North Macedonia men's national basketball team

North Macedonia

FIBA ranking	57 (26 November 2024)[1]
Joined FIBA	1993 (1936 within Yugoslavia)
FIBA zone	FIBA Europe
National federation	BFNM
Coach	Aleksandar Jončevski
Nickname(s)	Лавови (Lions) Црвено-Жолти (The Red and Yellow) Фаланга (Phalanx)
FIBA World Cup
Appearances	None
EuroBasket
Appearances	5
Medals	None
Home Away
First international
Estonia 74–60 Macedonia  (Wrocław, Poland; 30 May 1993)[2]
Biggest win
Macedonia 105–66 Luxembourg  (Skopje, Macedonia; 3 September 2005)
Biggest defeat
Croatia 128–72 Macedonia  (Wrocław, Poland; 1 June 1993)

The North Macedonia men's national basketball team (Macedonian: Кошаркарска репрезентација на Северна Македонија, romanized: Košarkarska reprezentacija na Severna Makedonija) represents North Macedonia in international basketball and is controlled by the Basketball Federation of North Macedonia. They joined FIBA in 1993, after they gained independence from Yugoslavia. That same year the national team played their first official match against Estonia. Prior to 1993, Macedonian players took part on the Yugoslavia national team.

Macedonia debuted in their first international tournament at the EuroBasket in 1999. They have appeared five times at the event overall, with their top performance coming in 2011, finishing in fourth place.

Before 1991, Macedonia was a Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, with players from Macedonia being part of the Yugoslavia national team. First match was in 1945 when Macedonia finished 4th. The first match was in 1945 against Croatia finishing 27-29. The team had mostly played matches against teams from other republics of federation and was represented by Macedonian players under the traditional red, color.

After qualifying for EuroBasket 1999, the national team was placed in Group A, along with FR Yugoslavia, France and Israel. The first game Macedonia came out firing showing solid competitive play against the French Team, however, eventually lost by a narrow margin of 67–71. Next up, was Group A favorites FR Yugoslavia, showing superior play with their post up offense, Macedonia lost 68–83. With the final game of the group Macedonia played a fairly even match, however, luck was not on their side, losing 82–84. Even though Macedonia lost all 3 of their matches to be eliminated, the team showed heart and talent with their impressive play against France and Israel. Due to their small margin of the losses Macedonia ended the tournament ranked as 13th overall.

EuroBasket 2009 was the first EuroBasket tournament that Macedonia qualified for in a decade. Macedonia was placed in Group A, along with Greece, Croatia and Israel. Macedonia began the tournament with a brutal 54–86 loss to rivals Greece, but rebounded with an 82–79 victory over Israel. Despite dropping their last match against Croatia, the Israel result was enough to secure second round qualification. In the second round, Macedonia was placed in Group E alongside France, Germany and Russia. Macedonia lost to France in the second round opener, but famously defeated Germany in the next game. Against Russia, Macedonia was narrowly defeated by a score of 69–71. This performance was not enough to secure a berth in to the knockout round. Nevertheless, Macedonia considers this as a historic success for the national team, since it was only the country's second appearance at the EuroBasket and the team advanced past the first round. In the final tournament rankings, Macedonia ranked 9th place with a record of 2–4.

Through the qualifying round, Macedonia qualified for EuroBasket 2011 and was in Group C along with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, and Finland in the preliminary phase. The national team lost their first match to Montenegro 65–70 in overtime but won the remaining four against Croatia 78–76, Greece 72–58, Finland 72–70, and Bosnia and Herzegovina 75–63. Macedonia finished first in the group and advanced to the second round.

In the second round, Macedonia was in Group F with Russia, Slovenia, Greece, Georgia, and Finland. Having beaten Greece and Finland in the preliminary round, Macedonia went in to the second round with a 2–0 record. After beating Georgia 65–63, Macedonia qualified for the knockout round. The team then beat Slovenia 68–59, but lost to Russia by 2 points 63–61 after Sergey Monya made a buzzer-beating shot to win the final game of the second round. Macedonia, therefore, finished second in Group F.

For the first time in the national team's history, it reached the knockout stage where it defeated host country Lithuania 67–65 by 2 points in the quarter-finals. Macedonia then lost to the eventual champion Spain 92–80 in the semi-finals. They then lost again in the third place game to Russia 68–72 and finished in fourth place.

By finishing in 4th place at EuroBasket 2011, Macedonia qualified for the 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament. They were drawn into Group D along with Angola and New Zealand. In the first game against Angola, Macedonia came out non-aggressive in the 1st half falling to a 13 pt deficit 40–53 at halftime. During most of the match, the top Macedonian players showed fatigue due to the grueling playoff matches they had played for their club teams. In addition, Macedonia came out with a strong 4th quarter, eventually losing by a margin of 4 points, with the final score being 84–88 Angola. Top scorers for Macedonia against Angola were Pero Antic with 17, and Bo McCalebb with 21. On the next match day, which was the day after with less than 24 hours of rest, Macedonia came out a lot stronger in the 1st quarter with a strong lead that carried over the entire game. Eventually, New Zealand could not recover, and fell to Macedonia with a final score of 84–62. Leading scorers for the game were Todor Gecevski with 16, Antic with 17, and McCalebb with 23.

The Macedonian players got much needed rest before the quarterfinals, which would begin two days later on 6 July 2012. The team, following the 68–64 victory by New Zealand over Angola, won Group D and its opponent in the quarterfinals was to be the Group C runner-up, Dominican Republic. Macedonia lost the game 86–76, though the team had a 13-point lead at halftime. The lost eliminated the national team from qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games.

By participating at the 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, Macedonia qualified for EuroBasket 2013 in Slovenia. In a disappointing campaign, Macedonia did not manage to repeat the success from the previous Eurobasket, having one victory in five matches in their preliminary Group B against Serbia 89–75, which was good enough only for the last place in the group stage and 21st overall. The first game of the Eurobasket against Montenegro was particularly demoralizing, as the Montenegrins won 81–80 in controversial fashion, after the referees didn't call interference on the basket during Gjorgji Čekovski's last second game winning attempt, despite the fact that one of the Montenegrin players got his hand trapped in the net.^[3] Macedonia's best performers were once again McCalebb and Antić, with 17.6 and 13.8 points per game, respectively.^[4] After the tournament, several of the Macedonian veteran players, led by captain Pero Antić, announced their retirement from the national team.

At the EuroBasket 2015 there were not high expectations for Macedonia, due to their poor performance at their last EuroBasket appearance in 2013. In their first match against Greece they were thoroughly manhandled throughout as they were defeated 65-85. Looking for their first victory heading in to their second match of the tournament they went up against the Netherlands. The outcome was different this time, as the national team played with more energy and heart and pulled out an 78-71 win. Unfortunately, that would wind up being the only win for Macedonia, as they finished with an 1-4 record and a lousy 19th place at the event.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Hungary	6	6	0	480	413	+67	12	EuroBasket 2017
2	Great Britain	6	3	3	512	479	+33	9
3	Macedonia	6	2	4	439	473	−34	8
4	Luxembourg	6	1	5	432	498	−66	7

Since 12 February 2019, the national team participate as North Macedonia. The national team took part in the 2019 FIBA World Cup Pre-Qualifiers, but were eliminated after posting a 1–3 record in their group.

The team went through EuroBasket 2022 qualifiers for the chance to qualify to the EuroBasket.They didn't make it finishing third with score 2-4.

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification		ESP	GEO	UKR	MKD
1	Spain	6	5	1	504	402	+102	11	Second round (Group L)		—	89–61	88–74	80–44
2	Georgia	6	4	2	467	462	+5	10			82–76 (OT)	—	88–83	91–70
3	Ukraine	6	3	3	463	448	+15	9			76–77	79–66	—	78–61
4	North Macedonia	6	0	6	373	495	−122	6			65–94	65–79	68–73	—

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Israel	3	2	1	231	199	+32	5[a]	Semi-finals
2	Estonia (H)	3	2	1	224	201	+23	5[a]
3	Czech Republic	3	2	1	238	236	+2	5[a]
4	North Macedonia	3	0	3	206	263	−57	3

FIBA World Cup 1950(10),1954(11),1963(2),1967(2),1970(1) 1974(2),1978(1),1982(3),1986(3),1990(1) World Cup Qualification Year Position Pld W L Pld W L 1950 to 1990 Within Yugoslavia Within Yugoslavia 1994 Did not enter Did not enter 1998 Did not enter Did not qualify for EuroBasket 2002 2006 2010 Did not qualify EuroBasket served as qualifiers 2014 2019 4 1 3 2023 10 2 8 2027 To be determined To be determined Total 0/4 14 3 11 Olympic Games 1960(6),1964(7),1968(2) 1972(5),1976(2),1980(1),1984(3),1988(2) Olympic Games Qualifying Year Position Pld W L Pld W L 1948 to 1988 Within Yugoslavia Within Yugoslavia 1992 Did not enter Did not enter 1996 Could not participate Could not participate 2000 Did not qualify EuroBasket served as qualifiers 2004 Did not enter Did not qualify for EuroBasket 2008 2012 Did not qualify 3 1 2 2016 Did not qualify EuroBasket served as qualifiers 2020 Did not enter Did not qualify for FIBA World Cup 2024 Did not qualify 3 0 3 Total 0/4 6 1 5

EuroBasket 1947(13),1953(6),1955(8),1957(6),1959(9),1961(2) 1963(3),1965(2),1967(9),1969(2),1971(2),1973(1),1975(1),1977(1) 1979(3),1981(2),1983(7),1985(7),1987(3),1989(1),1991(1) EuroBasket Qualification Year Position Pld W L Pld W L 1947 to 1991 Within Yugoslavia Within Yugoslavia 1993 Did not qualify 3 0 3 1995 Banned Banned 1997 Did not qualify 15 8 7 1999 13th 3 0 3 10 8 2 2001 Did not qualify 10 6 4 2003 10 4 6 2005 Division B 8 7 1 2007 Did not qualify 12 7 5 2009 9th 6 2 4 6 4 2 2011 4th 11 7 4 8 5 3 2013 21st 5 1 4 Direct qualification 2015 19th 5 1 4 6 5 1 2017 Did not qualify 6 2 4 2022 14 8 6 2025 To be determined To be determined Total 5/12 30 11 19 108 64 44

• Yugoslav Basketball tournament
  • 4 th place: 1945

The BTSC – Boris Trajkovski Sports Center Macedonian: Спортски центар Борис Трајковски, Skopje is a multi-functional indoor sports arena. It is located in the Karpoš Municipality of Skopje, Macedonia. It is named after the former president, Boris Trajkovski. Its capacity is 10,000 .There is an Olympic size Swimming Pool and 5 Star Hotel Alexander Palace within the complex. Additional Water Land Fun Park and Ice Skating Rink next to it.

The arena is a home-ground of the Macedonian basketball team (men and women). The venue also contains four restaurants and a sports bar.

National kit colors are colors of the flag which are also Spread on the Presidential Shield. Noble Red blood and Golden Yellow Sun Devine "ILI".

Squad for EuroBasket 2025 qualification games against Lithuania in November 2024.

North Macedonia men's national basketball team roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Name Age – Date of birth Height Club Ctr. C 0 Bojan Krstevski 35 – (1989-06-04)4 June 1989 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) MZT Skopje G 4 Boban Stajić 31 – (1993-10-06)6 October 1993 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) Pelister PG 5 Kristijan Nikolov 28 – (1996-10-15)15 October 1996 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) Cedi Osman basketball Club G 7 Nenad Dimitrijević 26 – (1998-02-23)23 February 1998 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) Olimpia Milano G/F 8 Vojdan Stojanovski (C) 37 – (1987-12-09)9 December 1987 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) MZT Skopje G/F 10 Adem Mekić 28 – (1995-12-28)28 December 1995 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) Bora F 11 Stojan Gjuroski 33 – (1991-11-06)6 November 1991 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) Rabotnički F/C 13 Andrej Maslinko 27 – (1997-05-20)20 May 1997 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) MZT Skopje G/F 19 Damjan Stojanovski 37 – (1987-12-09)9 December 1987 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) MZT Skopje G/F 20 Damjan Robev 27 – (1997-04-10)10 April 1997 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) Rabotnički G/F 25 Viktor Efremovski 26 – (1998-10-21)21 October 1998 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) Rabotnički F 27 Lejson Zekiri 23 – (2001-09-17)17 September 2001 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) Bashkimi PF 99 Strahil Nikolov 24 – (2000-07-17)17 July 2000 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) TFT	Head Coach Aleksandar Jonchevski Assistant Coaches Nikola Vasilev Nikola Velev Legend Club – describes last team before the competition Age – describes age on 12 August 2023

Following list is of active players who have been called up by the national team in the last year

Players previously called up roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Name Age – Date of birth Height Club Ctr. C 13 Ljubomir Mladenovski 29 – (1995-05-02)2 May 1995 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) unattached G 9 Andrej Magdevski  28 – (1996-01-14)14 January 1996 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) MZT Skopje F/C 22 Ethan Happ  28 – (1996-05-07)7 May 1996 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) Valencia F/C 00 Dimitar Pandev 27 – (1997-10-09)9 October 1997 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) Pelister PG 00 T. J. Shorts 27 – (1997-10-15)15 October 1997 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) Paris PF 6 Valmir Kakruki 24 – (2000-09-20)20 September 2000 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) Cair SF 23 Andrej Jakimovski 23 – (2001-03-18)18 March 2001 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) University of Colorado PG 77 Viktor Tashovski 23 – (2001-11-22)22 November 2001 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) Pelister G/F 5 Marko Milovanović 22 – (2002-01-18)18 January 2002 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) MZT Skopje G 21 Luka Savićević 22 – (2002-02-19)19 February 2002 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) Lafayette University F 6 Andrej Andonoski 22 – (2002-04-02)2 April 2002 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) MZT Skopje F Goce Petrushevski 22 – (2002-08-24)24 August 2002 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) San Severo G 4 Marin Petkov  21 – (2003-02-20)20 February 2003 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) MZT Skopje G Rezart Memed 21 – (2003-05-01)1 May 2003 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) Bora F Amar Hot 21 – (2003-08-17)17 August 2003 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) Rabotnichki G 1 Andrej Mitrevski 21 – (2003-09-17)17 September 2003 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) Feniks C 15 Teodor Simić 20 – (2004-02-04)4 February 2004 2.14 m (7 ft 0 in) TFT SG 10 Petar Boshaleski 20 – (2004-07-08)8 July 2004 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) Pelister G 1 Andrej Shoshkić 19 – (2005-04-27)27 April 2005 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) Rabotnichki PG 1 Rubin Stefanov 19 – (2005-05-03)3 May 2005 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) Pescara Basket

• Petar Naumoski – (1995–2002)
• Vrbica Stefanov – (1995–2009)
• Pero Blaževski – (1995–2009)
• Todor Gecevski – (1996–2013)
• Pero Antić – (2002–2013)
• Bo McCalebb – (2010–2013)
• Vlado Ilievski – (1998–2015)
• Predrag Samardžiski – (2005–2015)
• Gjorgji Čekovski – (1999–2017)
• Damjan Stojanovski – (2009–)
• Vojdan Stojanovski – (2008–)

1999 EuroBasket: finished 13th among 16 teams^[5]

4 Vrbica Stefanov, 5 Vlado Ilievski, 6 Gjorgji Čekovski, 7 Mirza Kurtović, 8 Marjan Srbinovski, 9 Igor Mihajlovski, 10 Petar Naumoski, 11 Todor Gečevski, 12 Dejan Jovanovski, 13 Srdjan Stanković, 14 Pero Blaževski, 15 Dušan Bocevski (Coach: Zare Markovski)

2009 EuroBasket: finished 9th among 16 teams^[6]

4 Vrbica Stefanov, 5 Dimitar Mirakovski, 6 Darko Sokolov, 7 Riste Stefanov, 8 Vojdan Stojanovski, 9 Pero Blaževski, 10 Dime Tasovski, 11 Todor Gečevski, 12 Pero Antić, 13 Damjan Stojanovski, 14 Jeremiah Massey, 15 Predrag Samardžiski (Coach: Jovica Arsić)

2011 EuroBasket: finished 4th among 24 teams^[7]

4 Dimitar Mirakovski, 5 Vlado Ilievski, 6 Darko Sokolov, 7 Bo McCalebb, 8 Vojdan Stojanovski, 9 Damjan Stojanovski, 10 Marko Simonovski, 11 Todor Gečevski, 12 Pero Antic, 13 Ivica Dimcevski, 14 Gjorgji Čekovski, 15 Predrag Samardžiski (Coach: Marin Dokuzovski)

2013 EuroBasket: finished 21st among 24 teams^[8]

4 Aleksandar Kostoski, 5 Vlado Ilievski. 6 Darko Sokolov, 7 Bo McCalebb, 8 Vojdan Stojanovski, 9 Damjan Stojanovski, 10 Vladimir Brčkov, 11 Todor Gečevski, 12 Pero Antić, 13 Stojan Gjuroski, 14 Gjorgji Čekovski, 15 Predrag Samardžiski (Coach: Aleš Pipan)

2015 EuroBasket: finished 19th among 24 teams^[9]

4 Vladimir Brčkov, 5 Vlado Ilievski. 6 Darko Sokolov, 7 Aleksandar Kostoski, 8 Vojdan Stojanovski, 9 Damjan Stojanovski, 10 Marko Simonovski, 11 Ljubomir Mladenovski, 12 Bojan Trajkovski, 13 Stojan Gjuroski, 14 Richard Hendrix, 15 Predrag Samardžiski (Coach: Marjan Srbinovski)

  Win   Loss

North Macedonia  v  Estonia

23 February 2024 EuroBasket 2025 qualifiers	North Macedonia	69–74	Estonia	Skopje, North Macedonia
19:00 (UTC+1)	Scoring by quarter: 21–19, 23–17, 10–21, 16–17
	Pts: Dimitrijević 25 Rebs: Happ 10 Asts: Happ 3	Boxscore	Pts: Kotsar 16 Rebs: Rosenthal 6 Asts: Jõesaar 5	Arena: SRC Kale Attendance: 2,000 Referees: Kerem Baki (TUR), Ventsislav Velikov (BUL), Orhan Çağrı Hekimoğlu (TUR)

Poland  v  North Macedonia

26 February 2024 EuroBasket 2025 qualifiers	Poland	71–96	North Macedonia	Sosnowiec, Poland
18:00 (UTC+1)	Scoring by quarter: 21–19, 23–17, 10–21, 16–17
	Pts: Michalak 20 Rebs: Michalak 9 Asts: Pluta 4	Boxscore	Pts: Dimitrijević 32 Rebs: Mekić 10 Asts: Dimitrijević 8	Arena: ArcelorMittal Park Attendance: 2,894 Referees: Mārtiņš Kozlovskis (LAT), Gatis Saliņš (LAT), Zafer Yılmaz (TUR)

North Macedonia  v  Lithuania

21 November 2024 EuroBasket 2025 qualifiers	North Macedonia	67–82	Lithuania	Skopje, North Macedonia
18:00 (UTC+1)	Scoring by quarter: 9–23, 18–21, 16–20, 24–18
	Pts: Nikolov 18 Rebs: Maslinko 8 Asts: Nikolov 6	Boxscore	Pts: Echodas 18 Rebs: Tubelis 6 Asts: Žemaitis 5	Arena: SRC Kale Attendance: 2,500 Referees: Manuel Mazzoni (ITA), Martin Horozov (BUL), Geert Jacobs (BEL)

Lithuania  v  North Macedonia

24 November 2024 EuroBasket 2025 qualifiers	Lithuania	94–72	North Macedonia	Klaipėda, Lithuania
19:30 (UTC+2)	Scoring by quarter: 23–27, 20–19, 21–16, 30–10
	Pts: Radzevičius 18 Rebs: Radzevičius 11 Asts: Žemaitis 9	Boxscore	Pts: Dimitrijević 43 Rebs: Dimitrijević 4 Asts: Dimitrijević 6	Arena: Švyturio Arena Attendance: 4,889 Referees: Mārtiņš Kozlovskis (LAT), Nicolás Maestre (FRA), Carsten Straube (GER)

Estonia  v  North Macedonia

21 February 2025 EuroBasket 2025 qualifiers	Estonia	vs.	North Macedonia	Estonia
		Boxscore

North Macedonia  v  Poland

24 February 2025 EuroBasket 2025 qualifiers	North Macedonia	vs.	Poland	North Macedonia
		Boxscore

• * Active NT players are listed in bold
• * Official FIBA games excluding Friendly games

• Only played 2005 season in Division B (won promotion)

• North Macedonia women's national basketball team
• North Macedonia men's national under-20 basketball team
• North Macedonia men's national under-18 basketball team
• North Macedonia men's national under-16 basketball team

Wikimedia Commons has media related to North Macedonia men's national basketball team.

• Official website (in Macedonian)
• North Macedonia FIBA profile
• North Macedonia National Team – Men at Eurobasket.com