Slobodan Janković | Origin of Street Names

Slobodan "Boban" Janković (1963 - 2006) was a Serbian basketball player and a Red Star legend, considered one of the most skillful and creative players to have ever graced the basketball courts in Yugoslavia.

He was born in Lučani, near Požega, where he spent his early childhood. His family moved to Belgrade before he started school, and that's where Slobodan began playing football. However, due to his above-average height for his age, it became clear over time that basketball was a better fit for him.

Despite being somewhat chubby and having an atypical build even for a basketball player, Boban Janković was not the athletic type that could be seen on the courts of Yugoslavia. However, his agility and basketball intelligence became his trademark from the very beginning.

His exceptional talent for the game under the hoops was first recognized by the great basketball guru, Ranko Žeravica. At the age of only 16, Boban Janković made his debut for the Red Star first team (in a derby against Partizan), and he played a full twelve seasons for the club in two separate stints.

However, it was a time of fierce basketball domination by Cibona from Zagreb and Jugoplastika from Split, so despite his 13-year career in the domestic league (he played one season for Vojvodina), Boban unfortunately didn't win any trophies. In his mature basketball years, he decided to seek his career and basketball happiness abroad, signing with the Greek team Panionios, unaware that it would be the last club he would play for.

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You see, being as temperamental and justice-seeking as he was throughout his entire career, Slobodan Janković reacted extremely vehemently to a referee's decision in a Greek league game between Panionios and Panathinaikos. Dissatisfied with the offensive foul call (which also meant his fifth personal foul), believing that his outburst towards the referee would come at a high cost, Boban vented his anger on the concrete structure of the basket, hitting it and paying with his head.

The image of this dramatic and highly distressing scene spread worldwide in a short time. After an intense battle by doctors, Boban somehow survived this blow, but he remained paralyzed for life. Naturally, this marked the end of a great basketball career.

This moment of mental darkness, despite his extraordinary talent, unforgettable basketball feats, and the immense respect he commanded throughout European basketball in the early '90s, turned Boban Janković into one of the most tragic figures in the world of basketball and sports in general.

Among the extraordinary aces who would mark European and world basketball in the '90s, Boban Janković never had the opportunity to wear the senior jersey with the national emblem that he undoubtedly deserved. Nevertheless, he remained a favorite of Red Star and Panionios fans, his contemporaries, and the basketball community in Serbia.

Slobodan Janković spent the rest of his life in Greece, mostly isolated from public events, with the exception of the farewell game of his friend Aleksandar Saša Đorđević.

He passed away at the age of 42 in Rhodes. In memory of the great basketball player and his tragic destiny, one street in Zemun now bears the name of Slobodan Janković.