Dragan Labovià(; 20 April 1987 â 9 May 2025) was a Serbian professional basketball player. A native of Prokuplje and a tall power forward, he rose to prominence during his teenage years, where he won four gold medals for the youth Serbian national basketball teams. He also represented the senior national team.
In his 16-year career, he played for many clubs around Europe, most notably for FMP Belgrade, Enisey, Krasnye Krylia and later in his career for Nokia and Karpoà ¡ Sokoli.
Laboviàgrew up with Zdravlje from Leskovac, from where he moved to juniors of Belgrade-based team FMP in 2002. He made his debut for the first team during the 2003âÂÂ04 season, and in next two years he played a few games for the first team.
For the 2005âÂÂ06 season, he was loaned to KK Borac ÃÂaÃÂak where he had minutes to play and chance to improve himself. In 2006, he was invited to play at Nike Hoop Summit in Memphis, Tennessee. After one season at loan he went back to FMP. With FMP he won the 2007 Serbian Cup.
He was the ABA League Top Scorer of the 2008âÂÂ09 season, averaging 18 points on 47% shooting from the field, 6.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists over 26 games. In his last season with the club, he averaged 4.3 points and 3.2 rebounds on 27.8% shooting from the field, over 13 ABA League games.
On 3 January 2010, he signed with the Greek club Aris. He played only three league games and four Eurocup games, and in March 2010, he moved to Skyliners Frankfurt for the rest of the season.
During the 2010âÂÂ11 season, he played for the Russian team Enisey. The following season, he moved to Krasnye Krylia. During the 2011âÂÂ12 season, Laboviàaveraged 13.5 points and 5.7 rebounds on 36.8% shooting from the field, in 16 VTB League games with Krasnye Krylia.
In June 2012, he signed a two-year contract with Nizhny Novgorod, but left the club after the first season.
In November 2013, he signed with the Polish club AZS Koszalin. He left the club in January 2014 due to family reasons. On 31 January 2014, he signed with AliaÃÂa Petkim of the Turkish Basketball League. He left them in April 2014. Later that month, he entered the Lebanese League, signing with Al Riyadi Club. He left Al Riyadi in May 2014, after having played only two games.
In July 2014, he signed a one-year contract with the Romanian team CSU Asesoft PloieÃÂti. In February 2015, he left Asesoft. In 12 league games he averaged 10.7 points per game. He also played 15 games in Eurocup where he had 8.3 points per game.
In October 2015, he signed with the Turkish club ðstanbul BB. He left Istanbul after appearing in four games, where he averaged 10 points, 3 rebounds and 1.3 assists on 58.3% shooting from the field.
In December 2015, he signed with the Finnish club BC Nokia for the rest of the season. In 23 Finnish League games played, he averaged 19.1 points and 7.5 rebounds over 23 games.
On 7 July 2016, Laboviàsigned with Macedonian club Karpoà ¡ Sokoli. In his debut season with the team, he averaged 15.6 points and 4.7 rebounds on 46.3% shooting from the field in 26 ABA League games. On 19 June 2017, he re-signed with Karpoà ¡ Sokoli for one more season.
On 1 December 2017, he left Karpoà ¡ Sokoli and signed with his former club BC Nokia. During the 2017âÂÂ18 season, he averaged 20.5 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.2 assists on 53.7% shooting from the field, in 26 Finnish League games. In his last season with the team, Laboviàaveraged 14 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists over 40 Finnish League games.
Laboviàwon the gold medal at the 2003 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship and the 2005 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship. He was MVP at 2005 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship. He was part of the younger generation in the national teams did not lose a single match at official matches, and there he was one of the best players in that generation with Milenko Tepiàand Miloà ¡ TeodosiÃÂ.
LaboviÃÂ made the Serbian national basketball team under head coach Moka SlavniÃÂ for the EuroBasket 2007. He appeared in three games, averaging 1.3 points and 1.4 rebounds per game.
During summer 2012, head coach Duà ¡an Ivkoviàincluded Laboviàon the preliminary list of players for the EuroBasket 2013 qualifying, but the 25-year-old power forward who had spent the preceding club season with Krasnye Krylia from Samara didn't make the final cut.
Commenting on his decision to exclude LaboviÃÂ, IvkoviÃÂ reportedly stated that "LaboviÃÂ has been having issues with his weight as he recently became a father and probably celebrated a little too much".
Stung by IvkoviÃÂ's comment, LaboviÃÂ responded months later, in September 2012, by putting out a bitter, somewhat cryptic, and highly unusual press release published by Serbian sports media outlets. Though IvkoviÃÂ's comments had been made months earlier, LaboviÃÂ's press release came following the completion of the EuroBasket qualifying cycle in which Serbia barely qualified on basket difference despite being in what most considered to be an easy qualifying group alongside Montenegro, Israel, Estonia, Iceland, and Slovakia.
In the release, Laboviàcriticizes 68-year-old IvkoviÃÂ's professional integrity and coaching skills, accusing the famous coach of letting his agent Mià ¡ko Raà ¾natoviàof the BeoBasket agency exert an undue influence when it comes to squad selection for the national team. Among other things, addressing Ivkoviàdirectly, Laboviàsaid:
A few weeks after his press release, LaboviÃÂ's club Nizhny Novgorod led by the Serbian head coach Zoran LukiÃÂ, reprimanded the player although his punishment was not specified.
On 19 July 2019, Laboviàwas detained by police for public disturbance. The incident occurred at a pool party in the Belgrade suburb of OvÃÂa where reportedly inebriated Laboviàbegan smashing bottles and verbally menacing the property's owner, identified in the Serbian press reports as Lazar M., who eventually called the police. After being kept for 12 hours at a BorÃÂa police station in order to sober up, Laboviàhad a misdemeanour investigation request (prekrà ¡ajna prijava) filed against him.
Laboviàwas arrested in the Belgrade suburb of à ½eleznik on 7 December 2021 in the immediate aftermath of an incident that reportedly saw him assault a taxi driver and drive off with his vehicle. The altercation reportedly began when LaboviÃÂâÂÂwhile getting into the said taxiâÂÂtook issue with the driver's request for Laboviàto have a seat in the back of the car in accordance with COVID-19 epidemiological measures.
On 9 May 2025, LaboviÃÂ died of a heart attack, at the age of 38.