Žarko Varajić


Žarko Varajić was a Serbian professional basketball player and executive. He represented the Yugoslavia national team internationally.

Playing career

Early career

Growing up in Nikšić, Varajić pursued football in the FK Sutjeska youth system before fully devoting to basketball by switching to the basketball club within the same sports society — KK Sutjeska — and playing for its youth teams.

Professional career

In 1970, eighteen-year-old Varajić joined KK Bosna, a club competing in the second-tier level of Yugoslav basketball. With young players such as Anto Đogić, Rođeni Krvavac, and center Zdravko Čečur on its roster, the club sought a league promotion to the top-tier level Yugoslav First League, a feat that had been eluding them for decades.
During the summer of 1971, the club's head coaching post was taken over by the 24-year-old Bogdan Tanjević, who had just retired from playing. The young squad led by a young rookie head coach, and with the new acquisition of 22-year-old Svetislav Pešić from KK Partizan, the only player on the roster to have previously played top-tier level basketball, managed to gain promotion to the top-tier level Yugoslav First League. Varajić proved to be a formidable tandem with team-mate Mirza Delibašić, a tandem rivaled only by Dražen Dalipagić and Dragan Kićanović in Partizan.
Bosna won the 1979 FIBA European Champions Cup in Grenoble, France where Varajić scored 45 points – the record for the number of points scored in the finals of the FIBA European Champions Cup – against the Italian club Emerson Varese by a score of 96–93.

National team career

Varajić was a member of the senior Yugoslav national basketball team. He played with Yugoslavia in 126 games. With Yugoslavia, he won medals at the following tournaments: the gold medal at the 1974 Balkan Games, the gold medal at the 1975 Mediterranean Games, the gold medal at the 1976 Balkan Games, the silver medal at the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympic Games, the gold medal at the 1977 EuroBasket, and the bronze medal at the 1979 EuroBasket.

Post-playing career

Varajić died on 23 June 2019. He was interred in the Alley of Distinguished Citizens in the Belgrade New Cemetery on 28 June 2019.

Personal life

Varajić came to Sarajevo at the age of seventeen in 1970 to study and play. He lived there until the break-out of the Bosnian War in early 1992, and since then he lived in Belgrade. He graduated from the University of Physical Education, Academy for Basketball Coaches - Basketball and Academy for Sports Managers Section.

Awards and honors as a player

KK Bosna