Željko Rebrača
Rebrača in November 2020
Vojvodina
PositionPresident
LeagueBasketball League of Serbia
Personal information
Born (1972-04-09) 9 April 1972
Apatin, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia
NationalitySerbian
Listed height2.13 m (7 ft 0 in)
Listed weight120 kg (265 lb)
Career information
NBA draft1994: 2nd round, 54th overall pick
Selected by the Seattle SuperSonics
Playing career1990–2007
PositionCenter
Number9, 39, 12, 11
Career history
1990–1991NAP Novi Sad
1991–1995Partizan
1995–1999Benetton Treviso
1999–2001Panathinaikos
2001–2004Detroit Pistons
2004Atlanta Hawks
2004–2007Los Angeles Clippers
2007Pamesa Valencia
Career highlights and awards
Career NBA statistics
Points1,276 (5.9 ppg)
Rebounds688 (3.2 rpg)
FG%.527
Stats  at NBA.com
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com
Medals
Men's Basketball
Representing Federal Republic of Yugoslavia FR Yugoslavia
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place1996 Atlanta
FIBA World Cup
Gold medal – first place 1998 Athens
EuroBasket
Gold medal – first place 1995 Greece
Gold medal – first place 1997 Spain

Željko Rebrača (Serbian Cyrillic: Жељко Ребрача; born 9 April 1972) is a Serbian retired professional basketball player who is the president of Vojvodina. After playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA), he finished his career with the Spanish ACB League team Pamesa Valencia.

Professional career

Europe

Rebrača began his professional career in 1991, with KK Partizan. With KK Partizan, he won two Yugo League championships (1992 and 1995), three Yugoslav Cups (1992, 1994 and 1995), and the EuroLeague (1992).

In 1995–99, he played in the Italian League for Benetton Treviso, where he won the Italian League championship in 1997, under coach Mike D'Antoni. He followed up that by winning the Italian Supercup in 1997, and the FIBA Saporta Cup in 1999, while playing under coach Željko Obradović.

He also played for the European basketball giant Panathinaikos, during the 1999–2000 and 2000–01 seasons, winning with them two Greek League championships and one EuroLeague championship, at the EuroLeague Final Four in 2000, which was hosted in Thessaloniki. He was awarded with the EuroLeague Final Four MVP.

NBA

Rebrača, a 7'0" center, was a second round (54th overall) draft pick of the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1994 NBA draft. The Sonics immediately traded his NBA rights to the Minnesota Timberwolves, who then traded his rights to the Toronto Raptors in 1999, who in turn, traded his rights to the Detroit Pistons in 2001.

In the NBA, he played for the Detroit Pistons (2001–04), the Atlanta Hawks (2004), and the Los Angeles Clippers (2004–06). His most productive season was his rookie year, in which he averaged 6.9 points and 3.9 rebounds per game, as a member of the Detroit Pistons. His career NBA averages were 5.9 points per game and 3.2 rebounds per game, in 15.3 minutes per game.

Rebrača was plagued with heart problems. Those problems caused him to miss many games in his NBA career, including most of the first half of the 2005–06 NBA season. Rebrača had NBA career highs of 24 points (scored on 10 April 2002), and 16 rebounds (set on 29 January 2005).

Return to Europe

On 6 April 2007, after being on the injured list through the 2006–07 NBA season, Rebrača was waived by the Clippers,[1] and on 19 June 2007 he signed with Pamesa Valencia, in the Spanish basketball league (ACB).[2] On 17 December 2007 Rebraca announced his retirement from playing the game of basketball.[3][4]

National team career

Rebrača was a member of the senior men's FR Yugoslavian national team (for which he became one of the Serbian MVPs). He won the gold medal with his national team at both EuroBaskets 1995 and 1997. With FR Yugoslavia, he also won the silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, in the United States.

1998 FIBA World Championship

Rebrača won the gold medal at the 1998 FIBA World Championship as one of the key players of the depleted Yugoslavia roster that missed most of its ageing stars of the era such as Vlade Divac, Predrag Danilović or Žarko Paspalj, while team captain and 1997 European Championship MVP Aleksandar Đorđević played only limited minutes due to a recent injury.

Rebrača was instrumental in winning the closely fought final game against Russia with a block on Mikhail Mikhailov's dunk attempt, followed by a basket after an offensive rebound and finally, two free throws (despite his subpar 55% foul shooting in previous 8 games in the tournament[5]), all in the final 35 seconds of the game.[6]

Rebrača went on to make the all-tournament team averaging 13.6 points and 9.1 rebounds. With him anchoring the team's defense throughout the tournament (7 blocks against Greece in a second round game[7]), clutch performances in the semi-finals against Greece (20 points and 13 rebounds) and the finals against Russia (16 points and 11 rebounds along with his late-game heroics), some argued that Rebrača should have been awarded the MVP honors that went to his teammate Dejan Bodiroga instead.[8][9]

Post-playing career

On 6 June 2022, Vojvodina elected Rebrača as their new club's president.[10][11]

Political engagement

In October 2023, Rebrača joined the ruling populist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS)[12] and will be its MP candidate in the 2023 parliamentary election.[13]

Personal life

Rebrača was one of the founding members of the Group Seven Children's Foundation.

His son Filip Rebrača currently plays basketball at the University of Iowa.[14]

NBA career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2001–02 Detroit 74415.9.505–.7713.90.50.41.06.9
2002–03 Detroit 301216.3.552–.7923.10.30.20.66.6
2003–04 Detroit 21210.6.407–.7862.30.20.40.63.1
2003–04 Atlanta 3017.0.522–.5003.00.70.00.78.3
2004–05 L.A. Clippers 58216.0.568–.8593.20.40.20.75.8
2005–06 L.A. Clippers 29214.2.542–.7562.20.30.20.74.7
Career 2152215.3.527–.7923.20.40.30.75.9

Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2002 Detroit 5013.8.455–.7862.00.00.20.24.2
2003 Detroit 407.3.353–.7141.30.00.00.04.3
2006 L.A. Clippers 307.3.333––1.30.00.00.30.7
Career 12010.0.387–.7621.60.00.10.23.3

See also

References

  1. ↑ Clippers waive Rebraca; sign Conroy, April 6, 2007.
  2. ↑ Pamesa Valencia viste de taronja al pívot serbio Zeljko Rebraca, June 19, 2007 (in Spanish).
  3. ↑ "Two-time Euroleague champ Rebraca retires". Welcome to 7DAYS EuroCup. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  4. ↑ Rebrača objavio kraj karijere December 18, 2007 (in Serbian).
  5. ↑ "Zeljko Rebraca profile, World Championship for Men 1998".
  6. ↑ "Classic Games: Rebraca saves the day as Yugoslavia edge Russia in World Cup 1998 Final - FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 - FIBA.basketball".
  7. ↑ "Vlada Republike Srbije >> Vesti >> Sport >> Nastavljena dominacija jugoslovenske košarke".
  8. ↑ "Zeljko Rebraca, blocks master".
  9. ↑ "Intervju: Zeljko Rebraca". Archived from the original on 2002-09-22.
  10. ↑ "Željko Rebrača novi predsednik KK Vojvodina". 021.rs. 10 June 2022. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
  11. ↑ "Željko Rebrača novi predsednik KK Vojvodina". rtv.rs. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
  12. ↑ S, S. (2023-10-12). "Legendarni srpski košarkaš postao član Srpske napredne stranke". N1 (in Serbian). Retrieved 2023-11-12.
  13. ↑ TV, Insajder (2023-11-03). "RIK proglasio izbornu listu SNS-a: Među potencijalnim poslanicima i istoričar Dejan Ristić, lekar Marija Zdravković, sportista Željko Rebrača". insajder.net (in Serbian). Retrieved 2023-11-12.
  14. ↑ "UND's freshman center grew up in NBA locker rooms and yells at refs in Serbian | Grand Forks Herald". Archived from the original on 2019-02-03.
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