The former EuroLeague champ enters his fifth season in Europe’s premier competition
Dubai dials up deal for frontcourt firepower with Filip Petrusev
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Dubai Basketball added another dangerous weapon to its frontcourt with the signing of Filip Petrusev. He signed a three-year deal, the club announced on Saturday.
Petrusev (2.11 meters, 25 years old) spent the 2024-25 season with Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade, where he was on loan from Olympiacos Piraeus, which had signed him to a long-term deal the year before. After playing sparing in four games for Olympiacos last season, the big man starred upon joining Zvezda with 14.1 points and 4.9 rebounds over 28 appearances.
Petrusev’s winding road from Belgrade to Dubai
A native of Belgrade, Petrusev joined the Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz academy at the tender age of 14 before choosing to continue his education in the United States. He played high school basketball in Connecticut and Florida before attending Gonzaga University.
Petrusev returned to Serbia that summer to suit up for Mega Basket and made his EuroLeague debut the following year with Anadolu Efes Istanbul and became a EuroLeague champion. Petrusev joined Zvezda for the 2022-23 campaign and then, he Philadelphia 76ers, who had drafted Petrusev in the second round of the 2021 NBA Draft, signed him in the summer of 2023.
The big man managed only appearance for Philadelphia before he was traded in a package for James Harden. Petrusev played two more games with the Sacramento Kings, who waived him in November 2023. Days later he penned a three-year dela with Olympiacos.
Petrusev's loaded trophy case
Petrusev has a trophy case full of awards. A EuroLeague champion in 2022, he has won national cups in Serbia and Greece and won the Serbian championship in 2023 with Zvezda. As a long-standing regular with the Serbian national team, Petrusev won a silver medal at the 2024 Basketball World Cup and a bronze at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
As far as individual awards, he was the ABA League MVP, ABA League Top Prospect and the ABA League's top scorer in 2021 with Mega. And before that Petrusev was named the West Coast Conference Player of the Year with Gonzaga in 2020.