Croatian basketball legend Aleksandar Petrovic emphasized that the ABA League wouldn’t fall apart without Partizan and Crvena Zvezda.
Petrovic stated that it would be “detrimental” to disband the league if the two biggest Serbian clubs were to receive A licenses for the EuroLeague.
“We made a mistake by tying the ABA League solely to the receipt of an invitation to the EuroLeague. It is wrong to think that it should fall apart without Partizan and Zvezda. That’s a wrong perspective.
There are so many young players in the region. The league could serve an even greater purpose if it wasn’t primarily focused on securing EuroLeague spots because then there would be more room for young players to develop,” Petrovic emphasized in an interview for Meridian Sport.
“Better to shut down Cibona than to have problems for the next 20 years.”
The talk about parting ways with the ABA League began to gain more attention after public statements from the Serbian national team coach, Svetislav Pesic.
“Serbia is possibly in the best situation at the moment. It’s evident how much people love basketball there, they achieved a second-place finish in the World Cup. They have numerous NBA players, and the successes of Crvena Zvezda and Partizan in the EuroLeague…
Don’t forget that if the ABA League falls apart, countries will retreat into their national leagues, of which most clubs won’t benefit. It’s questionable whether we should disband the regional league just because Crvena Zvezda and Partizan might receive EuroLeague invitations. In my opinion, that would be a detrimental thing.“
The former Croatian national team coach also discussed the case of Cibona, which recently went bankrupt.
“If you ask me, after everything the club has been through in the last 2-3 years, going from one problem to another, starting each season with debts from the previous one, for the first time, I must say that I am overwhelmed by pessimism, and I’m not sure they will recover from this situation.
I fear they might follow the example of Primorska from a few seasons ago when the club left the competition in the middle of the season; that would be tragic. Personally, it’s not easy for me; a brand of a club is disappearing. But it’s better to shut down that brand than to have problems for the next 20 years,” Aleksandar Petrovic concluded.