{"id":513430,"date":"2026-09-03T14:55:53","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T12:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=513430"},"modified":"2026-09-03T14:55:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T12:55:53","slug":"nikola-kalinic-addresses-retirement-i-hadnt-played-with-the-same-enthusiasm-for-a-long-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/nikola-kalinic-addresses-retirement-i-hadnt-played-with-the-same-enthusiasm-for-a-long-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikola Kalini\u0107 addresses retirement: \u201cI hadn’t played with the same enthusiasm for a long time\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nikola Kalini\u0107 has decided to retire from professional basketball<\/strong>, a decision that had been building for several years as the Serbian no longer felt the same enthusiasm for the game.<\/p>\n

The former Crvena Zvezda player explained his decision for the first time on the Kod Luke i Kuzme<\/em> <\/a>podcast. He will now begin a new chapter on Ibon Navarro’s<\/strong> coaching staff, with the goal of learning the profession and eventually becoming a head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hadn’t played with the same enthusiasm\u201d<\/h2>\n

Kalini\u0107 explained that his decision was not sudden, but had been developing over the past few years.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt’s been going on for a few years already. For a long time, I hadn’t had the same enthusiasm for everything. I don’t know if it was visible on television, but it wasn’t the same anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Serbian forward gradually began preparing for the end of his playing career.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI started preparing the ground for that step, and then a situation came up that could resolve things in that direction. I decided to take that step and agreed with Zvezda to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cPhysically I felt great, but basketball-wise I was struggling\u201d<\/h2>\n

The decision was not driven by physical problems, but primarily by his mental approach to basketball.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt was all in my head. Physically I felt great, but basketball-wise I felt bad. At the end of the season I felt good, I was flying, but basketball-wise I couldn’t find myself anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Kalini\u0107 also explained that he did not want to continue playing until his body forced him to stop.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI’ve achieved all my goals and ambitions in life, I’ve seen the world, met people, made money. It doesn’t make sense to keep playing until my Achilles tendons tear.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A new life as a coach<\/h2>\n

Kalini\u0107 will remain with Crvena Zvezda and join Ibon Navarro’s<\/strong> coaching staff, where he will try to determine whether coaching is the right path for him.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAll of this is new to me. I’m taking it step by step and preparing myself to become a head coach one day. That’s why I got into this, to see whether I’m suited for it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The former player also believes his experience can allow him to act as a bridge between the coaching staff and the players.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI think I’ve been through a lot in my career and I can be a link between the ideas of the coaching staff and the players. It’s a challenging position, but I’m enjoying it for now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe want the Final Four and to win the EuroLeague\u201d<\/h2>\n

His ambitions with Crvena Zvezda, however, remain unchanged.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI think it’s a huge advantage for a club to have someone who has played at that level and can stay and work. The ambitions remain the same: we want the Final Four, we want to win the EuroLeague. Now we’ll do it from different positions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The former Crvena Zvezda player has decided to end his playing career: \u201cPhysically I felt great, but basketball-wise I could no longer find myself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":280604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[191,199],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-513430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aba-liga","category-euroleague"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/06\/2021Doniselli28ottobre203.jpg","digistream_id":0,"digistream":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513430"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=513430"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=513430"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=513430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}