Slobodan "Piksi" Subotić ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан Суботић, ; born 15 August 1956) is a Greek-Slovenian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

coach and former player. He last served as the head coach for Budućnost of the

ABA League The ABA League, renamed the ABA League First Division in 2017, is the top-tier regional men's professional basketball league that originally featured clubs from former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedoni ...

, Montenegrin League and the EuroCup. He has Greek citizenship, which he obtained to circumvent EU administrative restrictions while playing and coaching there. To be able to obtain Greek citizenship, he had to administratively change his name in the eyes of Greek law, and is thus known there as Slompontan "Lefteris" Soumpotits (). In addition to having Slovenian and Greek citizenship, he also holds Bosnian citizenship. At 2.02 m (6'7 ") tall, he was a talented swingman, with incredible shooting ability.

Playing career

Subotić helped the Greek club Aris to qualify for the EuroLeague's

Final Four In sports, the final four is the last four teams remaining in a playoffs, playoff tournament. Usually the final four compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final (penultimate) round. Of these teams, the two who win in ...

in three consecutive years ( 1988,

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

and 1990). With Aris, he was a five time Greek League champion, in the years 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991, and also a five time

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

winner, in the years 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1992. Subotić then followed-up his playing career, by moving on to work as a basketball coach.

Coaching career

After his playing career, Subotić went into coaching. So far, some of the clubs that he has been the

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

of include: Greek clubs Iraklis, AEK, Aris, Panathnaikos, Panionios,

PAOK PAOK (, Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινοπολιτών, ''Panthessalonikeios Athlitikós Ómilos Constantinopoliton'', ''Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans''), commonly ...

and Olympiacos, Croatian club Split and Al Riyadi of the

Lebanese Basketball League The Lebanese Basketball League is recognized as the top-tier professional men's basketball list of basketball leagues, league in Lebanon. It is organized annually as a national championship with playoffs and a national cup by the Lebanese Basketb ...

. As the head coach, he won the Greek League championship twice, in 1998 and 1999, the

in 2002, the

FIBA Korać Cup The FIBA Korać Cup was an annual basketball club competition held by FIBA Europe between the 1971–72 and 2001–02 seasons. It was the European professional club basketball system, third-tier level club competition in European basketball, a ...

in 1997 and the Lebanese League championship in 2014 and 2015. He extended his contract with Al Riyadi for three more years in 2015. He was also an assistant coach with the senior men's Slovenia national team in 1999, as well as the head coach of Slovenia from 2001 to 2003, coaching them at the 2003 EuroBasket. In 2012 he became the

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of the Slovenian club Union Olimpija. On 18 June 2017, Subotić was named the head coach of Croatian club Cibona, with which he parted ways on 11 November 2017. In the 2020–21 season, he coached

Club Africain Club Africain (), known as CA for short, is a Tunisian professional football club based in Tunis. The club was founded in 1920 and its colours are red and white. Their home stadium, Hammadi Agrebi Stadium, has a capacity of 60,000 spectators. ...

in the Tunisian Championnat National A.

Awards and accomplishments

Player

*5× Greek League Champion: (1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1990–91) *5×

Winner: (1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992)

Head coach

Champion: (1996–97) *2× Greek League Champion: (1997–98, 1998–99) *

Winner: (2002) *2× Greek League Best Coach: (1998, 1999) *3× Lebanese League Champion: (2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16)

References

External links

EuroLeague Coaching ProfileEuroCup Coaching ProfileItalian League Coaching Profile

Interperformances Coaching Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Subotic, Slobodan 1956 births Living people AEK B.C. coaches Aris B.C. coaches Aris B.C. players Aurora Basket Jesi coaches Bosnia and Herzegovina basketball coaches Bosnia and Herzegovina men's basketball players Greek basketball coaches Greek Basket League players Greek basketball executives and administrators Greek men's basketball players Greek people of Serbian descent Iraklis Thessaloniki B.C. coaches KK Budućnost coaches KK Cedevita coaches KK Olimpija players KK Split coaches Montenegrin emigrants to Slovenia Naturalized citizens of Greece Olympiacos B.C. coaches Panathinaikos B.C. coaches Panionios B.C. coaches P.A.O.K. BC coaches Sportspeople from Herceg Novi Shooting guards Slovenian basketball coaches Slovenian men's basketball players Slovenia national basketball team coaches Slovenian people of Serbian descent Small forwards Al Riyadi Club Beirut basketball coaches 20th-century Greek sportsmen