Petar Popović (basketball, born 1959)

For other uses, see Petar Popović.

Petar Popović (Serbian Cyrillic: Петар Поповић; born 13 July 1959) is a Croatian professional basketball coach and former player.

Petar Popović

Personal information
Born	(1959-07-13) 13 July 1959 Kraljevo, PR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia
Nationality	Croatian
Career information
Playing career	1976–1997
Position	Shooting guard
Number	6
Coaching career	2001–2011
Career history
As player:
1976–1993	Zadar
1993–1996	Benston Zagreb
1996–1997	Zadar
As coach:
2001, 2006–2007	Zadar
2009–2011	Zadar (youth)
Career highlights and awards
As player Yugoslav League champion (1986) As head coach Krešimir Ćosić Cup winner (2007)
Medals Men's basketball Representing Yugoslavia EuroBasket 1981 Czechoslovakia Team European Championship for Juniors 1978 Italy Team

Playing career

Popović played for Zadar in the Yugoslav First League (later Croatian League) for 18 seasons. In 1993 he moved to Zagreb where he signed with Benston of the Croatian League.

National team career

Popović was a member of the Yugoslavia national team, alongside Krešimir Ćosić, Dragan Kićanović, Dražen Dalipagić and Mirza Delibašić, that won the silver medal at the EuroBasket 1981 held in Czechoslovakia. Over six tournament games, he averaged 2.3 points per game. Also, he won the bronze medal at the 1978 European Championship for Juniors in Italy where he averaged 10 points per game.

Coaching career

Popović was selected as the head coach for Zadar twice; the first time briefly in 2001, and later from the end of the 2005–06 season till March 2007.

Personal life

His son, Marko, was also a professional basketball player. His nephews are both former professional basketballers, Alan Gregov, who won the silver medal with the Croatia national team at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, a bronze medal at the 1994 FIBA World Championship and a bronze medal at EuroBasket 1993, and Arijan Komazec.