BELGRADE, Serbia — Golden State Warriors assistant coach Dejan Milojević was buried Monday in his native Serbia after suffering a heart attack last month.
Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral on a rainy day at a Belgrade cemetery, including Warriors coach Steve Kerr and general manager Mike Dunleavy. A flower-draped casket was carried by his former Serbian teammates.
Milojević, a mentor to two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, died Jan. 17 in Salt Lake City, where he was hospitalized following a medical emergency during a private team dinner. Milojević, part of the staff that helped the Warriors win the 2022 NBA championship, was 46.
Kerr will miss Monday’s game against the Jazz in Salt Lake City, the Warriors’ first trip back to Utah since Milojević’s death. Fellow assistant coaches Chris DeMarco and Ron Adams also attended the service, as did Zaza Pachulia, now a consultant with the team.
Kenny Atkinson will act as the Warriors’ head coach in the 6 p.m. game.
“It’s tough but this is what we do in our jobs as professionals. We’ve gotta move forward but also (it’s about) remembering,” Atkinson told reporters before Monday’s game. “We talked about it a little with the players (Monday) this morning. It’s not, ‘Forget, let’s move on.’ No, let’s remember.”
Milojević’s death triggered a massive outpouring of sympathy from the basketball community and fans in his homeland, where he was a star player with Partizan Belgrade and other clubs in Serbia, Montenegro, Turkey and Spain before turning to coaching.
Predrag Danilovic, the president of the Serbian Basketball Federation, said there was no person who did not respect and love Milojević.
“A great basketball player, great coach left us, and above all a great man, a man without a single stain. I had that honor and pleasure to be friends with him even though we did not play together,” Danilovic said at a formal commemoration for Milojević on Saturday.
Marko Keselj of Serbia’s Ministry of Sports and a former basketball player said the sport was Milojević’s life.
“With his positive energy he brought out the best in us,” Keselj said. “He motivated us to be better in every way, as people and as players. Deki was a friend, mentor, he was a leader.”
Milojević was in his third season with the Warriors. He previously coached in Serbia — where he once worked with a young Jokic before the current Denver Nuggets star came to the United States — along with Montenegro, plus had been an assistant coach for the Serbian national team alongside current Atlanta assistant Igor Koskoskov.
Milojević worked closely with Jokic, Los Angeles Clippers center Ivica Zubac, Orlando center Goga Bitadze and Houston center Boban Marjanovic, among others, during his time as a coach in Europe.
Milojević won three consecutive MVP awards in the Adriatic League, which comprises teams from former Yugoslavia, taking those trophies in 2004, 2005 and 2006 when the 6-foot-7, 240-pound power forward was at the peak of his playing career. Jokic was MVP of that league in 2015.
Before joining the Warriors, Milojević had NBA experience through Summer League assistant coach stints with Atlanta, San Antonio and Houston.
Milojević is survived by his wife, Natasa, and their children, Nikola and Masa.
Michael Nowels contributed to this report.
