By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
The 2025/26 season has been, to put it mildly, turbulent for Partizan so far. Legendary coach Željko Obradović left the club, the team suffered some historic losses and dropped to the bottom part of the EuroLeague standings, while injuries and roster changes further complicated the situation.
A lot has happened since October, and the Belgrade side currently sits 17th in the EuroLeague standings with a 9–20 record. Partizan also lost in the semifinals of the Radivoj Korać Cup, but is performing well in the ABA League, sharing first place with Dubai with a 16–1 record while looking to defend the title.
Speaking to Meridian Sport about everything that has happened over the last five months, Mijailović touched on several topics, including the players who left the team and how much the club earned in compensation.
“Frank Ntilikina left for Olympiacos after the coaching staff decided they were no longer counting on him. For a player who had been removed from the team, we managed to receive €300,000 in compensation. Then Tyrique Jones found himself on the list of unwanted players despite having a guaranteed contract. We even heard suggestions that we should let him go for free, but we still managed to secure €450,000 in compensation,” Mijailović explained.
Cameron Payne arrived as a mid-season signing and helped the team, now coached by Joan Peñarroya, improve. Then, all of a sudden, he left to return to the NBA after less than two months with the club. However, Partizan generated significant income from his departure.
“When Carlik (Jones) recovered, an option appeared to sell Payne. The initial offer was twice smaller than what we ultimately agreed on. Since I heard people asking: ‘Where did the $1,750,000 come from? How can someone pay more than $875,000?’ – here’s how. Payne agreed to pay his own $875,000 buyout, while Philadelphia is paying the same amount. An excellent deal for us! He played for two months and we ended up with a clean $1.5 million net. The net effect – the money we didn’t have to pay him under his contract plus the compensation we received – is $2.5 million. This year we have generated a little over €2 million from those buyouts.”
Isaac Bonga also had an opportunity to leave and return to the NBA.
“At the moment when Philadelphia sent the offer to buy out Payne, we received a message from Bonga’s agency saying they wanted the player to move to an NBA team for $875,000! He has that option, but only at the end of the season. If someone from the NBA brings that money then, we won’t have any say in it. But now we had the right to refuse, and we did. We explained that he is very important for the team and that it’s crucial he plays well until the end of the season. If Bonga goes to the NBA at the end of the season, that money will still be waiting for us. It’s not all about money.”
Speaking about departures, the most recent one was Jabari Parker’s. The former NBA and Barcelona player failed to adapt to Partizan and had been out of the team for a period before eventually moving on loan to Joventut Badalona until the end of the season.
“Two options appeared with him – the financially better one was from China. For Partizan that would have been more profitable, because they wanted to take over a larger portion of his contract, but Parker’s agent and Jabari himself decided it was too early, that he could still play at a high level in Europe. They found Joventut. The club from Badalona wanted to take over only a small part of his contract. It’s no secret: Parker’s contract costs us $300,000 per month in total – net salary, a 10% agent commission, and taxes. We wanted to amortize at least part of that contract and allow him to play somewhere so we could find him a club for next season, because his contract still burdens us then with another $3 million gross. Badalona offered very little money, but after a lot of effort we managed to get them to take over $230,000. His salary for next season is $2.5 million net.”
Parker’s contract was historic for Partizan, and Mijailović insists the club will not sign similar deals in the future.
“We will never again sign contracts of that size! I proposed, and the Executive Board accepted, that we will no longer pay contracts larger than €1.5 million net! As long as we are in the club and under these economic circumstances, that will not happen again!”
Still, there is room for exceptions.
“Among domestic players who could come to Partizan, there is only one who could be paid that much. But that would be an extraordinary situation that would raise the club to a higher level. And it’s worth talking about,” Mijailović added, without revealing which player he had in mind, “Let people speculate…”
Since the arrival of coach Peñarroya, Partizan has started to turn the season around. The team strung together several EuroLeague victories, defeating Bayern Munich, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Panathinaikos. The Belgrade side was also close to beating Real Madrid, but suffered a narrow defeat in the final moments.
Regarding the game against Los Blancos at Belgrade Arena, Mijailović revealed that the club requested a review of the officiating after attempting only three free throws during the entire game.
“We asked EuroLeague for an expert review – they told us the referees made seven mistakes to Partizan’s detriment and two to Real Madrid’s! That win wouldn’t have changed much in the standings, but it would have been very significant for the club.”
Looking ahead to next season, Mijailović revealed he would like former captain Joffrey Lauvergne to return to the team. He made the same proposal to the coaching staff before the current season, but the experienced Frenchman eventually signed in Kuwait.
“I brought up that story five times, but the sports department’s assessment was that he wasn’t a player for us. I begged them to bring him because it was important for the fans; he had a huge desire to return to Partizan and retire here. He even bought an apartment in Belgrade, he wants to live here and has a Serbian passport… I wanted him to come to stabilize the locker room, to connect with the fans, to show how to play for this club. And it will be my proposal to the coaching staff that he be included in the team next season and retire here, with a proper farewell – as he deserves.”
He also made it clear that Partizan is interested in bringing back former players and mentioned Dante Exum, who was recently waived by the Washington Wizards following a trade with the Dallas Mavericks and is currently recovering from an injury.
“It is certainly our desire to bring back players who left a mark at Partizan and who can help the team on the court. Exum is one of the players we all adored, and we still adore him.”
Partizan’s president also addressed the situation surrounding Miika Muurinen, the talented Finnish player who recently revealed he had ended his episode with the Belgrade club. However, he remains under contract.
“He was brought in as a project; through the Finnish national team he showed he was a big prospect, he played spectacularly against Serbia. The coaching staff noticed him, the club worked on bringing him… Unfortunately, some things weren’t seen – he didn’t fit into the environment, the former coach gave him several chances and he didn’t use them. There wasn’t patience; he’s a young and still immature player, but he has a future and will certainly become a great basketball player. He didn’t find himself here and moved on to play elsewhere. He is still a Partizan player, under contract, and we expect next season that someone will buy out his rights. We already have some communication – from Europe and from America,” Ostoja Mijailović concluded for Meridian Sport.