Žarko Đurišić

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Žarko Đurišić (Serbian Cyrillic: Жарко Ђуришић) was born on March 31, 1961, in Titograd, Montenegro. He is a Montenegrin-born Slovenian basketball scout, a former player, and a former coach. He works for the Minnesota Timberwolves as the Director of International Player Personnel.

Playing career
- He started with Budućnost’s youth teams, then moved to Crvena zvezda in 1978 at age 17 and played there until 1980.
- He studied and played at Wichita State University in the United States from 1980 to 1984.
- After college, he played professionally again in Yugoslavia: Budućnost (1984–1985) and Smelt Olimpija (1985–1995).
- He was a 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) center and wore numbers 12 and 15.
- With Smelt Olimpija, he won the Saporta Cup in 1994 and multiple Slovenian titles (four Slovenian League championships and four Slovenian Cups) after 1992.

National teams
- Yugoslavia cadets won silver at the 1977 European Championship for Cadets.
- Yugoslavia juniors won silver at the 1980 European Championship for Juniors; he also played at the 1979 World Championship for Juniors.
- He played for Slovenia at EuroBasket 1993 (fourth nation in the group stage); Slovenia finished 14th. He played 27 games for the Slovenian national team.

Coaching
- He briefly coached Smelt Olimpija during the 1995–96 season.
- He also coached Smelt Olimpija again, taking over in January 2016 and leading them to the Slovenian League title that season.

Timberwolves and scouting
- Since 1996, Đurišić has been with the Minnesota Timberwolves, leading their international scouting efforts.
- He has held roles including director of college and international player personnel, director of player personnel, and head scout.

Personal life
- Đurišić is married to Tatjana, and they have two daughters, Jelena and Aleksandra. Jelena, born in 1989 in Belgrade, is a former Slovenian tennis player.