They said goodbye to him with an emotional video posted on the social networks of Partizan Belgrade under the slogan “Thank you Zeljko” and published on the club’s website the message in which Obradović presented his “irrevocable resignation” to continue as coach due to poor results. But the story did not end there. On Thursday afternoon, a few hours after announcing the farewell of the most successful coach in European basketball, the nine-time Euroleague champion, Partizan announced that it did not accept the resignation of the 65-year-old Serbian coach and asked him to return to his position.
The Belgrade statement said: “The Board of Directors, based on the proposal of President Ostoja Mijajlović, decided unanimously not to accept Zeljko Obradović’s resignation and to offer him its unconditional support, with the desire to remain the first coach of Partizan and to take the necessary measures to improve the team’s results. Following this decision, the club contacted Zeljko Obradović and asked him to reconsider his resignation and continue working.”
The ball now returns to the hands of Obradovic, the coach who usually does not back down when he makes such a firm decision. “The games of our beloved club have become more than just basketball thanks to you, you are the most deserving of them,” the coach said on Wednesday, in a general message to the fans, after losing the previous day in the Euroleague to Panathinaikos with a score of 91-69. “Unfortunately, the time has come to take responsibility for everything bad that happened this season and submit my irrevocable resignation.” This is Partizan’s ninth defeat in European competition in 13 rounds and the seventh in the last eight continental matches. Without feeling that he had enough dominance to change the dynamic, Obradovic resigned. But Partizan, the club where he began his historic career on the bench in 1991 and to which he returned in 2021, is not willing to let him go.