KK Pelister

Pelister
Leagues	Macedonian League Second ABA League
Founded	1948
Arena	Boro Čurlevski Sports Hall
Capacity	5,000
Location	Bitola, North Macedonia
Team colors	Green and White
President	Filip Ivanovski
Head coach	Aleksandar Petrović
Website	https://kkpelister.mk/
Home Away

Active departments of Pelister
FK Pelister	RK Eurofarm Pelister	RK Eurofarm Pelister 2

KK Pelister is a men's professional basketball club based in Bitola, North Macedonia. They currently play in the Macedonian League and the ABA League Second Division.

History

The club was founded in 1948. Pelister is one of the most representative Clubs in Macedonia. The name changed many times in the rich history of the Club such as : Mladost Metalec (92-96), Pelister (96-06), Swisslion Pelister (06-09), Pelister (09-11), Pelister Sport (11-14), Pelister (14-15), KK Pelister AD Bitola (2015). They are competing for many decades in the top Macedonian leagues. They won 3 titles Champions of Macedonia. First one was in 1975. Second one came in 1989 and the last one 3rd title came in 1991. Since then they played in the play-offs few times and also in the Macedonian Cup Finals but they did not manage to win.

Honours

Macedonian Champions

1st: Winners (3): 1975, 1989, 1991

Macedonian League

2nd (2): 2022, 2023

3rd (3): 2006, 2007, 2009

• Macedonian D2 Runner-Up - 2012

Macedonian Cup

2nd: Finalist - 2009

3rd: Semifinalist - 2008

Home arena

Main article: Boro Čurlevski Sports Hall

Arena Churlevski

Mladost Sports Hall is a multi-purpose sports arena located in Bitola, North Macedonia. It was built in 1975 by the citizens of Bitola and is mainly used for handball by RK Pelister and RK Bitola, and for basketball by KK Pelister. There is also room for bowling and table tennis plus it has been used for concerts. The Arena hosted the 2007 Macedonian Basketball Cup. This sports hall was the largest on the territory of North Macedonia before the construction of the Boris Trajkovski Sports Center in Skopje.

On 21 July 2009, the arena is undergoing renovation. A new parquet floor will be installed along with new seats. The locker rooms will also be updated to meet EHF standards. Total cost of the project is about €30,000.

In January 2017, renovation of interior of the hall started. The renovation covered the floor, the stands, a new score board and a new heating system. The first match in the renovated arena was played on April 6, 2017 with the match between RK Pelister and RK Metalurg in the second round of the handball Super League play-off.

At the end of July 2018, the name of the hall was changed to "Boro Churlevski", in honor of the late Boro Churlevski, a former handball player from Bitola.Churlevski Arena has a capacity of 4000 sits.

The Bellies (Čkembari)

Abdomens (Macedonian : Чкембари) are an Ultras group, established in 1985, who support the Macedonian sports clubs from Bitola that compete under the Pelister banner, mainly FK Pelister in football and RK Pelister in handball. The group was founded in 1985 when a caravan of 15 buses traveled to support RK Pelister who was playing against Partizan Bjelovar in a handball relegation play-off match. At that time they used the name BMČM - Bitolčani, Motorcyclists, Čkembari, Macedonians (македонски: БМЧМ - Битолчани, Мотокари, Чкембари, Македонци) later shortened to just Čkembari. Soon after, the first green and white banners were created that read: "Hell Boys" (македонски: Пеколни момци) and "Green Conquerors" (македонски: Зелени освојувачи) which started organized support for Pelister at every match. After Eurofarm Rabotnik and Pelister merged, Čkembari became their supporters.

Current roster

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.

KK Pelister roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. Age SG 1 Antoine, Bryan 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 84 kg (185 lb) 24 – (2000-04-26)26 April 2000 PG 3 Stojanovski, Luka 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) 85 kg (187 lb) 24 – (2000-02-04)4 February 2000 PG 4 Stajić, Boban 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 31 – (1993-10-06)6 October 1993 C 5 Edwards, Mike 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) 107 kg (236 lb) 27 – (1997-05-20)20 May 1997 PG 7 Kostoski, Aleksandar 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) 36 – (1988-03-05)5 March 1988 SF 8 Krstevski, Damjan 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) 25 – (1999-06-30)30 June 1999 PG 10 Najdovski, Darko 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) 30 – (1994-04-15)15 April 1994 PF 15 Mišković, Nikola 2.09 m (6 ft 10 in) 101 kg (223 lb) 25 – (1999-01-25)25 January 1999 C 16 Bojić, Andrija 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 105 kg (231 lb) 31 – (1993-05-28)28 May 1993 SG 32 Bošaleski, Petar 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) 20 – (2004-07-08)8 July 2004 PF 33 Pandev, Dimitar 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 102 kg (225 lb) 27 – (1997-10-09)9 October 1997 PG 78 Tašovski, Viktor 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 22 – (2001-11-22)22 November 2001	Head coach Aleksandar Petrović Assistant coach(es) Dean Ilievski Damjan Veljanov Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: October 29, 2024

Depth chart

Pos.	Starting 5	Bench 1	Bench 2
C	Mike Edwards	Andrija Bojić
PF	Nikola Mišković	Dimitar Pandev
SF	Bryan Antoine	Damjan Krstevski
SG	Boban Stajić	Luka Stojanovski	Petar Bošaleski
PG	Aleksandar Kostoski	Viktor Tašovski	Darko Najdovski

Notable players

• Zoran Petkovski
• Gjorgji Anakievski
• Gjorgji Talevski
• Dimitar Karadžovski
• Daniel Zaharievski
• Petar Apcev
• Branko Mirković
• Milan Miljković
• Marko Čakarević
• Aleksandar Kalanj
• Đorđe Jovanović
• Miloš Pejanović
• Boško Jovović
• Aleksandar Held
• Igor Kesar
• Nikola Malešević
• Keoni Watson

External links

• Team info at MKF
• Eurobasket.com KK Pelister Page