Košarkaški klub Crvena zvezda (, ), usually referred to as KK Crvena zvezda or simply Crvena zvezda, currently named Crvena zvezda Meridianbet for sponsorship reasons, is a men's professional basketball club based in Belgrade, Serbia, and the major part of the Red Star multi-sports club. The club is a founding member and shareholder of the Adriatic Basketball Association, and it competes in the Serbian League (KLS), the ABA League, and the continental top-tier EuroLeague.
Crvena zvezda is regarded as one of the most successful clubs in Serbia history; their squads have won 24 National League championships, including 10-in-a-row and 9-in-a-row sequences. They have played in three different National Leagues since 1945, including the Yugoslav First Federal League (1945–1992), the First League of Serbia and Montenegro (1992–2006) and the Serbian League (2006 onwards). They have also won 15 National Cup titles, 7 Adriatic League Championships, one Adriatic Supercup, and one FIBA Saporta Cup. The club plays home matches in the Belgrade Arena. Zvezda's supporters are known as Delije.
The Zvezda's rise to dominance began in their inaugural season by winning the 1946 Yugoslav Championship. FIBA Hall of Fame player-coach Nebojša Popović and Aleksandar Gec, along with a talented supporting cast of future Hall of Famers Aleksandar Nikolić and Borislav Stanković, would lead Crvena zvezda into the greatest period in club history, winning ten consecutive Yugoslav championships in as many seasons throughout the 1940s and early 1950s. After the retirement of Popović in 1956, Zvezda entered a period of rebuilding. Led by forward Vladimir Cvetković and future FIBA Hall of Fame point guard Zoran Slavnić, Zvezda returned to championship caliber, winning two Yugoslav championships in 1969 and 1972. Crvena zvezda won the only European-wide competition in club history, the FIBA European Cup Winner's Cup in 1974. The club struggled throughout the 1980s with a talented cast led by point guard Zoran Radović and FIBA Hall of Fame coach Ranko Žeravica.
Zvezda again returned to dominance in the 1990s following the breakup of Yugoslavia and joining the league with Serbian and Montenegrin clubs. Led by guard Saša Obradović, Crvena zvezda won the 1993 and 1994 championships. The club also won one more title in 1998. After winning 15 championships throughout the 20th century, Zvezda, now competing in the Adriatic and the Serbian League, after struggling through the 2000s, rose again to dominance in the late 2010s. The Crvena zvezda squads won nine consecutive Serbian championships (2015–2024) and seven Adriatic championships in the same nine-year span.
Zvezda has a notable rivalry with Partizan. The rivalry started immediately after the creation of the two clubs in 1945 and the two clubs have been dominant in domestic basketball since then. The Partizan legends and future Hall of Fame players Dražen Dalipagić and Vlade Divac had their stints with Zvezda in the 1990s.
Crvena zvezda is the only club in the world to have produced two members now in the Hall of Fame (Stanković and Nikolić) and four in the FIBA Hall of Fame (Stanković, Popović, Radomir Šaper, and Nikolić). The four of them have the highest Order of Merit from FIBA.
History 1945–1968: Early years and ten consecutive championship titles The club was founded on 4 March 1945, as a basketball section of the Crvena zvezda Sports Society. By winning the first of ten consecutive championship titles after the Second World War, the golden age of Crvena zvezda began. No domestic national selection could be imagined without seven or eight Zvezda's players and the first five featured Nebojša Popović, Tullio Rochlitzer, Aleksandar Gec, Ladislav Demšar, and Srđan Kalember. They first played in an open-air court at the Kalemegdan fortress.
1968–1972: Return to success That long-awaited eleventh title was won in the 1968–69 season, when Crvena zvezda won all six games against Jugoplastika, Zadar and Partizan, therefore proving to be better than all three fierce rivals. Led by Vladimir Cvetković, the title was won by Dragan Kapičić, Zoran Lazarević, Ivan Sarjanović, Ljubodrag Simonović, Srđan Škulić, Zoran Slavnić, Tihomir Pavlović, Nemanja Đurić, Miroslav Todosijević, Dragiša Vučinić and Dubravko Kapetanović. At that time, they were the youngest championship-winning team in Yugoslavian basketball. The twelfth title was won in the 1971–72 season. In the 1970s the club won the Yugoslav Cup three times, and most of the work in those years was done by Slavnić, Simonović, Kapičić, Vučinić, and Živković. This generation of players won two national championships and three national cups.
1972–1990: Continental competitions Crvena zvezda also had significant international success, having played in five continental cup finals so far. They lost the first European Cup Winners' Cup finals to Italian powerhouse Simmenthal Milano in 1972 by a score of 70–74. Then, in 1974, they defeated Spartak ZJŠ Brno from Czechoslovakia by a score of 86–75. This team's third finals in the European Cup Winners' Cup were lost to Spartak Leningrad by a score of 62–63 in 1975. In the club's first Korać Cup finals, in Paris in 1984, the French Orthez won by a score of 97–73. In the Korać Cup second finals in 1998, Zvezda played two matches with Rielo Mash Verona from Italy; they won the away match, 74–68, but lost at home, 64–73. With the total score being 138–141, they did not win the trophy.
1990–2002: Another comeback The 1990s started promisingly. Throughout the 1991–92 season, which was the last one in Yugoslavia, Crvena zvezda played some inspired basketball, reaching the play-off finals versus arch-rival Partizan that coached by Željko Obradović won the EuroLeague that season. In a twist of fate, Crvena zvezda was led that season by the legendary Partizan coach Duško Vujošević. Though they lost the finals series, the young Crveno-beli team showed plenty of promise. The thirteenth championship title was won after a gap of no less than 21 years, in 1993. In the fifth match of the play-off finals, Crvena zvezda beat fierce rivals and Pionir Hall co-tenants Partizan. The players who won that championship title are: Saša Obradović, Nebojša Ilić, Zoran Jovanović, Mile Marinković, Nikola Jovanović, Mileta Lisica, Dejan Tomašević, Dragoljub Vidačić, Aleksandar Trifunović, Rastko Cvetković, Slobodan Kaličanin, Predrag Stojaković and Srđan Jovanović. In the next season, Crvena zvezda won its fourteenth national championship title. In the play-off finals, Partizan was beaten by 4–1 overall. The Zvezda won the championship for the fifteenth time in 1998. The main star of that team was without any doubt Yugoslavian national team power forward Milenko Topić, and other influential players were Igor Rakočević, Oliver Popović, and Zlatko Bolić.
2002–2011: "European Red Star" project, struggles In the early part of 2002, the club got complete new management. Individuals from the political and business milieu close to ruling Democratic Party, such as Živorad Anđelković, Goran Vesić, and Igor Žeželj, took over key positions in the club.
From summer 2002 onward, the project called Evropska Zvezda (The European Red Star) was thought up in order to slowly and methodically return the club on the path of its former glory by achieving results that would see the club play EuroLeague again. To that end, new management hired Slovenian coach Zmago Sagadin who became the Zvezda's organizational centerpiece. In his first season, Sagadin did not actually coach the team (the formal head coach role was given to Aleksandar Trifunović), but he did make all the important personnel decisions from the role of a sporting director. Under Sagadin's guidance, Crvena zvezda entered the Adriatic League (a privately owned regional competition in which he holds ownership stake) for the 2002–03 season. In August 2003, ahead of the 2003–04 season, Sagadin took over the coaching duties formally as well. Despite all the efforts, the club did not manage to win any major trophies in this period, and in November 2004 Sagadin got fired.
In the next couple of years the club struggled to get back on a winning streak, and only managed to win the 2004 and 2006 national cup (Radivoj Korać Cup) finals. The first of them was held in Novi Sad, where Crvena zvezda beat the National Champion Partizan, then the host Vojvodina and, finally, FMP Železnik. All three matches were won in overtime, which is something to remember, especially when it is known that those matches were played without some of the best players, including the team captain Igor Rakočević who missed the final match. Besides Rakočević, the cup was won by Goran Jeretin, Vuk Radivojević, Milan Dozet, Miloš Mirković, Norman Richardson, Milko Bjelica, Aleksandar Đurić, Vladislav Dragojlović, Luka Bogdanović, Čedomir Vitkovac and Aleksej Nešović. The 2006 cup was won in Belgrade when Crvena zvezda won superiorly against Hemofarm Vršac by 80–65. The team was coached by Dragan Šakota and featured the likes of Goran Jeretin, Milan Gurović, Gerrod Henderson, Miroslav Raičević, Larry O'Bannon, Igor Milošević, Vujadin Subotić, Nenad Mišanović, Vladislav Dragojlović, Čedomir Vitkovac, Vuk Radivojević and Pero Antić.
With the failure of the project "European Red Star" in 2008, Slobodan Vučićević became the president of Crvena zvezda and brought new life into the club. Svetislav Pešić became the head coach, and a new team was assembled, including some notable players such as Nemanja Bjelica, Marko Kešelj, Vladimir Štimac, Andre Owens, Lawrence Roberts but the club failed to win a trophy that year, and at the end of the season, both Slobodan Vučićević and Svetislav Pešić left the club.
In the following two seasons, the club experienced a decline and financial problems, which culminated in the 2010–11 season when the club had a budget of only 500.000 euros. Crvena zvezda finished 13th in the Adriatic League, and 5th in the Serbian league, failing to qualify for the Adriatic League the following season.
2011–2017: New era of success and Radonjić's titles A huge debt of 15 million euros threatened the very existence of the club.ČOVIĆ: Zvezda duguje 15 miliona evra, Milan Beko "oprostio" milion | Telegraf – Najnovije vesti. Telegraf.rs (29 May 2012). Retrieved on 2016-01-06. The club was saved from bankruptcy when Nebojša Čović became president of KK Crvena zvezda, merging them with KK FMP.Crvena zvezda Beograd: Čović predsednik | Mondo Sport. Mondo.rs. Retrieved on 2016-01-06. He prepared a plan for financial reorganization. In the first year of his presidency, Svetislav Pešić became a head coach for the second time.Glavni meni | KK Crvena zvezda . Kkcrvenazvezda.rs. Retrieved on 2016-01-06. Even though the season was without success in the Adriatic League, Pešić managed to bring his team to the finals, eventually losing to a much stronger Partizan team 3–1 in the series. Pešić left the club at the end of the season, and his assistant Milivoje Lazić became the new head coach.Glavni meni | KK Crvena zvezda. Kkcrvenazvezda.rs. Retrieved on 2016-01-06. Crvena zvezda had big ambitions for the 2012–13 season, bringing back Igor Rakočević for the 3rd time, and signing players such as DeMarcus Nelson, Elton Brown and Boris Savović. But Lazić was fired after only 2 games in the season after losing the games against KK Zadar and KK Split, and Vlada Vukoičić was brought in to replace him.Glavni meni | KK Crvena zvezda. Kkcrvenazvezda.rs. Retrieved on 2016-01-06. Vukoičić managed to win the Serbian cup and managed to advance to the Last 16 EuroCup stage, but he was sacked as well after a very bad start in the domestic league. Dejan Radonjić replaced him,Zvezda potvrdila: Radonjić novi trener! | Mondo Sport. Mondo.rs (15 April 2013). Retrieved on 2016-01-06. but he was unable to win the Adriatic League and the Serbian League, losing to Partizan in both finals.