Svetislav Pešić
Serbian basketball player and coach (born 1949)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Svetislav "Kari" Pešić (Serbian Cyrillic: Светислав "Кари" Пешић; born 28 August 1949) is a Serbian former basketball player and coach.
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Playing career
During his club playing career, Pešić played with Pirot (1964–1967), Partizan (1967–1971), and Bosna (1971–1979). As a member of Bosna, he won a Yugoslav Cup and a Yugoslav League championship, in 1978. Also, he won the FIBA European Champions Cup (EuroLeague) championship in 1979 with Bosna.[1]
Coaching career
Club coaching career
On the club level, Pešić won the triple crown in 2003, while he was the head coach of FC Barcelona. On 16 November 2010, he was named the head coach of Power Electronics Valencia, for the rest of the 2010–11 season.[2] In November 2012, Pešić was named the head coach of the German team Bayern Munich.[3] On 28 February 2015, he extended his contract with the club until 2017.[4] On 24 July 2016, he left Bayern at his own request, for health reasons.[5]
On 9 February 2018, he returned to FC Barcelona as the team's head coach, until the end of the season.[6]
On 22 December 2025, he took over Bayern Munich once again, after the departure of previous head coach Gordon Herbert.[7]
National team coaching career
Pešić led the Yugoslavian junior national team, that featured future international stars Vlade Divac, Saša Đorđević, Toni Kukoč, and Dino Rađa, to a gold medal at the 1987 FIBA World Junior Championship (which was later split into separate under-19 and under-21 events), by defeating the Team USA twice during the tournament.[8] With the FR Yugoslavian senior side, Pešić won gold medals at the 2002 FIBA World Championship, which was held in Indianapolis, and the EuroBasket 2001 (organized by Turkey). He stepped down from the position on 1 December 2002.[9]
On 28 September 2021, Basketball Federation of Serbia appointed Pešić as new head coach for the Serbia men's national team.[10] He led Serbia to win the silver medal at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup and bronze at the 2024 Summer Olympics.[11] On 30 September 2025, his contract as national team coach expired and he stepped down from the position, following Serbia's defeat against Finland at the EuroBasket 2025.[12]
Coaching record
| Legend | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | Games coached | W | Games won | L | Games lost | W–L % | Win-loss % | ||
Note: The EuroLeague is not the only competition in which the team played during the season. He also coached in domestic competition, and regional competition if applicable.
EuroLeague
| Team | Year | G | W | L | W–L% | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barcelona | ||||||
| 2002–03 | 21 | 17 | 4 | .810 | Won EuroLeague Championship | |
| 2003–04 | 20 | 14 | 6 | .700 | Eliminated at Top 16 Stage | |
| Valencia | 2010–11 | 20 | 11 | 9 | .550 | Eliminated in quarterfinals |
| Bayern | 2013–14 | 24 | 9 | 15 | .375 | Eliminated at Top 16 stage |
| 2014–15 | 10 | 2 | 8 | .200 | Eliminated at the group stage | |
| 2015–16 | 10 | 4 | 6 | .400 | Eliminated at the group stage | |
| Barcelona | 2017–18 | 8 | 4 | 4 | .500 | Eliminated in regular season |
| 2018–19 | 35 | 20 | 15 | .571 | Eliminated in quarterfinals | |
| 2019–20 | 28 | 22 | 6 | .786 | Season cancelled | |
| Career | 176 | 103 | 73 | .585 | ||
Personal life
Along with Serbian, Pešić also holds German citizenship. His son, Marko (born 1976), is a former professional basketball player, who represented the Germany national team in four major tournaments. Former German basketball player Jan Jagla, is his son-in-law, due to his marriage with Pešić's daughter, Ivana.
