Bogdan Bogdanović (basketball)

Bogdan Bogdanović (Богдан Богдановић; born 18 August 1992) is a Serbian professional basketball player for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

He also represents the Serbian national team.

In April 2008, he moved on to Žitko Basket (then known as Alimenti Basket), also from Belgrade.

Playing with Žitko Basket under coach Dragan Jakovljević, Bogdanović was part of the team that in April 2010 earned third place in the 2009–10 Junior Serbian League at the final eight tournament in Vršac, after beating Partizan juniors in the quarterfinal, losing 89–86 to Hemofarm juniors in the semifinal and beating FMP junior team 82–76 in the third place game.

A few weeks later in May 2010, together with another Žitko player Luka Pajković, Bogdanović got attached to FMP's junior team featuring Nenad Miljenović, Stefan Popovski-Turanjanin, Nemanja Bezbradica, Nikola Janković, and Nikola Silađi for the Nike International Junior Tournament (NIJT) in Paris where the FMP juniors were defending their club's double title from previous two years.

They were drawn in one of two round-robin groups at the tournament, alongside KK Split, Treviso, and Málaga.

After beating Treviso and Split, FMP required a win over Málaga juniors to win their group and make the final; with precisely Bogdanović making the difference with an off-balance buzzer-beater for a 79–78 final score, two of his 21 points on the day alongside 6 rebounds.

In the final game FMP took on INSEP and lost 73–83 with Bogdanović having an outing to forget due to the mid-game injury that forced him to leave the contest.

In September 2010, 18-year-old Bogdanović signed his first professional contract with Partizan.

Initially, in his first two seasons with the crno-beli, under head coach Vlada Jovanović, Bogdanović didn't play much.

With the summer 2012 return of head coach Duško Vujošević to Partizan, 20-year-old Bogdanović began to see increased minutes.

After Danilo Anđušić's departure in December 2012, Bogdanović's role in the team stabilized even more.

The 2012–13 season saw him make his EuroLeague debut with the team, averaging 5 points per game and 1.8 rebounds per game over 6 appearances.

Their 2012 agreement, according to the coach, saw then 20-year-old Bogdanović be placed immediately into Partizan's first team rotation in return for the player's promise he would stay with the team three more seasons from that point on.

After being invited to play for the Serbian national team in the summer of 2013, he earned greater trust from coach Vujošević, which was reflected in his increased playing time in the 2013–14 season, and bigger role in the team.

In the EuroLeague victory over CSKA Moscow in Belgrade, Bogdanović scored a career-high 27 points, shooting 10 for 16 from the field.

Shortly after the game, he was praised by Serbian national team selector Aleksandar Đorđević, as being one of the most promising young European players.

In a February ABA League away game versus Cibona, Bogdanović scored a career-high 32 points, also adding 4 rebounds and 5 assists.

Over 23 games in the EuroLeague, he averaged 14.8 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game, all career-highs.

Partizan finished the season by winning its 13th consecutive Serbian League title, after once again defeating their archrivals, Red Star Belgrade, 3–1 in the league's finals series.

Bogdanović exploded in the finals series, averaging 30.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game.

For such a performance, he was named the league's Finals MVP.

He was selected by the Phoenix Suns with the 27th overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft, with his draft rights being traded to the Sacramento Kings during the 2016 NBA draft.

Bogdanović earned an All-EuroLeague First Team, a FIBA All-EuroBasket Team and was selected two times to the All-FIBA World Cup Team.

Bogdanović began playing organized basketball with ŠKK Zvezdara, a club in Belgrade.

In April 2014, along with his teammate Joffrey Lauvergne, he was selected to the Ideal Team of the ABA League.

In May 2014, he was voted the EuroLeague Rising Star of the season, by the head coaches of 24 EuroLeague teams.

Following Bogdanović's summer 2014 transfer from Partizan to Fenerbahce, the player's decision to leave the club was publicly criticized by Partizan's head coach Vujošević who claimed that by leaving in 2014 Bogdanović broke their verbal agreement the coach had struck with the player (along with Bogdanović's agent Aleksandar Rašković and his parents) two years earlier in 2012.

Bogdanović left the club in summer 2014, two years after the supposed agreement, following Partizan's failure to qualify for the next season's EuroLeague.

On 11 July 2014, Bogdanović officially signed a four-year contract, containing opt-out clauses after the second and third seasons, with the Turkish team Fenerbahçe.

Over four years, Bogdanović is slated to make €3.5 million euros net income, while Partizan also received a €1.3 million buyout from Fenerbahçe, as the player was still under contract with the Belgrade club.

Even though Bogdanović was a newcomer in the team, head coach Željko Obradović gave him a significant number of minutes and a starter role.

With the beginning of the 2014–15 season, he struggled in shooting and consistency.

On 15 November, in a 93–86 win over FC Bayern Munich, he scored 18 points and added 7 assists, his best game since coming to the new team.

Over 10 games in the first phase of the EuroLeague, he averaged 10.4 points and 3.4 assists per game.

On 20 March, Bogdanović set a season-high of 25 points, and added 4 assists, in a 98–77 win over Emporio Armani Milano.

For such a performance, he was named the EuroLeague MVP of the Round, with a Performance Index Rating of 32.

On 26 March, in a game against Unicaja Málaga, he scored a 20-meter distance buzzer beater at the end of the second quarter.

After good showings in the Top 16, he struggled in shooting in the quarter-final playoff series against Maccabi Tel Aviv, averaging 8 points on 25% shooting from the field.

Eventually, Fenerbahçe won the EuroLeague playoff series, and advanced to the 2015 Euroleague Final Four, the first in the club's history.