About us

The story opens in 1976 on the slopes of Zlatibor, a mountain in western Serbia known for its extraordinary climate, water, and diversified plant life dominated by pines especially a rare kind of “golden pine,” after which the mountain was named. But just as the golden pines were a rare and significant addition to their environment, so too did the sport of basketball emerge from the shadow of this mountain. It will start off tentatively, like a camp where kids from the former Yugoslavia can learn the basics of basketball, but it will quickly expand to include players from all over the world. In the mid-90s, it became the “Junior” Sports Club, and “Professor Aleksandar Nikolić” Academic Basketball Camp has been operating under its current name since 2003.

And it’s not a fluke, either; Professor Aleksandar Nikolić, a basketball legend not only in Yugoslavia, but Europe, and the rest of the world, spent the last days of his coaching career at this camp, where he generously shared his understanding of the sport with esteemed basketball experts, young coaches, and the children themselves. Our camp is special because it did two things at once: it developed a coaching staff that helped spread the gospel of basketball and it shaped some of the best players in the world.

Bratislav Bata Đorđević, Mihailo Miki Pavićević, Ratko Joksić, Božidar Maljković, Borislav Džaković, Slobodan Piva Ivković, Predrag Vučićević Preva, Vlada Paranošić, Borislav Ćorković Reba, Borislav Cenić, Dimče Kofileski, Slobodan Janković laid the foundations of this camp where grew another generation of successful basketball virtuosos like Aleksandar Saša Đorđević, Predrag Saša Danilović, Dejan Bodiroga etc.

They couldn’t have imagined that the story would go on for another 40 years, with fresh generations of kids coming to the camp every summer to train and play basketball with the same enthusiasm as the first campers.

And as a product whose life span has become endless thanks solely to the great quality of work with youth, it has become a Zlatibor brand, and it is the responsibility of the camp’s present organizers to maintain quality, sportsmanship, and live up to the name of Professor Aleksandar Nikolić.