Crvena zvezda and Obradovic part ways after Partizan exit
Crvena zvezda and Sasa Obradovic have mutually terminated their contract a day after elimination from the ABA League. The club owes the coach nothing, and Milan Tomic takes over on an interim basis.
- Crvena zvezda (Red Star) and Sasa Obradovic mutually terminated their contract a day after being knocked out of the ABA League.
- Club president Zeljko Drcelic reached the agreement, and the club owes the coach no severance.
- Obradovic's second spell lasted around 224 days: a Radivoj Korac Cup title and a 20-15 EuroLeague record.
- Milan Tomic takes over on an interim basis, with the Serbian league Final Four in Nis from 29 to 31 May as the first test.
On Thursday night at the Belgrade Arena there was little doubt about who was going home. Partizan led from the opening minute, Crvena zvezda chased a gap that never closed, and the stands grew louder through the final quarter demanding answers. The closing score of 78-89 and the exit from the ABA League semifinals were the last stop of a season that began like a fairy tale and ended on the resit bench.
A day later came the news that, after a night like that, felt inevitable. Crvena zvezda and Sasa Obradovic have mutually ended their partnership.
The turning point
To be precise: Crvena zvezda did not collapse all at once this season. Obradovic took over the bench in October after Janis Sferopoulos, with the team already off to a bad start, and immediately brought something that looked like a reversal. Six straight EuroLeague wins followed, the red-and-whites briefly climbed to the top of the table, and in Belgrade people were seriously talking about a big European result.
Then the form began to leak away. Wins came harder, the team missed the EuroLeague playoffs and went out in the play-in. The decline spilled over into the region: a loss to Zlatibor along the way, wild swings in performance and, in the end, the ABA League semifinal exit against Partizan. The night at the arena only confirmed what had been brewing for weeks.
The numbers
The numbers from Obradovic’s second spell are not a disaster, but they are not what Crvena zvezda treats as the standard either. The tenure lasted around 224 days. In that stretch the team posted a 20-15 EuroLeague record, a respectable regular-season balance but not enough to avoid the play-in and an early exit.
The only trophy was the Radivoj Korac Cup. For a club with Crvena zvezda’s ambitions, the cup is a nice line on the page, but not an alibi when the season closes without an ABA League final and without the EuroLeague playoffs. That very gap between the start and the finish best explains why the split came now rather than at the end of the calendar.
What the club said
The club’s statement was short and free of drama. It says that club president Zeljko Drcelic reached an agreement with Obradovic on a mutual termination of the contract, and that from the end of his work at the club Crvena zvezda will have no financial obligations toward the coach. The club thanked Obradovic for his commitment and work during his time on the bench.
That is an important detail. A mutual termination without compensation means the two sides parted quietly, with no court dispute and no burden on the budget ahead of next season.
What happens next
So who runs the team now? The club announced that Milan Tomic, a former coach and current club official, takes over on an interim basis. The first task arrives immediately: the Serbian league Final Four is played in Nis from 29 to 31 May, so Tomic has no time to settle in and walks straight into a competition that cannot be dropped.
After Nis comes the real question of the summer: who Crvena zvezda brings in for next season and with what authority. The club has not yet announced a permanent head coach.
If this season ends the way it started, as just another one spent on the resit bench, was the problem really only the coach?
My read is that it was not. This time Obradovic inherited a team in trouble and lifted it higher than anyone expected, before that same team let him down in the moments when the margin was being counted. The split is fair, with no accusations and no debt. The next genuine test for the red-and-whites starts in Nis on 29 May.
