Internationally , Novi Sad is known as a city of culture and multiculturalism, and thanks to the guys who are winning tournaments and who are impossible to defeat, being on the list of the best ones in 3×3 basketball, Novi Sad unofficially holds the ‘capital of 3×3 basketball’ title. Stefan Stojačić (31) is one of the best 3×3 basketball players in the world, but his impressive career on the basketball court isn’t the only reason the citizens of Novi Sad are proud of him.
When someone, in a job interview or even over beer, would tell me they had three university degrees, I would probably think the person’s a bit crazy.
3 on 3 is a sport that became very popular in a short amount of time, which due to professional organisations (‘Novi Sad’ and ‘Liman’), got a completely new context, a professional one. Did you notice that people recognise you on the street and is it burdening?
3 on 3 isn’t that popular thus we’re not that famous yet, although we have a specific situation: Novi Sad has two teams, both being world’s best teams, and at the same time the biggest rivals, so it’s not unusual the citizens of Novi Sad recognise us on the street.
Even though you are world champions, are there some unfulfilled ambitions or plans you have for the future, regarding your career?
Winning the FIBA 3×3 World Cup in 2018 in the Philippines was surely one of my goals. Naturally, my ambitions grew when 3×3 became the Olympic sport. The Olympics is a dream of every athlete. Due to the pandemic, this years’ Olympic Games were postponed to 2021. It helped me fight for the national team of Serbia. I wasn’t part of the national team in 2019 because of my injuries. But, as you can see in the previous games, my leg is completely fine now and I stepped up my game, which gave excellent results.
What are your favourite places in Novi Sad – where would you take your friends who are not from the city, where do you like spending your free time and what are your suggestions for our fellow citizens, what is the ‘oasis’ of the city?
My favourite part of the city is certainly the Liman district, and of course the Quay and Štrand beach, where I’ve been spending most of my free time since I was little. When it comes to 3×3 basketball, there have been a couple of courts – the popular Kocka (Eng. Square) in Liman 4, Podunavlje, the area of Liman 3 where the Ballet High School was built, Đačko igralište, the scene of the old, traditional street style basketball, and Enter. Enter is a reconstructed court in Liman 2, placed between the student dormitories and the Quay. It’s still under reconstruction and we hope it’s going to be ready for the next summer. Interviewer: Leona Pap Photo: Vladimir Veličković
Novi Sad is at the top in 3×3 basketball, what do you think about the fact that the two best teams in 3×3 basketball are both from Novi Sad, and that our city is on a world map because of you?
Novi Sad is a city of 3×3 basketball, and Liman is its place of origin. Of course, the credit goes to our older colleagues from the Novi Sad squad, namely Dušan Domović Bulut, who’s from Liman just like I am. We are Liman players, and as a younger generation, we took upon ourselves what they had started – the biggest rivalry in 3×3 basketball, Liman and Novi Sad. On the other hand, I’m not pinpointing anyone, but I think the history of basketball in Novi Sad led to development of this rebellious sport which has no strict hierarchy, and which became popular because of the whole local situation.
You used to play basketball and you were successful at it as well, and now you play this quite similar sport. Why 3×3 basketball, why not basketball?
KK Vojvodina + FTN (Eng. Faculty of Technical Sciences) = Liman 3×3, this is one weird equation, without the unknowns, they’re not spoken about. After the downfall in my basketball career, due to various factors, I came back to Novi Sad and KK Vojvodina after seven years of playing for the teams Partizan, Mega, Zvezda and Radnički from Kragujevac. The Vojvodina team was formed with high expectations and ambitions, which led to winning two champion titles in the Basketball League of Serbia and two placements into the much-awaited Jadran League. For some reason, we gave up on the initial goal which was to play in the Jadran League. After that last impulse towards basketball and a wish to play in the Jadran League in my own city, which we fought for impressively, defeating both Partizan and Crvena Zvezda, I was very disappointment and decided to let everything go. Although it seems irrational, it was possibly the best decision I’ve made in my life. It didn’t lead me to the right path, but it sobered me up. I’ve known professor Ilija Kovačević from before, so before deciding on a university and a department, he advised me, and I decided to go for mechatronics and robotics at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, just because of the fancy name. This led to my nickname in street basketball – Mr. Robot. In 2016, a university championship in 3×3 basketball was organised in Novi Sad. My colleague from the faculty, former basketball player Aleksandar Ratkov, asked me to play for our faculty. Jovan Krpež, Nemanja Tomić, Aleksandar Ratkov and Stefan Stojačić – it’s a team that won that tournament, and then, in a changed composition, under the name FTN, we won the Serbian University Championship. The FTN group actually became today’s Liman team. That same year, in 2016, the FTN (Liman) team got itself a place in the world 3×3 basketball scene.
3 on 3 is a sport that became very popular in a short amount of time, which due to professional organisations (‘Novi Sad’ and ‘Liman’), got a completely new context, a professional one. Did you notice that people recognise you on the street and is it burdening?
3 on 3 isn’t that popular thus we’re not that famous yet, although we have a specific situation: Novi Sad has two teams, both being world’s best teams, and at the same time the biggest rivals, so it’s not unusual the citizens of Novi Sad recognise us on the street.
Even though you are world champions, are there some unfulfilled ambitions or plans you have for the future, regarding your career?
Winning the FIBA 3×3 World Cup in 2018 in the Philippines was surely one of my goals. Naturally, my ambitions grew when 3×3 became the Olympic sport. The Olympics is a dream of every athlete. Due to the pandemic, this years’ Olympic Games were postponed to 2021. It helped me fight for the national team of Serbia. I wasn’t part of the national team in 2019 because of my injuries. But, as you can see in the previous games, my leg is completely fine now and I stepped up my game, which gave excellent results.
What are your favourite places in Novi Sad – where would you take your friends who are not from the city, where do you like spending your free time and what are your suggestions for our fellow citizens, what is the ‘oasis’ of the city?
My favourite part of the city is certainly the Liman district, and of course the Quay and Štrand beach, where I’ve been spending most of my free time since I was little. When it comes to 3×3 basketball, there have been a couple of courts – the popular Kocka (Eng. Square) in Liman 4, Podunavlje, the area of Liman 3 where the Ballet High School was built, Đačko igralište, the scene of the old, traditional street style basketball, and Enter. Enter is a reconstructed court in Liman 2, placed between the student dormitories and the Quay. It’s still under reconstruction and we hope it’s going to be ready for the next summer. Interviewer: Leona Pap Photo: Vladimir Veličković
Where do you find inspiration for all of the things you’re doing – you have three university degrees, you’re one of the best basketball players in the world, you play chess, piano…?
When someone, in a job interview or even over beer, would tell me they had three university degrees, I would probably think the person’s a bit crazy. They often ask me how I managed to do both sports and school, but the worst thing is when parents tell their children: ‘See, how come he has time for everything?!’, taking me as an example. It’s true I was good at everything I was doing and that I was hard-working, but whenever I hear Srđan Dinčić say: ‘I don’t know the essence of anything, I can talk about anything for 45 minutes. I know enough for a drunk conversation, but nothing for a sober career,’ it hits close to home. I sound pretty self-critical. That’s because I am. I’m not downsizing my success, quite the opposite, I’m very proud of it, but I’m aware I wasted some of my potential because I was too scared I wouldn’t be good enough. I don’t want to praise myself egocentrically, I want to give my best and, without thinking much about it, see where it takes me. I have endless amount of motivation, but I needed someone like my wife, who gets mad at me when I dare even think I could practice piano instead of sleeping so that I could get some rest for my basketball practice in the morning, which is a priority. Now, I’m sure of one thing – I will try my best, but, whatever I do, I will compete with myself only.
Novi Sad is at the top in 3×3 basketball, what do you think about the fact that the two best teams in 3×3 basketball are both from Novi Sad, and that our city is on a world map because of you?
Novi Sad is a city of 3×3 basketball, and Liman is its place of origin. Of course, the credit goes to our older colleagues from the Novi Sad squad, namely Dušan Domović Bulut, who’s from Liman just like I am. We are Liman players, and as a younger generation, we took upon ourselves what they had started – the biggest rivalry in 3×3 basketball, Liman and Novi Sad. On the other hand, I’m not pinpointing anyone, but I think the history of basketball in Novi Sad led to development of this rebellious sport which has no strict hierarchy, and which became popular because of the whole local situation.
You used to play basketball and you were successful at it as well, and now you play this quite similar sport. Why 3×3 basketball, why not basketball?
KK Vojvodina + FTN (Eng. Faculty of Technical Sciences) = Liman 3×3, this is one weird equation, without the unknowns, they’re not spoken about. After the downfall in my basketball career, due to various factors, I came back to Novi Sad and KK Vojvodina after seven years of playing for the teams Partizan, Mega, Zvezda and Radnički from Kragujevac. The Vojvodina team was formed with high expectations and ambitions, which led to winning two champion titles in the Basketball League of Serbia and two placements into the much-awaited Jadran League. For some reason, we gave up on the initial goal which was to play in the Jadran League. After that last impulse towards basketball and a wish to play in the Jadran League in my own city, which we fought for impressively, defeating both Partizan and Crvena Zvezda, I was very disappointment and decided to let everything go. Although it seems irrational, it was possibly the best decision I’ve made in my life. It didn’t lead me to the right path, but it sobered me up. I’ve known professor Ilija Kovačević from before, so before deciding on a university and a department, he advised me, and I decided to go for mechatronics and robotics at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, just because of the fancy name. This led to my nickname in street basketball – Mr. Robot. In 2016, a university championship in 3×3 basketball was organised in Novi Sad. My colleague from the faculty, former basketball player Aleksandar Ratkov, asked me to play for our faculty. Jovan Krpež, Nemanja Tomić, Aleksandar Ratkov and Stefan Stojačić – it’s a team that won that tournament, and then, in a changed composition, under the name FTN, we won the Serbian University Championship. The FTN group actually became today’s Liman team. That same year, in 2016, the FTN (Liman) team got itself a place in the world 3×3 basketball scene.
3 on 3 is a sport that became very popular in a short amount of time, which due to professional organisations (‘Novi Sad’ and ‘Liman’), got a completely new context, a professional one. Did you notice that people recognise you on the street and is it burdening?
3 on 3 isn’t that popular thus we’re not that famous yet, although we have a specific situation: Novi Sad has two teams, both being world’s best teams, and at the same time the biggest rivals, so it’s not unusual the citizens of Novi Sad recognise us on the street.
Even though you are world champions, are there some unfulfilled ambitions or plans you have for the future, regarding your career?
Winning the FIBA 3×3 World Cup in 2018 in the Philippines was surely one of my goals. Naturally, my ambitions grew when 3×3 became the Olympic sport. The Olympics is a dream of every athlete. Due to the pandemic, this years’ Olympic Games were postponed to 2021. It helped me fight for the national team of Serbia. I wasn’t part of the national team in 2019 because of my injuries. But, as you can see in the previous games, my leg is completely fine now and I stepped up my game, which gave excellent results.
What are your favourite places in Novi Sad – where would you take your friends who are not from the city, where do you like spending your free time and what are your suggestions for our fellow citizens, what is the ‘oasis’ of the city?
My favourite part of the city is certainly the Liman district, and of course the Quay and Štrand beach, where I’ve been spending most of my free time since I was little. When it comes to 3×3 basketball, there have been a couple of courts – the popular Kocka (Eng. Square) in Liman 4, Podunavlje, the area of Liman 3 where the Ballet High School was built, Đačko igralište, the scene of the old, traditional street style basketball, and Enter. Enter is a reconstructed court in Liman 2, placed between the student dormitories and the Quay. It’s still under reconstruction and we hope it’s going to be ready for the next summer. Interviewer: Leona Pap Photo: Vladimir Veličković
How would you briefly describe your developmental path, what do you deem your biggest success and what influenced you the most?
I don’t like how other people perceive my biography, thinking it’s so impressive – three degrees, chess, piano, basketball, 3×3 basketball… Only I know how many downfalls there were, all the missed chances, bad decisions, failures, disappointments, running away from reality, chasing the form and not the content. But, despite all of that, I still wouldn’t change anything, that’s my life. To cut it short, I’ve lost myself 10 times, each time achieving certain success afterwards, but there were times when I had to go back to the very beginning in order to start again. Now, I feel very satisfied and happy. I think my biggest accomplishment is being a father, and everything else – world and European gold medals in basketball and 3×3 basketball and university degrees, can’t be compared with the feeling of my daughter being happy whenever she sees me. She’s still very young, so she’s happy when she sees me, but also when she sees every pigeon and dog on the street. However, my job is to make her happy when she gets older too.
What are your emotional ties to the city and life here? Having in mind your education and things you’ve accomplished, have you ever considered life abroad? If yes, what made you stay here?
I was born in this city, this is where I grew up, graduated and joined the basketball team. My daughter was born here last year, all of this is the reason I decided to stay in Novi Sad. I used to live in Belgrade, I played for the teams Partizan, Mega and Crvena Zvezda, then Kragujevac, then I came back to ‘my’ team – KK Vojvodina (Eng. Basketball Team Vojvodina) in Novi Sad. There were some options for me to go abroad, but it never really happened. In 2018, my team got an offer from CBA (Chinese Basketball Assosiation) to move to China and help their national team qualify for the Olympics. We responded to this by moving and living in Shanghai for a year. At the end of the day, even though we made some good memories in Shanghai, despite the injuries I had throughout the entire 2019, we couldn’t wait to go back to Novi Sad. In my case, moving abroad offers many possibilities, currently I’m collaborating with China, and at the same time I’m coaching the Philippines national team, I’m helping them prepare for the Olympics. Every weekend we travel to a different country to play 3×3 basketball, and it’s exactly these experiences of travelling abroad that I feel connected and close to Serbia and Novi Sad more than ever.
I’m not downsizing my success, quite the opposite, I’m very proud of it, but I’m aware I wasted some of my potential because I was too scared I wouldn’t be good enough. I don’t want to praise myself egocentrically, I want to give my best and, without thinking much about it, see where it takes me.
Where do you find inspiration for all of the things you’re doing – you have three university degrees, you’re one of the best basketball players in the world, you play chess, piano…?
When someone, in a job interview or even over beer, would tell me they had three university degrees, I would probably think the person’s a bit crazy. They often ask me how I managed to do both sports and school, but the worst thing is when parents tell their children: ‘See, how come he has time for everything?!’, taking me as an example. It’s true I was good at everything I was doing and that I was hard-working, but whenever I hear Srđan Dinčić say: ‘I don’t know the essence of anything, I can talk about anything for 45 minutes. I know enough for a drunk conversation, but nothing for a sober career,’ it hits close to home. I sound pretty self-critical. That’s because I am. I’m not downsizing my success, quite the opposite, I’m very proud of it, but I’m aware I wasted some of my potential because I was too scared I wouldn’t be good enough. I don’t want to praise myself egocentrically, I want to give my best and, without thinking much about it, see where it takes me. I have endless amount of motivation, but I needed someone like my wife, who gets mad at me when I dare even think I could practice piano instead of sleeping so that I could get some rest for my basketball practice in the morning, which is a priority. Now, I’m sure of one thing – I will try my best, but, whatever I do, I will compete with myself only.
Novi Sad is at the top in 3×3 basketball, what do you think about the fact that the two best teams in 3×3 basketball are both from Novi Sad, and that our city is on a world map because of you?
Novi Sad is a city of 3×3 basketball, and Liman is its place of origin. Of course, the credit goes to our older colleagues from the Novi Sad squad, namely Dušan Domović Bulut, who’s from Liman just like I am. We are Liman players, and as a younger generation, we took upon ourselves what they had started – the biggest rivalry in 3×3 basketball, Liman and Novi Sad. On the other hand, I’m not pinpointing anyone, but I think the history of basketball in Novi Sad led to development of this rebellious sport which has no strict hierarchy, and which became popular because of the whole local situation.
You used to play basketball and you were successful at it as well, and now you play this quite similar sport. Why 3×3 basketball, why not basketball?
KK Vojvodina + FTN (Eng. Faculty of Technical Sciences) = Liman 3×3, this is one weird equation, without the unknowns, they’re not spoken about. After the downfall in my basketball career, due to various factors, I came back to Novi Sad and KK Vojvodina after seven years of playing for the teams Partizan, Mega, Zvezda and Radnički from Kragujevac. The Vojvodina team was formed with high expectations and ambitions, which led to winning two champion titles in the Basketball League of Serbia and two placements into the much-awaited Jadran League. For some reason, we gave up on the initial goal which was to play in the Jadran League. After that last impulse towards basketball and a wish to play in the Jadran League in my own city, which we fought for impressively, defeating both Partizan and Crvena Zvezda, I was very disappointment and decided to let everything go. Although it seems irrational, it was possibly the best decision I’ve made in my life. It didn’t lead me to the right path, but it sobered me up. I’ve known professor Ilija Kovačević from before, so before deciding on a university and a department, he advised me, and I decided to go for mechatronics and robotics at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, just because of the fancy name. This led to my nickname in street basketball – Mr. Robot. In 2016, a university championship in 3×3 basketball was organised in Novi Sad. My colleague from the faculty, former basketball player Aleksandar Ratkov, asked me to play for our faculty. Jovan Krpež, Nemanja Tomić, Aleksandar Ratkov and Stefan Stojačić – it’s a team that won that tournament, and then, in a changed composition, under the name FTN, we won the Serbian University Championship. The FTN group actually became today’s Liman team. That same year, in 2016, the FTN (Liman) team got itself a place in the world 3×3 basketball scene.
3 on 3 is a sport that became very popular in a short amount of time, which due to professional organisations (‘Novi Sad’ and ‘Liman’), got a completely new context, a professional one. Did you notice that people recognise you on the street and is it burdening?
3 on 3 isn’t that popular thus we’re not that famous yet, although we have a specific situation: Novi Sad has two teams, both being world’s best teams, and at the same time the biggest rivals, so it’s not unusual the citizens of Novi Sad recognise us on the street.
Even though you are world champions, are there some unfulfilled ambitions or plans you have for the future, regarding your career?
Winning the FIBA 3×3 World Cup in 2018 in the Philippines was surely one of my goals. Naturally, my ambitions grew when 3×3 became the Olympic sport. The Olympics is a dream of every athlete. Due to the pandemic, this years’ Olympic Games were postponed to 2021. It helped me fight for the national team of Serbia. I wasn’t part of the national team in 2019 because of my injuries. But, as you can see in the previous games, my leg is completely fine now and I stepped up my game, which gave excellent results.
What are your favourite places in Novi Sad – where would you take your friends who are not from the city, where do you like spending your free time and what are your suggestions for our fellow citizens, what is the ‘oasis’ of the city?
My favourite part of the city is certainly the Liman district, and of course the Quay and Štrand beach, where I’ve been spending most of my free time since I was little. When it comes to 3×3 basketball, there have been a couple of courts – the popular Kocka (Eng. Square) in Liman 4, Podunavlje, the area of Liman 3 where the Ballet High School was built, Đačko igralište, the scene of the old, traditional street style basketball, and Enter. Enter is a reconstructed court in Liman 2, placed between the student dormitories and the Quay. It’s still under reconstruction and we hope it’s going to be ready for the next summer. Interviewer: Leona Pap Photo: Vladimir Veličković
