Dubai: Legendary Yugoslavia, Barcelona and Real Madrid centre Zoran Savic is setting up his own basketball academy in Dubai from September 18.
BasicBall Academy, at American University Dubai, offers rolling 10-month courses for players aged six to 25 years old, and boasts expert tuition from guest coaches such as former LA Lakers centre Vlade Divac, and former Sacramento Kings small forward Peja Stojakovic.
Current National Basketball Association (NBA) stars Pau and Marc Gasol, brothers and respective centres for the Chicago Bulls and Memphis Grizzlies, will also be joining Minnesota Timberwolves point guard Ricky Rubio, for future sessions.
Savic, 47, from Serbia, was part of the famous Yugoslav 1990 Fiba World Championship winning squad, which featured Divac and the late Drazen Petrovic, whose relationship post break-up of the Former Yugoslavia was the subject of a 2010 ESPN documentary entitled Once Brothers. He went on to win three European Championships for Yugoslavia in 1991, 1995 and 1997.
Savic said setting up his academy after the UAE’s successful hosting of the Fiba Under-17 World Championships last month, was ideal.
“Hosting the Under-17 World Championships was very important for the UAE basketball federation, because, now they know what level they are at and what they must do to improve,” he said. “This is a good start, but we want to try and help further, to put UAE basketball on the map.
“The UAE has a population of roughly 10 million but you only have eight basketball clubs [for Emiratis], and 80 per cent of the population is expatriate, so not everyone has the opportunity to play and train.
“We can offer the best coaching from the US and Europe and there’s even the possibility of finding clubs and colleges for our players, abroad,” added Savic, who is also a player agent for his own company Invictus Sports Group and a Middle East representative for EuroLeague Basketball.
“There’s huge potential and untapped talent in the UAE and we have the facilities and expertise to uncover it,” he added.
For more information on the BasicBall Academy, contact 056-941-3219, email info@basicball.com or visit www.basicball.com.
Hosts UAE finished 16th in last month’s 16-team Fiba Under-17 World Championships, losing their group matches against Italy (121-32), Spain (138-27) and Puerto Rico (110-53). They lost to Serbia (116-31) in the Round of 16, before defeats to Angola (89-47), Japan (91-49) and Philippines (115-51) in the 9th to 16th place playoffs.
