Jasmin Repesa was born to be a basketball coach. Despite being endowed with a powerful, statuary physique, and having the experiences of a player, his true calling was always to be a teacher of the game he loves, to be a coach. In the 90s, he was one of the young, emerging coaches, not only in Croatia but within all of Europe. He was an assistant of Asa Petrovic, the older brother of the great Drazen, at Cibona when he came upon the Stefanel Trieste of Bogdan Tanjevic who had engaged Dino Meneghin to tap-into his incomparable European experience. Coach Repesa and his wife were expecting a child, but he had not yet decided what name to give him. “Call him Dino, like me,” said Meneghin half-jokingly. Repesa followed Dino’s order. When someone as respected as Meneghin asks, one as astute as Repesa follows.

In 1995 he was only 34 years old when he was summoned to coach Cibona Zagreb, the Olimpia Milan of Croatian basketball. Cibona in the 80s won the European Championship title twice before it was dominated by Olimpia of Dan Peterson and Mike D’Antoni in 1987 and by Franco Casalini and Mike D’Antoni in 1988. It was the team of Drazen Petrovic but he has come-over from Sibenik. At that time, in the former Yugoslavia, a major-league team was able to showcase the young players of minor teams and recruit them in the name of the important national interest of basketball. So Drazen Petrovic found himself and his brother being recruited by Cibona. The team won two consecutive European Cups (1985 and 1986). That was the context in which Jasmin Repesa grew: in 1994 he became the coach of a young team onto which enormous expectations were placed.

Coach Repesa and his team responded to the challenge, winning what was realistically possible to win at Cibona, and then moved-on to have an amazing experience at Tofas Bursa (Turkey). His point guard was David Rivers, whose play helped lead Olympiacos to a European title.  At Tofas, he won everything in Turkey, creating a dynasty quickly and dominantly. His center was Rashard Griffith who would later come to Virtus Bologna to achieve the Grand Slam in 2001 (and David Rivers led Fortitudo to the Italian Cup title in 1998). It was then that the name of Repesa began to circulate for important opportunities at European level, to be marketable also in Italy. He coached briefly in Poland and Split, and then he returned to Cibona in Zagreb again, as if to start-over again, when he received a call which was the turning-point of his career.

Fortitudo during the first part of the century no longer had the budget to be competitive with the top-tier European teams as they had in the years of Rivers, Dominique Wilkins, Stojko Vrankovic or Carlton Myers. But it was an important team, both in Italy and in Europe. In 2002, the empire of their inter-city rival, Virtus (Bologna) was crumbling, and the owner of Fortitudo, Giorgio Seragnoli, called “Jasko” (as Jasmin’s friends call him) to replace Matteo Boniciolli. Repesa showed up with his baritone voice, the physique, the styles of those times,  and gruff and affectionate leader’s mannerisms, strict but fair. For four years he rode and directed the crest of that wave, reaching the finals every single year, one of which Fortitudo won in 2005, and lost in 2004 with half their team injured against the team from Siena.  Fortitudo lost two championships against Treviso after epic battles, especially in 2006 when the Benetton had Andrea Bargnani who a few days later would be chosen at No. 1 in the NBA draft. Not only for achieving great results, – in 2005 he won the Super Cup, in 2004 and led the Fortitudo the Euroleague final in Tel Aviv against Maccabi playing basically a road game – but in Bologna, Repesa quickly became the most beloved coach. When he returned, as the new coach of Roma, the fans gave him a 10-minute standing ovation and laid a wreath on his head: it was the king of of that fan-base.

Repesa in Bologna used deep rotations, full-court pressing, which generated an aggressive game in transition, and Coach Repesa developed many young players in that era: Stefano Mancinelli, Marco Belinelli, Milos Vujanic, Carlos Delfino, even Matjaz Smodis, and  also Erazem Lorbek who was named “Rising Star” of Euroleague. Repesa was definitely a highlight for Gianluca Basile. The team worked, the methods also (Repesa won the Scudetto in 2005 after suspending Gianmarco Pozzecco at the end of the season for disciplinary reasons), the press conferences at times were hilarious with Repesa playing the role of the eternally dissatisfied. It was his style: attacking before being attacked, it was hard but deep down it was very much linked to the idea of that ​​team and its environment. He regretted not having done the same in Rome but nowadays a championship final, a semifinal lost in unlucky circumstances (his team in Rome was the only one during the six league titles won by Siena’s Pianigiani team to beat that team on their home court), a Top 16 (“Sweet-sixteen”) in the Euroleague, and an Italian Cup final take on a different meaning. He coached David Hawkins, Roko Ukic and Brandon Jennings, and Gigi Datome, briefly, and brought in Italy Ibby Jaaber. In Treviso he was still able to reach a Final Eight Eurocup, a semifinalin Italy,  and coached Alessandro Gentile virtually for his debut in Serie A. At that time his son Dino was playing for Benetton and Dino was the other decisive element in a championship youth who conquered along with “Captain Olimpia”, Ale Gentile.

The rest of his career speaks of a great effort with the Croatian National Team, which led to a World Cup qualification, having taken a fourth place finish at the European Championships of 2013, then one season in Malaga, and two important seasons in Cedevita, which he leaves now in the hands of Veljko Mrsic, who had played in Milan.

Now, Coach Repesa speaks Italian perfectly, regarding Italian basketball he understands everything: vices and virtues, strengths, weaknesses, and habits. He has always been rumored to come to Milan, to Olimpia, but conditions and the timing for a marriage were not “in synch”… not until now!  Italy is his second home. In Trento he held a clinic for young Italian coaches which he had agreed to do when he thought he would not be coming back nor could he have foreseen that he would return. It was his destiny, it is his time.  Both for Italy and Milan.