euroleague Champion with Fenerbahce Istanbul
2017 – First Team All-Euroleague
2017 – Turkish League Finals MVP
2017 & 2019 – Title of Best Serbian Basketball Player.
2018 – All-Rookie Second Team
2019 – Top scorer at the World Basketball Championships in China (183 points)
2020 – Member of the Euroleague All-decade Team
2020 – Euroleague All-decade Team
With Fenerbahce from Istanbul, he won the Euroleague in 2017. For two years in a row, he was named the most promising young player, and in 2019, he was named the MVP of the Rising Star Challenge and the best scorer at the World Cup in China. With the Serbian senior national team, he won a silver medal at the World Championship (2014), the Olympic Games (2016) and the European Championship (2017).
BEGINNINGS
His first basketball steps were taken at a school basketball club “Zvezdara” in a Belgrade borough called Mirijevo, where he also resided. In April of 2008, he moves to play for Zitko Basket, also located in Belgrade. Playing for Zitko Basket he won third place at the final tournament of the junior league in the 2009/10 season. In three games against Partizan, Hemofarm and FMP he scored a total of 99 points.
2010-2014
In September of 2010, Bogdan signed his first professional basketball contract with BC Partizan. During his four year stay at the club, he won the Adriatic League (today known as the ABA League) twice, in 2011 and 2013, as well as the Serbian Cup (Radivoje Korac Cup) in 2011 and 2012. While he was the member of Partizan, the team won the Serbian League four years in a row. Due to the excellent results achieved, Bogdan was declared the best scorer of the tournament and became the winner of the MVP trophy in 2014.
In April of 2014, he was chosen for the First team All-ABA League and in May of the same year he was selected by 24 coaches of the Euroleague teams as a “Euroleague Rising Star” – that is the best young player of Euroleague.
At the 2014 NBA Draft in Barclays Centre, he was chosen as the 27th selection by the Phoenix Suns.
2014-2017
Bogdan starts the 2014/2015 season with Fenerbahce from Istanbul. As early as November, against Bayern Munich, he had a remarkable game, scoring 18 points and dishing out 7 assists.
During the first half of the season, with his consistent play, he averaged 10,4 points per game, as well as 3,4 assists. In March of 2015, against Emporio Armani from Milan, he recorded 25 points. Due to this, he was declared the MVP of the 11th round of the Euroleague. With his teammates, he managed to make it to the Euroleague Final Four, the first time in the history of the club. He was selected a “Euroleague Rising Star” for the second time in a row, joining Nikola Mirotic as the only basketball players who were able to win this award twice.
2015-2016
In the following season, Bogdan continued with great play and deservedly became one of the leaders of the team. With that team he would win the Turkish Cup with the score 67 – 65, hitting the game-winning three in the final seconds of the game versus Darusafaka. He was selected the MVP with 21 points.
At the Euroleague Final Four in Berlin, the team went a step further by defeating Laboral Kutxe in the semi final, and placed second in Euroleague that year. During that Euroleague season, he averaged 11,7 points per game, adding 3 assists and 3,3 rebounds. This basketball season was finished by winning the Turkish League. An interesting fact is that Bogdan scored the game winning shot for Fenerbahce as many as four times that season.
2016-2017
In the new season, Bogdan scores the most points playing the two playoff games against Panatainaikos – averaging 19,3 points while shooting an incredible 60% from three point land, which is why he won Player of the Week and the Euroleague Player of the month for the month of April.
With the third participation in the Final Four competition, new pages of history were written. Bogdan and his team won the first Euroleague trophy by defeating Real Madrid (84-75) in the semi-finals, and beating Olympiakos in the final (80-64). In addition to the great success, Bogdan also became a member of the First Team All-fEuroleague voted by the media and fans.
Soonafter, Bogdan led his teammates to the second Turkish League title in a row, winning the MVP of the final once again.
This, as well as the previously mentioned Euroleague trophy, represented the crowning achievement of Bogdan’s stay in Istanbul and the opening of a new chapter on the way to the strongest league in the world, the NBA.
2017-2018
In July of 2017, Bogdan signed his first NBA contract with the Sacramento Kings. After some difficult national team duties that year, Bogdan debuted in the NBA League on October 23, 2017, against the team that originally drafted him in 2014 – the Phoenix Suns. He spent 25 minutes on the court scoring 12 points and registering 3 rebounds and 2 assists. America brought him a completely different type of experience which he hadn’t had until then, but also a different type of lifestyle, practice and game play experience in contrast to the one he had had in Europe. Considered the strongest league in the World, the NBA forces each individual to be their best at every moment. He would quickly adapt to this system and in January of 2018 he was chosen to play for “Team World” at the “Rising Star Challenge”, as part of the NBA All Star weekend, held in Los Angeles. During the game, Bogdan scored 26 points, had 6 rebounds and 4 assists while shooting 7/13 from three point land, which was why he was awarded the game MVP. He was a member of the NBA All-Rookie Second Team in May 2018. He played a total of 78 games, of which 52 as a starter.
On December 28, with an incredible three and a last second turnaround, he brought a win to the Kings against the Los Angeles Lakers. As part of the All-Star weekend, which was held in Charlotte that year, Bogdan was once again a member of “Team World” at the “Rising Star Challenge. During the regular part of the season, while playing in 70 games, he averaged 14,1 points, 3,8 assists and 3,5 rebounds.
2019-2020
His best game in the regular season was on the 27th of February, 2019 against the Milwaukee Bucks, in which he scored 28 points.
The Serbian basketball association once again honours Bogdan as the best Serbian athlete, an award he had won in 2017 as well.
His best season for the Kings came in 2019/2020, which was abruptly ended on March 11, 2020 due to the escalation of the Corona virus. Up until that moment, he was averaging 15,1 points, 3,4 assists and 3,4 rebounds. Sacramento did play in the NBA Bubble in Disney World, in Orlando, Florida in the summer of 2020, however they missed the playoffs.
In August of 2020, at the game versus the New Orleans Pelicans, Bogdan recorded his NBA career high of 35 points.
In 2020, he received recognition from the Euroleague, as he was voted on the All-Euroleague decade team by the fans, media, coaches and players.
2020-2022
On 24th November, 2020, Bogdan inked a four year deal with the Atlanta Hawks. Despite having injury issues, which prevented him from playing in more than 44 games, he managed to achieve a personal best – averaging 16,4 points per game. In the spring of 2021 he had some notable games against Charlotte, in which he scored 32 points and then, against Milwaukee he would score 32 points as well as 28 points against Indiana. In 14 more games he would record more than 20 points in 29,7 minutes per game.
In the Eastern Conference finals, the Atlanta Hawks lost to the Milwaukee Bucks, and in the three of the six total games which the two teams played, Bogdan managed to score 20 or more points.
During the 2021/2022 NBA season, Bogdan played in 63 games, averaging 15.1 points, 3.1 assists and 4 rebounds. In a win against the Memphis Grizzlies on March 19, 2022, he was in a scoring mood, netting 30 points.
FUN FACTS
BIG FAN OF THE GAME WORLD OF WARCRAFT
LIKES TO SOLVE THE RUBIK’S CUBE
BASKETBALL WAS NOT THE FIRST SPORT HE PRACTICED. FOOTBALL WAS.
IF HE WEREN’T A BASKETBALL PLAYER, HE’D BE A PILOT.
LIKES TO PLAY CHESS.
HIS ROLE MODELS ARE KOBE BRYANT AND THIERRY HENRY.
LIKES TO GO FISHING.
MUZIKON AMBASSADOR OF CULTURE.
LIKES TO READ.
