“If you succeed as a criminal lawyer in Serbia in the 90s, everything else will become easier for you” | Relief

Talk about Misko Raznatovic (Serbia, 1966) to do it from one of the biggest names in European basketball. Without taking to the field, their negotiations are part of the script that will be written on the Old Continent during the season. He is the most iconic representative of continental basketball and almost accidental discoverer of Nikola Jokic. Now he talks to Relevo about his career and the future of basketball.

How did you start playing basketball? What kind of player was he?

I started playing basketball when I was 13 and retired at 38. I had over 20 seasons playing for the senior team. But I left professional basketball when I was 22 years old, and then played until the end in the Serbian version of LEB Plata and EBA! In the end, it was fun because I was already a serious and famous agent as well as a player. Last season I played in the same team with Nikola Pekovic and Marco Keschel, who were very young at the time. He was a basketball machine at that level of basketball, but he didn’t go too far (laughs).

At that time, he decided to study law and become a criminal lawyer. What was that time like?

I studied and played at the same time and finished very quickly. In 1992, I founded my own firm and built a promising career as a criminal defense attorney. Then basketball changed my course and my future. If at 26 you have succeeded as a criminal lawyer in 90s Serbia, then everything else you do in business comes easy to you. It was difficult, dangerous and even scary.

Why did you decide to become an agent and how did you get started in the business?

This was never my plan. I always dreamed of having a great career as a criminal lawyer, but suddenly a lot of money came into Serbian basketball, and the players needed legal protection for the first time. They knew me from the courts and I had an excellent reputation as a young lawyer, so they started hiring me to handle their contracts.

At that time, there were almost no professional contracts with players in Serbia. There weren’t many of them, so I had to start from scratch. It was a success and I loved it. A few years later, seeing the mistakes clubs made in selecting players and having knowledge of basketball, I began giving advice to teams on who to sign and how to build teams. Again, it was a big success and I became a basketball agent without even planning on it.

How many players are there today in Beobasket, your representative office?

Honestly, I do not know. The company employs many agents and we never count. I know the number of players in the Euroleague only from the classification it publishes. Euro hoops. This year we had 46. In the NBA, we have about ten clients every season.

Who did you envision as your first client?

Branko Sindjelic, with whom I signed a contract on May 23, 1995. It was a small local transfer between two second division teams in Belgrade. After that he had a good career playing for Partizan, Limoges… Today we are still friends.

When it all started, there were almost no mobile phones. How did you work then?

I had to stay in the office much longer than I do now. We used fax to sign contracts. From today’s perspective, I have no idea how it could have worked, but it worked perfectly. Of course, much more effort and time is spent than today.

Who was your first big client?

Adam Wojcik was my first contract with a Euroleague team: with Peristeri, and the following year with Unicaja. Arriving in Malaga, I began to consider myself a high-level agent for the first time. In general, my career changed when Dusan Ivkovic joined the agency in 2002.

And now you are the most powerful agent in Europe and one of the most important in the world. What do you think you offer your players?

It’s very difficult to judge yourself. I think he is the perfect combination of basketball knowledge, energy and education. Some agents had excellent education and business sense, but lacked basketball knowledge. Some of them are former players and coaches, but they haven’t had that much time to study in their careers, and that’s in short supply.

I love basketball more than anything in the world, and I’m lucky that basketball and watching games is my thing. I am by far the agent who watches the most games at all levels, live and on TV. I don’t have to, but I like it. This is probably why I got the results I did.

What is your relationship with Mega, the Serbian basketball team?

I am no longer the president or even a member of the board of directors. This was in the beginning when Mega was playing in the lower leagues. Since they started playing in the ABA, I had to leave, but of course I have a lot of influence there.

What is your daily life like at this time of year when the market never stops moving, thinking about the next season?

These are very busy days, many contracts have already been renewed and some contracts have been signed that I cannot announce. April, May with the Final Four and June are three months during which I travel all the time. This is the most difficult and at the same time the most beautiful part of the season.

How many phone batteries do you use per day? And how many calls can you take in 24 hours?

My phone has a wonderful battery and with a small charge I’m fine. I don’t count calls, but I remember one time I wanted to know how many people I had texted that day. I saw my list on WhatsApp and started counting before going to bed. I don’t know why I did it, and it was only once, but there were 158 people there.

He also spends a lot of time watching basketball for fun. How can you watch games as a fan and not as a basketball agent?

Almost everything I see is done as an agent, focusing on my clients and recruiting players. It’s often difficult because I have a lot of clients on both teams and I can’t handle it as a fan. But I found a way to watch these games and who to support during that time. Support the team that needs to win the most. But if they go the way they did in Fenerbahce-Monaco, with four players in each team, it will be a lot of fun there. There I support, or rather hope, that each team scores in their attacks. (laughs)

Have you ever been offered to become a football agent?

A lot of. I tried it once, but there were always a lot of problems and I really can’t watch football much, so I gave it up. But I am proud that 15 years ago I signed a contract for Radomir Antic and also achieved a great victory for him at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.

You are one of the most important agents not only in Europe, but also in the NBA, where you represent three-time MVP Nikola Jokic. How did you discover this?

This is a unique story. In November 2012, I was reading a Serbian sports newspaper, which has been my daily routine for 50 years. Something like the Serbian Marca, but always with three pages about basketball with all the results and statistics of all Serbian leagues! I noticed one guy had a huge double-double of over 25 points and 25 rebounds in the U18 league. The next week I checked it again and found the same numbers. So, I sent one of the scouts who works with me to look for his family, trying to recruit this unknown and invisible child. They succeeded, and a few weeks later he joined the agency, and a month later he joined Mega. I signed his representation contract without seeing him play, which almost never happened. Neither before nor after. Obviously, some days you are luckier than others. I was very lucky that day. (laughs)

Have you reconsidered the question of who is the best player in European history? Jokic or Petrovic?

Drazen is my idol since childhood and it is because of him that I used the number 4 and that is why this number is part of my email address and my name on my social media profile. But Nikola is a three-time NBA MVP, and only four players in basketball history have a better record than him. So it’s not hard to know who I think is the best European player of all time, although comparing different eras is difficult.

Have you found the next Jokic yet?

I don’t think I’ll ever do it. Jokic is unique. But now I have at least dozens of young talents who can dream of following his path.

How do you think the basketball business will evolve over the next decade?

I’m in love with European basketball. This is the field I play on and I’m dead with the Euroleague, but the European basketball business doesn’t have a bright future.

The NBA money is very big and will continue to grow. Moreover, the number of bilateral contracts is growing, and Europe is receiving fewer and fewer quality players from the United States. If the NBA adds two more teams, there will be 40 fewer players in Europe. If we add 30 less because a third two-way contract is allowed, that’s 70 less.

In addition, European teams are not giving opportunities to young people and the leagues are aging. We don’t have any new faces because the best young players are leaving for the NBA. And besides, with the money from NIL rights, universities will choose the best young people who are not in the NBA.

I really don’t know who will be the new faces of the Euroleague in three or four years. I’m worried about basketball in Europe. There is no doubt that the competition is huge and interesting, but the Euroleague lacks stars like those it had before: Spanoulis, Diamantidis, Navarro… I would like to make mistakes like never happened to me before.

What do you think about the possibility of Team Dubai being included in European competitions?

I liked this idea from the very beginning. Perhaps if they succeed, other good teams will appear in Arabia and basketball will expand.