Raznatovic slams Partizan: 'Everything is their management's mistake'

Misko Raznatovic, the founder of the BeoBasket sports agency, is often regarded as one of the most influential basketball agents in the world. Recently, he got into a public conflict with Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade.

Partizan's head coach, Zeljko Obradovic, reportedly was uneasy with Raznatovic ever since Vassilis Spanoulis transferred from Obradovic-led Panathinaikos Athens to Olympiacos Piraeus in 2010. The situation culminated after Yam Madar left Partizan this offseason.

After a series of statements from both sides, Partizan ultimately declared they would never work with Raznatovic again.

In an interview with Sportal.gr's Achilleas Mavrodontis, Raznatovic downplayed the situation and compared it to what happened in 2010.

"This is part of the business," he said. "I will tell you an example, because you know this city and you are from Athens. When Spanoulis moved to Olympiacos, they told me, 'Ok, Hilton is your border, don't go up [north]', and I didn't go there for five years. They said the ultras know your face, it's dangerous.

Other agents don't face this. In Serbia, when you bring a foreigner and he plays badly, everybody says [that] it's a bad player. If I represent this player, they say, 'Ha, Misko did it, Misko sent us a bad player.' This is probably part of the success that I have," the famous agent explained. "I have to leave it like this, it's not a problem."

In July, Partizan declared that Raznatovic's moves in the Yam Madar saga were disrespectful, citing malpractice and the player's sudden interest in receiving a much larger wage than previously negotiated.

The club cut ties with Raznatovic's BeoBasket agency and promised to fight for their rights before FIBA authorities.

"I really don't want to talk a lot because whatever I say, it will damage them more than anything else. Everything is absolutely the mistake of their management, especially [general manager] Mr. Zoran Savic," Raznatovic said.

"The only thing that was true in the interview president [Ostoja Mijailovic], with whom I have a good relationship, gave a week ago was that my name is Misko Raznatovic. Everything else is wrong because they gave him wrong information."

"I have no problem with that. What puts a bad taste is that this club has a history before this management. All agents in the world together didn't do 10% for Partizan of what I did," he declared.

"[Nikola] Pekovic wanted to go to Hemofarm, he went there. They got an increased buyout. [Joffrey] Lauvergne, [Leo] Westermann - they [had] never heard of them, I put them there."

Raznatovic recalled the time when he felt like the situation was the exact opposite of the one he's facing at the moment.

"There was an enormous number of Crvena Zvezda players moving to them, like [Cedomir] Vitkovac, [Djuro] Ostojic, Luka Bogdanovic. At that time, I had the opposite situation that all Crvena Zvezda fans hated me because I pushed the players to Partizan," Raznatovic said. "I did it because it was in the interest of the player. Vujosevic was there, players [were] developing, they played [in the] EuroLeague."

"Even if everything they say about Madar is true - and it's not true, it's completely opposite - they should not react like this because this cannot be even 10% of what I did for them in the past. A couple of years ago, when the new president and the new management came, and [Andrea] Trinchieri was the coach, they were in a horrible situation.

They had money, but they could not find the players during the season. I put a lot of effort, and in the middle of the season, I took [Alex] Renfroe, [Ognjen] Jaramaz, [Nikola] Jankovic, and [Rade] Zagorac - four players under the contract in the ACB - and found a way for them to escape from the contract and come to Partizan, and to start a new era. Unfortunately, their memory is very short," Raznatovic concluded.