KK Atlas

Košarkaški klub Atlas (Serbian Cyrillic: Кошаркашки клуб Атлас), commonly referred to as KK Atlas Belgrade, was a Serbian men's professional basketball club based in Belgrade.

Founded in 1972 as KK Novi Beograd, the publicly owned club's name kept changing in accordance with sponsorship agreements over its subsequent 34-year run. Its best known name KK IMT—after its main sponsor Industrija mašina i traktora (IMT), an agricultural machinery manufacturer—was used from 1973 until 1991, a period during which the club recorded its biggest success: winning the 1986-87 Yugoslav Basketball Cup.

History

Founded in 1972 as KK Novi Beograd, the club changed its name the following year, in 1973, to KK IMT (KK Industrija mašina i traktora).

For the 1983–84 season, IMT gained promotion to the Yugoslav First Federal Basketball League (top-tier basketball competition in SFR Yugoslavia). It finished the league season in 9th place. The following season 1984–85, IMT finished in 12th place and got relegated back to Yugoslav First Federal Basketball League B (Yugoslav second-tier competition).

The club achieved its greatest success under the guidance of young head coach Dragan Šakota, winning the Yugoslav Cup in the 1986–87 season at the national cup final tournament in Niš. The winning roster included veteran point guard Srećko Jarić, shooting guard Zoran Krečković, young power forward Ljubisav Luković, small forward Milan Mlađan [it], veteran power forward Arsenije Pešić, shooting guard Nikola Jokanović, Milenko Babić, Radivoje Milosavljević, Dragan Živanović, etc. They defeated KK Olimpija 76–73 in the final in front of 7,000 spectators at Hala Čair, with Mlađan scoring 25 points and Pešić adding 19, while Olimpija got 31 points from Matjaž Tovornik [sl] as well as veteran Peter Vilfan and young Jure Zdovc both adding 14.^[1] It was the only time in the history of Yugoslav basketball that the cup competition was won by a club not playing in the top-tier First Federal League.^[2] The same season IMT achieved promotion to the First Federal League.

Once returning to the top-tier First Federal League in 1987, it played in the top competition until the disintegration of Yugoslavia. It achieved its best placing with a 6th-place finish in the 1990–91 season.

In 1991, the club's name changed to KK Infos RTM, however, they got relegated at the end of the 1991–92 season. In 1992, another name change occurred, this time to KK IMT-Železničar.

In 1994, the club became known as KK Beopetrol. They gained promotion back to the top-tier for the 1997–98 season. In the 1998–99 season they again finished the season in 6th place thus repeating their previous best placing. During the 2001–02 season the club got relegated again due to finishing dead last.

On 27 June 2003, due to a sponsorship deal with Atlas Bank, the club changed its name to KK Atlas.

In the summer of 2006, the club sold its Basketball League of Serbia license to KK Radnički Zastava and thus stopped to competing.

Players

Head coaches

• Dragan Šakota (1983–1988)
• Milan Minić
• Rajko Toroman (1989–1991)
• Miroslav Nikolić (1991–1992)
• Zoran Krečković (1996–2000)
• Ljubisav Luković
• Slobodan Klipa (2000)
• Vojislav Vezović (2000–2001)
• Aleksandar Glišić (2001–2002)
• Predrag Badnjarević (2002–2004)
• Zoran Slavnić (2004)
• Luka Pavićević (2004–2005)
• Srećko Sekulović (2005)
• Dragan Vaščanin (2005–2006)

Trophies and awards

Trophies

• Yugoslav Cup
  • Winner (1): 1986–87
• Yugoslav Federal B League
  • Winner (2): 1982–83, 1986–87
• YUBA B League
  • Winner (2): 1996–97, 2002–03

Awards

• Yugoslav League Top Scorer
  • Milan Mlađan – 1988–89

Notable players

International record

References

External links

• KK Atlas at srbijasport.net
• KK Atlas at srbijasport.com

This page was last edited on 22 September 2022, at 15:17