The Slask big man has been thriving on the court, but there is more than meets the eye
What Stefan Djordjevic knows about 90kg burgers, Marc Gasol, old-time Mercedes-Benzes and fishing
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Stefan Djordjevic loves basketball but the action on the hardcourt is not the only interest in the Slask Wroclaw big man’s life. Ask the Serbian about his passion for old-time Mercedes-Benz cars and fishing and he will talk for a while.
It’s all part of Slask’s main man in the middle, who already has helped the Polish club reach unheard-of heights in the BKT EuroCup.
Djordjevic is averaging 10.9 points and 5.4 rebounds for a Slask team that is 4-4 in Group A, including an impressive 4-1 record at home.
“We are proud of this, but we need to continue, practicing good and playing good. I think it's really good for the club and for us as players to show that we can play the high level of the EuroCup,” the 26-year-old center told David Hein.
Just how surprising is the 4-4 mark after eight rounds? Consider that Slask had a combined record of 6-47 in its three previous seasons, from 2021 to 2024.
Djordjevic joined the club this off-season from within Poland. He had put together a strong 2024-25 season with Arka Gdynia, finishing second in the league in scoring (19.0 ppg) and rebounding (8.9 rpg). And a chance to play in the EuroCup was a major reason for coming to Slask.
“That was a big thing and a big satisfaction to play in the EuroCup because we play against some of the best teams in Europe in every country,” said Djordjevic, who played two seasons in the Basketball Champions League with Bosnia and Herzegovina side Igokea in 2022 and 2023.
For the 2023-24 season, Djordjevic made the jump to Spain and played for Basquet Girona. The club near Barcelona is owned by former Spanish great Marc Gasol. And the former NBA champion and two-time world and European champion had a very hands-on approach with the club.
“I talked with him many times. With his great experience, his advice was very important for me at that moment,” Djordjevic said.
The Serbian said Gasol really helped him improve his passing game – something the Spaniard really excelled at during his long career.
“I felt before that season, I wasn't that good of passer. But after I talked with him, I saw the court differently. Now I think I can find passes easier, better and more automatic,” he said.
One of the things about being away from his homeland during the season is Djordjevic missing out on some of his biggest hobbies.
He fondly remembers his time in Leskovac in southern Serbia. One of the reasons the city of about 70,000 people is actually world-famous is the annual Leskovac Barbecue Festival. The locals regularly set a Guinness world record for the biggest burger. This August, at the 35th edition, the mammoth “pljeskavica” weighed in at 90 kilograms.
Djordjevic would regularly attend the event as a youngster and try the burger as the barbecue masters cut up the meat and gave it to the thousands of attendees.
“You want to be part of it because television is there and everybody wants to be on TV when you’re young. Plus it’s free food,” he remembered.
Djordjevic now lives in Belgrade in the off-season, and one of his biggest hobbies is working on his old-timer cars.
“I really like vintage old Mercedes-Benzes. I have a few of them, and I really like taking care of them – cleaning them and everything. I'm trying to do some mechanic work too, what I can do by myself – changing some parts and stuff. And I really enjoy driving them,” Djordjevic said of his Mercedes-Benz W124 – the same model his grandfather used to drive when Stefan was young.
Djordjevic has three of them – the same car but different engines. Big engine cars.
An even bigger hobby for the big man is fishing, an obsession he had long before basketball entered his life. He used to go with his father and then with his friends from his home village – and quite often.
“We would go almost every day before school. That was a big passion of ourselves,” he remembered.
Djordjevic learned pretty early from his parents that it is better to release the fish he caught.
“They said I will feel better. Just take a photo and release it. So I started doing that. And I can say it's a better feeling than when you take it home,” he said.
Djordjevic actually considers himself a sports fishermen.
And he still has fishing friends. One of them is a fellow EuroCup player – Nikola Tanaskovic from Buducnost VOLI Podgorica, someone who he camps with for three or four days at a time.
“I often go fishing in the summer. Most of the time I go carp fishing. I go camping with Nikola. He really likes it too. Every time I have time, I try to use it to go fishing,” he said.
Djordjevic now lives about a 10-minute walk from the Sava River in Belgrade and would go there almost every night after practice in the summer to fish for about an hour.
Djordjevic doesn’t have his fishing gear with him in Wroclaw, which is actually okay because there is not much time for it.
“Maybe when we finish the EuroCup season, because now almost every day we are on a trip or somewhere because we play twice a week. But I would like to try fishing here because Poland is a good country for fishing with a lot of rivers,” he said.
Djordjevic said he will eventually buy some new gear in Poland. He has already done some scouting and found some good places to go.
Now it’s just about finding the time when he’s not helping Slask reach new heights.