Crvena Zvezda, which translates as Red Star, was among the most-crowned teams in the former Yugoslavia. The club was founded in 1945 and already a year later started its domination by winning the first of 10 straight titles. Zvezda continued winning trophies in bunches in the early 1970s when it claimed a national championship, three domestic cups and the 1974 Saporta Cup – its lone European trophy to date – in the span of five years. The next two decades were not as fruitful. Zvezda had to wait until 1993 to win another Yugoslavian crown, but it repeated the success twice more in the 1990s. Over the years Zvezda had the privilege of being guided by some of Europe's coaching greats – including Aleksandar Nikolic, Ranko Zeravica and Svetislav Pesic, and developed some of Europe's finest talents such as Zoran Slavnic, Dejan Tomasevic, Igor Rakocevic, Nemanja Bjelica and Predrag Stojakovic. A return to winning at the continental level came in 2006 and 2007 when Milan Gurovic led Zvezda to the ULEB Cup quarterfinals, where it lost against eventual champions Dynamo Moscow and Real Madrid. In 2013, Zvezda won its first of three consecutive Serbian Cups and it made its EuroLeague debut the next season. Even though a 4-6 regular season record was not enough to advance from a tough group with eventual champion Maccabi Tel Aviv, Zvezda continued its journey in the EuroCup and reached the semifinals, where it lost a two-game series against UNICS Kazan. The club returned to compete against Europe's elite and lived through some of the proudest moments in its 70-year old history. Led by big man Boban Marjanovic, in 2014-15 Zvezda reached the EuroLeague Top 16 for the first time and won its first triple-crown, lifting trophies in all three other competitions it entered that season – the Adriatic League, Serbian League and Serbian Cup. The following season, Zvezda went a step further in the EuroLeague, reaching the playoffs, and put up a great fight despite being ousted in three games by eventual champion CSKA Moscow. Zvezda went on to win both the Adriatic League and its second straight Serbian League title. In 2016-17, Zvezda came just short of another EuroLeague Playoff appearance, losing a do-or-die Round 30 game against Darussafaka Istanbul, but won another domestic triple crown. Zvezda has continued winning Serbian League titles - five in a row from 2015 to 2019 - and it recaptured the Adriatic League crown in 2019. On the other hand, it lost the Serbian Radivoj Korac Cup championship games against Partizan and did not reach either the EuroLeague or the EuroCup playoffs in any of the last three seasons. After losing a season to the COVID-19 pandemic, Zvezda returns to the EuroLeague with all it takes - management, fans, tradition and competitiveness - to be a tough opponent for everyone in all competitions yet again in the 2020-21 campaign.
Trophy Case
Cup of Cups: 1974 |
ABA League: 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2018-19, 2020-21 |
Serbian National League: 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19, 2020-21 |
Serbian National Cup: 2004, 2006, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2021 |
Yugoslav National League: 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1968-69, 1971-72, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1997-98 |
Yugoslav National Cup: 1971, 1973, 1975 |