ZELJKO REBRACA

Born on April 9, 1972 in Prigrevica, he left his own indelible mark on European basketball, while he also had an exceptional course on the NBA courts. Zeljko Rebraca was Zeljko Obradovic’s “chosen one” for the Panathinaikos’ in-the-paint game for two seasons.

“Zele” competed for Panathinaikos in the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 seasons, winning 2 Greek Championships and 1 Euroleague trophy (in 2000). In fact, in the 2000 Thessaloniki Euroleague final against Maccabi Tel Aviv he was named MVP leading his team to grabbing the title. The following year he had the opportunity to play in the final once again, but this time Panathinaikos did not manage to get a back-to-back victory again against the Israeli team. After Panathinaikos, Rebraca had a successful 6-year stint in the NBA despite the health issues he had to tackle. In 2007 he returned to Europe to compete for Valencia.

Zeljko Rebraca began his career with Novi Sad (1990-91), went on to KK Partizan Belgrade (1991-1995) and “left” his homeland for the first time in 1995 when he went to Italy to play for Benetton Treviso. After 4 years in the Italian League, he put on the Panathinaikos’ jersey (1999-2001) and the road to the NBA was “cracked open”: 2001-2004 Detroit Pistons, 2004-2006 Atlanta Hawks, 2006-2007 Los Angeles Clippers, and then back to Europe in 2007 to Spain playing for Valencia.