KK Budućnost Podgorica

History

1949–1979: Formation and early years

The club was founded in 1949 when Budućnost sports society decided to form the men's basketball club. Budućnost participated in its first competition in early June 1949, at the third Montenegrin Championship. The Championships took place in Cetinje, and in addition to Budućnost, three other teams from Montenegro participated. The first success came two years later – in 1951, when Budućnost took the first place in the First Championships of the Cities, which was held in Herceg-Novi.

In 1957, a new outdoor basketball court was constructed in the City Park, on the Morača river's left bank.

Budućnost became champion of Montenegro for the first time in 1958. The championship was played in three zones, and many more teams took part this time. All credit for this achievement goes to: Martinović, Pavlović, Vujović, Đukić, Golubović, Lekić, Belada, Đurišić, Tamindžić and Vukčević. Because of this result, Buducnost got the chance to play in the qualifications for the First League. The qualifications did not take place, because of the decision of Yugoslav Basketball Federation that the team of Zastava from Kragujevac should play in the First League, without any matches being played.

In the 1959–60 season, Budućnost became the Montenegrin basketball champion for the second time. The Qualifications for the First League were played in Podgorica, and the teams of Dinamo Pančevo and Rabotnički Skoplje took part. Dinamo Pančevo eventually qualified for the First League.

Budućnost dominated the Montenegrin basketball scene in 1961. Because of the financial problems, the championships were reduced to a tournament played in Podgorica, and the home team easily won all of its matches.

Budućnost had to wait until 1969 for more success. That year the team won two trophies. In the Republic League, Budućnost won the first place and again became the Montenegrin basketball champion. Budućnost played the qualifications for the Second League group East once more, but in the very strong competition from clubs from Serbia and Macedonia they failed to qualify. The team also won the Championships of the Cities, for the third time in its history.

1979–1986: Yugoslav First League promotion and successes

The 1979–80 season is very significant in club's history. Budućnost took the first place in the Second League and automatically qualified for the Yugoslav First Federal League. The players were: Nikola Antić, Dragan Ivanović, Duško Ivanović, Vukićević, Sutulović, Vukosavljević, Petrović, Borislav Đurović, Bojanić, Garić, Slavenko Rakočević, Nesević and Dragović. The team was coached by Rusmir Halilović. As hosts, the team had to play its games in Danilovgrad.

Budućnost's promotion to the First League brought a resurgence of popularity for the game of basketball in Titograd in the summer of 1980. The First League had a representative from Montenegro again after 15 years. Shortly before the debut in the First League, Morača Sports Center was opened and the team played all of its official matches there.

In its First League debut season, the team achieved a significant success finishing eight with a 9–13 record. Team roster for this year was: Dragan and Duško Ivanović, Nikola Antić, Žarko Knežević, Kovačević, Slavenko Rakočević, Goran and Milorad Bojanić, Borislav Đurović, Petrović, Milatović. The coaches were Čedomir Đurašković, with assistants Vukićević, Garić.

In the 1984–85 season, the team managed to qualify for the play-off quarter-finals after beating Jugoplastika Split in three games. In the quarter-finals the team met with Crvena zvezda, who won twice in Belgrade, while Budućnost triumphed in Titograd.

Over its five top-tier seasons Budućnost fought hard to remain a First League participant, finding itself several times in relegation danger, but managing to overcome it. The big breakthrough would unexpectedly come in the 1985-86 season, its sixth in the top flight, although in the summer 1985 off-season it looked like Buducnost was in for another season of desperate struggle to stay up. Head coach Vlade Đurović left, taking an offer from KK Zadar and the player situation wasn't much better – club mainstays 26-year-old Goran Bojanić, 24-year-old Žarko Đurišić, and veteran Goran Rakočević left while even talented youth players joined the exodus as 18-year-old Zdravko Radulović transferred to KK Bosna, 21-year-old Saša Radunović took an offer from Wichita State University, and 17-year-old Luka Pavićević did the same with University of Utah.

1986–1998: European debut and domestic permanence

In its European debut Budućnost had three wins and five losses, overall. It began the competition in the first round, played over two legs, against Karşıyaka S.K., winning both games and qualifying for the round robin group where it got drawn with JuveCaserta, Estudiantes, and Challans. Out of six round robin games, Budućnost managed only a single win, which meant elimination from the Korać Cup.

Following a few years of historic success for the club, Budućnost got relegated at the end of the 1987–88 season finishing dead last with a 6–16 record. However, the very next year Budućnost was promoted and never lost its place in the First League again.

In the 1995–96 season, Budućnost won the Yugoslav Cup for the first time. In the final tournament, held in Nikšić, Budućnost defeated BFC Beočin and Partizan. Roster: Šćepanović, Pajović, Tomović, Đaletić, Mudreša, P. Popović, A. Ivanović, Đikanović, Darko Ivanović, Simović, Vukčević and Mugoša. Head coach was Živko Brajović.

The Yugoslav Cup was won for the second time in the 1997–98 season, also in Nikšić. In the final tournament Budućnost was better than Partizan and Beobanka. Roster: Šćepanović, Pajović, Krivokapić, Vukčević, Ostojić, A. Ivanović, M. Ivanović, Ćeranić, S. Peković, Radunović and Dragutinović. The team was coached by Goran Bojanić.

1998–2003: Prominent years

After wins in the Yugoslav Cup, Budućnost won three successive YUBA League championship titles. The first came in the 1998–99 season, in which the club had significant success in European competition. Budućnost qualified for the Saporta Cup semifinals, though lost to Benetton Treviso. Roster: Vlado Šćepanović, Gavrilo Pajović, Goran Bošković, Dejan Radonjić, Đuro Ostojić, Blagota Sekulić, Dragan Vukčević, Saša Radunović, Dragan Ćeranić, Nikola Bulatović, Balša Radunović and Željko Topalović. The team was coached by Miroslav Nikolić.

Budućnost won its second straight title without a loss (both in the regular season and in the play-offs) – a total of 27 wins. In the 1999–2000 season, Budućnost participated in the Euroleague for the first time. Due to the UN sanctions on FR Yugoslavia, Budućnost had to play its home game away from Podgorica (in Sarajevo and Budapest), but still managed to qualify for the Last 16 stage, where they lost to future champion Panathinaikos 2–1 after taking a great fight to the champion. Roster: Šćepanović, Pajović, Haris Brkić, Radonjić, Sekulić, Vukčević, Radunović, Vladimir Kuzmanović, Bulatović, Dejan Tomašević and Milenko Topić. The head coach was Miroslav Nikolić.

Budućnost won its first "double" in the 2000–01 season. The Final 8 tournament of the Yugoslav Cup was held in Vršac. In the quarterfinals Budućnost defeated Hemofarm, in the semifinals it defeated Lovćen, and in the finals, Budućnost outplayed Partizan, whom Budućnost also played and beaten in the play-off finals. In the modern Euroleague the team qualified for the Top 16 stage, losing to Real Madrid 0:2. Roster: Bojan Bakić, Brkić (went to Partizan at the half of the season), Saša Obradović, Radonjić, Igor Rakočević, Sekulić, Vukčević, Radunović, Kuzmanović, Dejan Milojević, Tomašević, Topić and Jerome James. Head coach of the team was Bogdan Tanjević (the team was coached by Nikolić for three months in the first half of the season).

Over the next two seasons, 2001–2002 and 2002–2003, Budućnost lost many of its star players. In 2001–2002, Budućnost lost its positions to Partizan, who defeated Budućnost in both the Cup finals and the Yugoslavian League finals. After the season, Rakočević, the last player of the Budućnost golden age, departed for the NBA. In 2002–2003, Budućnost was led by talented young prospects Žarko Čabarkapa, Milojević and Aleksandar Pavlović. Despite their play, Budućnost plummeted to the last place in the standings in the EuroLeague and did not reach the finals of Serbian and Montenegrin League.

2003–2006: Quieter years

A quieter period followed during which Budućnost took part in the ULEB Cup, though it missed the elimination rounds in 2004 and 2005. Budućnost reached the Serbia and Montenegro League semifinals in its last appearance in that competition.

2006–2011: Domestic dominance

Following the Montenegrin independence from Serbia and Montenegro in 2006, Budućnost naturally became the new team to beat in the reborn Montenegrin Basketball League and has won five consecutive titles since 2007 with a combined 89–1 record – which says plenty about its dominance. It still participated in the Adriatic (ABA) League, with solid successes. Budućnost was close to making the ABA League Final Four in 2009–10 and missed out on the Eurocup after falling to Brose Baskets by a single point at the end of a home-and-away Qualifying Round series.

2011–present: Rise to regional prominence

In the 2010–11 season, Budućnost came up short in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Qualifying Round and the Eurocup Regular Season, but once again won the Montenegrin League and the Montenegrin Basketball Cup titles. It also reached the Adriatic League Final Four, where it lost 62–58 against Partizan in the semifinals.

Since 2011, a Montenegrin retail company VOLI has been the general sponsor of the club, with company's CEO Dragan Bokan becoming the club's president. In domestic competitions, Budućnost continued its dominance by capturing its 11th consecutive Montenegrin Basketball League championship in 2016–17 season. Except being the runner-up to KK Sutjeska in 2013 Montenegrin Cup, it clinched all trophies from 2011 to 2017. Also, it became a standard EuroCup participant and one of top five teams of the ABA League in period from 2011 to 2017, reaching to the semifinal for five times.

In June 2017, Aleksandar Džikić was named as the head coach of Budućnost. In February 2018, Budućnost won its 5th consecutive and 11th in total Montenegrin Cup, after beating KK Mornar Bar with 87–83 in the final game. In the ABA League, it secured second place of the regular season with 17–5 score. In the semifinal series of ABA League, it eliminated the Croatian team Cedevita with 2–1 score. In April 2018, Budućnost with 3–1 score won in the final series of the ABA League against the reigning champions Crvena zvezda. Thus, they were crowned champions of the ABA League for the first time in history and also secured a spot in 2018–19 EuroLeague, that would become its first appearance in the elite European competition after 16 seasons. Budućnost actually lost the Prva A Liga finals for the first time since the establishment of the league in 2007.

In the middle of 2018–19 season, after series of bad results Budućnost sacked Džikić and named Jasmin Repeša as team's head coach. Also, it added several high-profile names to its roster, among whom were Goga Bitadze and Norris Cole. However, even with much stronger roster in second half of the season, Budućnost failed to fulfill any goals that were set at the beginning of the season. In 2018–19 EuroLeague, Budućnost finished in 15th place having the second-worst record of 6 wins and 24 losses. In the 2018–19 ABA League First Division, it failed to defend the title in repeated final series match-up of previous season, losing to Crvena zvezda with 3–2 in series. In the A Liga, Budućnost won back the championship.

Home arena

Budućnost plays its home games at Morača Sports Center (Montenegrin: Sportski centar Morača, Спортски центар Морача), a sport venue located in Podgorica, Montenegro. The venue is located in the new part of Podgorica, on the right bank of Morača River, after which it got its name. Construction of this sports complex began in 1978, and various sport facilities are scattered across a five-hectare area. Today, its main sports hall has a capacity of 5,500 seats

Supporters

Buducnost fans are known as Varvari (Barbarians), a group founded in 1987. The group's traditional colours are blue and white, which are also the colours of all the Budućnost sports clubs. For FK Budućnost Podgorica home games, Varvari occupy the northern stand (Sjever) of the Podgorica city stadium. They also have a reserved stand at the Morača Sports Center, as supporters of KK Buducnost basketball club.

The focal point for the group during the late 1990s was the basketball club, which started investing heavily while the football club toiled in the lower half of the table.

Since its foundation years, Varvari has gained a reputation as a violent group, and in the recent history they made a few biggest accidents on the football matches. At First League 2004-05 game Budućnost - Partizan Belgrade, flares, blocks, construction materials and similar objects were thrown from the North stand to the pitch and match was abandoned for 15 minutes. Year later, game Budućnost - Crvena Zvezda Belgrade was suspended for two hours after home supporters (Varvari) threw tear gas on the pitch and, after that, attacked visitors' ultras. On the spring 2006, there was a crowd violence on the local rivals game Budućnost - Zeta. In the Montenegrin First League, numerous matches of FK Budućnost were suspended due to crowd violence or crowd-invasion to the pitch. During the last seasons, there was an escalation of violence on Montenegrin Derby games.

They are one of the larger fan groups in Montenegro. Some Balkan fan magazines have compared them to fan groups from the former Yugoslavia.

Season by season

The following table contains information from season 2006–07 onward:

Source: Eurobasket.com

A

Failed to qualify to EuroCup (2 tier)

b

Failed to qualify to Euroleague (1 tier)

Honours

Domestic competitions

Montenegrin League

* Winners (18): 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026

Runners-up (1): 2018

Serbia and Montenegro League

* Winners (3): 1999, 2000, 2001

*Runners-up (1): 2002

Montenegrin Cup

* Winners (18): 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025, 2026

Runners-up (2): 2013, 2024

Serbia and Montenegro Cup

* Winners (3): 1996, 1998, 2001

*Runners-up (1): 2002

International success

EuroLeague:

Top 16 (2): 1999–00, 2000–01

EuroCup

1/4 Finals (4): 2011–12, 2012-13, 2017-18, 2020-21

Regional competitions

ABA League

Winners (1): 2018

Runners-up (3): 2019, 2021, 2025

Final Four (6): 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017

Other competitions

Igalo, Montenegro Invitational Game

Winners (1): 2008

Players

Notable players

By far the best known player to come through KK Budućnost ranks is Žarko Paspalj, Yugoslav national basketball team stalwart who had a basketball career that included successful stops all over Europe as well as a brief NBA stint in the late 1980s.

Players who played in the NBA

Žarko Paspalj

Žarko Čabarkapa

Aleksandar Pavlović

Slavko Vraneš

Nikola Vučević

Omar Cook

Igor Rakočević

Andre Brown

Acie Earl

Jerome James

Doron Lamb

Marcus Williams

Earl Clark

Coty Clarke

Norris Cole

Sean Kilpatrick

Rashad Vaughn

Willie Reed

Goga Bitadze

McKinley Wright IV