KK Bosna Royal
Košarkaški klub Bosna, also referred to as KK Bosna 'Royal, currently named Bosna BH Telecom' for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball club based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the most successful Bosnian club of all time, having been the European champion by winning the 1978–79 FIBA European Champions Cup. The club currently competes in the Basketball Championship of Bosnia and Herzegovina, FIBA Europe Cup, and the ABA League. It is part of the University Sport Society Bosna.
History
1951–1955: Formation and early years
The club was founded in 1951 as a member of the University Sports Society Bosna. The club's first chairman and coach was doctor Nedžad Brkić, with the roster composed mostly of students enrolled in the University of Sarajevo. The first four years of the club's existence were spent in the lower-tier Sarajevo city league, which the team went on to win in 1955, earning a promotion to the SR Bosnia and Herzegovina league. The team roster in these early years included the likes of Brkić, Marušić, Takač, Bise, Bjelica, Cindrić, Bilić, Đurasković, Fetahagić, Uzelac, Džapa, Pilav, Hofbauer, Lovrenović, Beganović and Dimitrijević.1955–1972: Attempting to reach top-tier Yugoslav First League
For the next 17 years the club competed in the regional SR Bosnia and Herzegovina league, steadily building a team with which it could enter the Yugoslav First League.On 28 April 1972 a decisive win against cross-town rivals KK Željezničar Sarajevo would promote the club to the top-tier of Yugoslav basketball where it would compete for the next 20 years. The architect of the club's historic triumf and later European glory was charismatic young coach Bogdan Tanjević. The players that managed to achieve the promotion to the top national league were Jovo Terzić, Mirsad Milavić, Zdravko Čečur, Milan Pavlić, Aleksandar Nadaždin, Dumić, Bruno Soče, Žarko Varajić, Slobodan Pejović, Svetislav Pešić, Rođeni Krvavac, and Anto Đogić.
1972–1984: The glory years
The future European championship winning roster was completed with the arrival of legendary Mirza Delibašić in 1972. The first 6 seasons in the Yugoslav First League represented a coming of age process, with the team eventually going on to win its first title in 1978, led by star players Ratko Radovanović, Žarko Varajić and Mirza Delibašić. A year later KK Bosna became the first team, aside from CSKA Moscow, to win the European championship without a single foreign player on its roster. Namely, on April 5, 1979 the team, led by the late Delibašić and game MVP Varajić, defeated Italian Powerhouse Emerson Varese 96:93. The club started its EuroLeague season in the Quarterfinal group stage, finishing first in its group. Once in the Semifinals, the side sent a message to contenders by edging the defending champions Real Madrid 114:109 in overtime, in Sarajevo. KK Bosna would eventually win all of its home games and would advance to the title game by edging Greek side Olympiacos 83–88, in Piraeus. Bosna's opponent in the final would either be Emerson Varese or Real Madrid, who faced each other off in the final game of the round. The Italian side beat Madrid 82:83. The aforementioned game will be remembered for Prada's misses: Namely, Luis Maria Prada famously missed 3 consecutive free throws with no time on the clock, forever changing European basketball history. Once in the title game, KK Bosna downed mighty Emerson Varese 96:93 in front of 15,000 fans in the Palais des Sports, Grenoble, France. Varajić led the team in scoring with 45 points, while Delibašić followed with 30. The former is still the record holder for most points in a Euroleague final. Radovanović added 10 more points, while Americans Bob Morse and Charlie Yelverton scored 30 and 27 points respectively for Varese. In the next four seasons KK Bosna would go on to win two more Yugoslav championships, as well as a silver medal in the 1980 FIBA Intercontinental Cup, which it hosted. A second Yugoslav Cup triumf followed a year later.1984–1992: Pre‑war years
After nearly a decade of continuous success, most of the star players transferred abroad in the mid‑1980s. Namely, Mirza Delibašić, Žarko Varajić, Ratko Radovanović and Anto Đogić, along with coach Bogdan Tanjević, moved to foreign clubs, with Tanjević taking over at Italian club Juventus Caserta. After retiring prematurely, Delibašić later served as coach of Bosna on several occasions in the late 1980s and early 1990s. As a result, the club management promoted members of its talented youth department to the senior team, along with bringing in a handful of new players from other Yugoslav clubs. Promising young players such as Nenad Marković, Gordan Firić, Samir Avdić and others all came in through the youth ranks.In the final season before the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Bosna achieved a notable result in the national knockout competition. In the 1991–92 Yugoslav Cup, the club finished runners‑up after losing 105-79 to Partizan in the final held in Niš, with Partizan going on to win the Euroleague title that same year.
The outbreak of hostilities in 1992 abruptly curtailed the progress of this new generation, scattering players and staff and bringing top‑level competition in the country to an end.
1992–1997: Hardest of times
With the start of the Bosnian War in 1992 competitive basketball was halted in the newly independent country for nearly four years. A talented generation on the verge of success was forced to transfer to foreign sides, and in doing so the club was forced to fight for bare survival. The side's star prospect, Nenad Marković, joined Italian side Stefanel Trieste, while the likes of Avdić, Firić and others left to Spain, Italy and Turkey. In 1993, under the helm of legendary Ante Djogic and his assistant Mladen Jojic, a talented group of youngsters, who stayed in Sarajevo under the siege, was selected and which continued with trainings and competition organized in difficult war environment. Those youngsters, aged btw. 15 and 19, were: Konaković, Moratić, Bradić, Tihić, Mirković, Džafo, Isaković, brothers Damir and Vedran Vukotić, Branković, Tinjak. In the 1997–98 season, a playoff competition was organized for clubs from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the final, played over three matches, Bosna was defeated by Široki with a score of two games to one. One year later, the team consisting of Mirković, Terzić, Subašić, Konaković, Kurtagić, Halimić, Lerić, Isaković, Bukva, Džuho, and Radović, led by head coach Sabit Hadžić and his assistant Miralem Zubović, finished first in the reorganized league competition that included teams from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and won the championship title. The club’s participation in the following season in the FIBA Saporta Cup was considered successful despite strong competition. However, the seasons that followed were marked by personnel and squad changes, which resulted in a lack of expected results and the failure to achieve the planned objectives.2001–2004: Period of reorganization
KK Bosna was one of the initiators of the regional basketball league, which was established in 2001 under the name Adriatic League. In this competition, as well as in the newly formed unified league of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the team was led by the new head coach Draško Prodanović, with an entirely new roster, but without notable results or achievements. This prompted the club management, headed by president Nihad Imamović, to draw up a plan for the reorganization of both the club and the team. The young and promising coach Mensur Bajramović was appointed head of the coaching staff, while former Bosna players Samir Avdić and Elmedin Konaković took over the positions of director and sporting manager. Matches were once again played at the club’s traditional venue, the Skenderija Arena, and a major attraction for spectators was the return of Nenad Marković, regarded as the best Bosnian and Herzegovinian basketball player of the previous decade. The squad was further strengthened by the experienced players Siniša Kovačević and Dejan Parežanin, as well as the country’s most promising young basketball player, Kenan Bajramović.These changes resulted in full stands at Skenderija, a first-place finish at the end of the first half of the season, the top position heading into the playoffs, and qualification for the final stage of the national cup competition in the previous season. In the championship final series, Bosna was narrowly defeated by Široki Hercegtisak after three closely contested matches, with the deciding game being settled only after overtime.
2004–2010: Domestic success and European campaigns
In the mid‑2000s, KK Bosna established itself as a stable competitor in the regional ABA League, reaching the quarterfinals in both the 2004–05 and 2005–06 seasons. During this era the club featured several notable players, including Lance Williams, Saša Vasiljević, Goran Ikonić, Jasmin Perković and Edin Bavčić.Bosna also enjoyed domestic success, winning the Bosnian Championship in 2005, 2006 and 2008 and the Bosnian Cup in 2005.
In the 2007–08 ULEB Cup, coached by Jurij Zdovc, Bosna made one of its most memorable European campaigns. In the group stage, they played a historic match against Alba Berlin, losing 141–127 after five overtimes, in what was then the longest and highest‑scoring game in the competition’s history. Later in the group stage, Bosna secured a 91–76 victory over Alba Berlin in Sarajevo, a result that provided a sufficient points advantage to qualify Bosna for the knockout stages of the ULEB Cup.
Throughout this period, Bosna’s performances in both regional and European competitions helped attract strong support and sponsorship, reinforcing the club’s presence on the Balkan basketball scene and contributing to its continued competitiveness in domestic and international play.