Dragan Labović
Labović in 2010 with Enisey
Personal information
Born (1987-04-20) April 20, 1987
Prokuplje, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia
NationalitySerbian
Listed height2.07 m (6 ft 9 in)
Listed weight115 kg (254 lb)
Career information
NBA draft2009: undrafted
Playing career2003–2019
PositionPower forward
Career history
2003–2010FMP
2005–2006→ Borac Čačak
2010Aris
2010Skyliners Frankfurt
2010–2011Enisey
2011–2012Krasnye Krylia
2012–2013Nizhny Novgorod
2013–2014AZS Koszalin
2014Aliağa Petkim
2014Al Riyadi Club
2014–2015CSU Asesoft Ploiești
2015İstanbul BB
2015–2016BC Nokia
2016–2017Karpoš Sokoli
2017–2019BC Nokia
Career highlights and awards
Medals
Men's basketball
Representing  Serbia
U20 European Championship
Gold medal – first place 2007 SloveniaTeam
Representing  Serbia and Montenegro
U20 European Championship
Gold medal – first place 2006 Turkey Team
U18 European Championship
Gold medal – first place2005 Serbia and MontenegroTeam
European Championship for Cadets
Gold medal – first place2003 SpainTeam

Dragan Labović (Serbian Cyrillic: Драган Лабовић; born April 20, 1987) is a Serbian former professional basketball player who last played for BC Nokia of the Finnish Korisliiga. He also represented the Serbian national basketball team internationally. He is a 2.07 m (6 ft 10 in) tall power forward.

Professional career

Labović grew up with KK Zdravlje from Leskovac. In 2002 he moved to juniors of FMP. He made his debut for the first team during the 2003–04 season, and in next two years he played a couple games for first team.

For the 2005–06 season he was loaned to KK Borac Čačak where he had minutes to play and chance to improve himself. In 2006 he was invited to play at Nike Hoop Summit in Memphis, Tennessee.[1] After one season at loan he goes back to FMP. With FMP he won the 2007 Serbian Cup. He was the top scorer of the 2008–09 season of the Adriatic League, averaging 18 points per game.

On January 3, 2010, he signed with the Greek club Aris.[2] He played only three league games and four Eurocup games, and in March 2010, he moved to Skyliners Frankfurt for the rest of the season.[3]

The 2010–11 season he played with BC Enisey.[4] For the next season he moved to Krasnye Krylia.[5] In June 2012, he signed a two–year contract with Nizhny Novgorod.[6] He left Nizhny after one season.

In November 2013, he signed with the Polish club AZS Koszalin.[7] He left the club in January 2014, because of family reasons.[8] On January 31, 2014, he signed with Aliağa Petkim of the Turkish Basketball League.[9] He left them in April 2014.[10] Later that month he entered the Lebanese League signing with Al Riyadi Club.[11] He left Al Riyadi in May 2014 after playing only two games.[12]

In July 2014, he signed a one-year contract with the Romanian team CSU Asesoft Ploiești.[13] In February 2015, he left Asesoft.[14] In 12 league games he averaged 10.7 points per game. He also played 15 games in Eurocup where he had 8.3 points per game.[15]

In October 2015, he signed with the Turkish club İstanbul BB.[15] He left Istanbul after appearing in four games. In December 2015, he signed with the Finnish club BC Nokia for the rest of the season.[16]

On July 7, 2016, Labović signed with Macedonian club Karpoš Sokoli for the 2016–17 season.[17] On June 19, 2017, he re-signed with Karpoš Sokoli for one more season.[18] On December 1, 2017, he left Karpoš Sokoli and signed with his former club BC Nokia.[19]

Serbian national team

Youth level

Labović won the gold medal at the 2003 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship and the 2005 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship. He was MVP at 2005 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship. He was part of the younger generation in the national teams did not lose a single match at official matches, and there he was one of the best players in that generation with Milenko Tepić and Miloš Teodosić.

Full squad

Labović made the Serbian national basketball team under head coach Moka Slavnić for the EuroBasket 2007.

Controversial 2012 press release about Dušan Ivković

During summer 2012, head coach Dušan Ivković included Labović on the preliminary list of players for the EuroBasket 2013 qualifying, but the 25-year-old power forward who had spent the preceding club season with BC Krasnye Krylia from Samara didn't make the final cut.

Commenting his decision to exclude Labović, Ivković reportedly stated that "Labović has been having issues with his weight as he recently became a father and probably celebrated a little too much".

Stung by Ivković's comment, Labović responded months later, in September 2012, by putting out a bitter, somewhat cryptic, and highly unusual press release published by Serbian sports media outlets. Though Ivković's comments had been made months earlier, Labović's press release came following the completion of the EuroBasket qualifying cycle in which Serbia barely qualified on basket difference despite being in what most considered to be an easy qualifying group alongside Montenegro, Israel, Estonia, Iceland, and Slovakia.

In the release, Labović criticizes 68-year-old Ivković's professional integrity and coaching skills, accusing the famous coach of letting his agent Miško Ražnatović of the BeoBasket agency exert an undue influence when it comes to squad selection for the national team. Among other things, addressing Ivković directly, Labović said:

Mr. Ivković, I'd like to remind everyone of the year 2008 when I was the Adriatic League leading scorer and the MVP of every competition possible, all of which wasn't enough to make your national squad that had been put together by a certain managerial agency. That year, 2008, your team selection raised the transfer market price for a lot of players that never deserved it, while lowering mine considerably. Ninety percent of the players that participated in that qualifying cycle soon made millions as a result of the exposure received through the national team. I later did too, thank God, despite not being in the national team, despite being ignored by that managerial agency, and despite your phone calls around Europe to give instructions how players should play...... I don't think you're much of a coach. In fact I don't think you're a coach at all. You're more of a basketball philosopher. You won two Euroleagues, spending €970 million in the process.... I'm not playing for Real or Barcelona, but over the last three years I've got more basketball action in my legs than 80% of your national squad. While you're heading that team, nothing will change—Teodosić will always be hogging the ball before passing to Krle and that's the entire game plan. The rest of the players might as well be mascots cheering on the sidelines, which is the same role they have in their clubs. I suggest you consider a quiet life in retirement. I, for my part, will still be fat, playing 25-30 minutes per game, and making money despite not getting your endorsement.[20]

A few weeks after his press release, Labović's club BC Nizhny Novgorod led by a Serbian head coach Zoran Lukić, reprimanded the player although his punishment was not specified.[21]

Personal

On 19 July 2019, Labović was detained by police for public disturbance.[22] The incident occurred at a pool party in the Belgrade suburb of Ovča where reportedly inebriated Labović began smashing bottles and verbally menacing the property's owner, identified in the Serbian press reports as Lazar M., who eventually called the police. After being kept for 12 hours at a Borča police station in order to sober up, Labović had a misdemeanour investigation request (prekršajna prijava) filed against him.[22]

Labović was arrested in the Belgrade suburb of Železnik on 7 December 2021 in the immediate aftermath of an incident that reportedly saw him assault a taxi driver and drive off with his vehicle.[23] The altercation reportedly began when Labović—while getting into the said taxi—took issue with the driver's request for Labović to have a seat in the back of the car in accordance with COVID-19 epidemiological measures.[24]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Naši solidni na "Hup samitu"". mondo.rs (in Serbian). 10 April 2006. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  2. ↑ "Aris BSA 2003 adds big man Dragan Labovic". Eurocupbasketball.com. 3 January 2010. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  3. ↑ "Dragan Labovic moves to Frankfurt". Sportando.com. 1 March 2010. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  4. ↑ "Dragan Labovic inks with Enisey". Sportando.com. 29 July 2010. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  5. ↑ "Krasnye Krylya Samara signs Dragan Labovic". Sportando.net. 11 August 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  6. ↑ "Dragan Labovic inks with Nizhny Novgorod". Sportando.net. 18 June 2012. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  7. ↑ "Dragan Labovic moves to AZS Koszalin". Eurobasket.com. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  8. ↑ "Dragan Labovic leaves AZS Koszalin". Sportando.com. 29 January 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  9. ↑ "Dragan Labovic signs with Aliaga Petkim". Sportando.com. 31 January 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  10. ↑ "Labović napušta Alijagu". B92.net (in Serbian). April 15, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Dragan Labovic signs with Riyadi". Sportando.com. April 21, 2014. Retrieved April 21, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Dragan Labovic left Al Riyadi". Eurobasket.com. May 14, 2014. Retrieved May 17, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Dragan Labovic, primul transfer al campionilor". csuasesoft.ro (in Romanian). 12 July 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  14. ↑ "Dragan Labovic and Jarvis Hayes leaving CSU Asesoft Ploiesti". Sportando.com. 11 February 2015. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  15. 1 2 "Istanbul Buyuksehir Belediyesi lands Dragan Labovic". Eurobasket.com. 15 October 2015. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  16. ↑ "Meritoitunut serbijätti BC Nokian vahvuuteen". basket.fi (in Finnish). 3 December 2015. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  17. ↑ "Карпош Соколи донесе големо засилување во Србинот Драган Лабовиќ". gol.mk (in Macedonian). 7 July 2016. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  18. ↑ "Labovic re-signs at Karpos Sokoli". Eurobasket.com. 19 June 2017. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  19. ↑ "Dragan Labovic inks with BC Nokia". Sportando.com. 1 December 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  20. ↑ "Ovo još niste videli: Labović opleo po Dudi i "reprezentaciji menadžerske agencije"". sport.blic.rs (in Serbian). 15 September 2012. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  21. ↑ "Uprava Novgoroda kaznila Labovića: Tvoje je da igraš, ne da kritikuješ Ivkovića". sport.blic.rs (in Serbian). 3 October 2012. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  22. 1 2 "Bivši košarkaški reprezentativac priveden: Divljao pijan u Ovči i pretio mladiću da će mu zapaliti sve što ima". sport.blic.rs (in Serbian). 19 July 2019. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  23. ↑ "Isplivali detalji, evo zašto je Dragan Labović udario taksistu: Tražio mu da sedne pozadi, on se razbesneo!". mondo.rs (in Serbian). 7 December 2021. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  24. ↑ ""Labović je bio van sebe, urlao je u rastrojstvu": Bivši košarkaš uhapšen ispred vrtića u Železniku, očevici kažu da nikad nisu videli čoveka u takvom stanju". sport.blic.rs (in Serbian). 7 December 2021. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
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