December 2025 is a special month for Marko Pesic, as at the end of the month, after fourteen and a half years of service to FCBB, he will step down from his position in the operational area of the German champions. A perfect occasion for an in-depth conversation with the architect and outgoing managing director of Bayern Basketball, who also celebrates his 49th birthday this Saturday – happy birthday, Marko!
Marko, it’s 10 a.m., and we’re sitting in a café. How many steps does your smartphone show for today?
Let’s see. Today, I’m at around 3,000 steps – not bad for a morning…
We’re asking because you’re known for never sitting in the office but walking around the BMW Park all day. Have you ever calculated how many kilometers you’ve covered in 15 years at FC Bayern?
(laughs) Let me check how many steps I’ve taken this year, for example. So, in January: around 520,000 steps – about 377 kilometers. Oh, in April, it’s 870,000 steps, and in May, more than a million, exactly 1,032,890. In June and July, a bit less, but in October, again around 477,000 steps. That really adds up.
Will it be less now that you’re stepping down?
I go for walks a lot, I have two routes: one in the morning and one in the evening, and I use this time to make phone calls or listen to sports podcasts – I just want to understand what’s happening in the sports world and how sports are evolving. In the past, I didn’t have enough time for such questions – when you’re working 24/7, you’re focused on today, maybe a little on tomorrow, and mostly on yesterday.
"You have to break habits"
What changes with your departure?
A good friend gave me valuable advice when I was a young player at Alba Berlin. Back then, we moved into the Max-Schmeling-Halle – at the time, the ultimate venue in Germany, with hospitality and VIP areas. I had to be dragged there, especially when we lost. He gave me a case and told me to collect business cards until my career was over: "When your career ends, go through them and follow up on all the conversations that can help you move forward." I took that advice to heart, and even now, I occasionally pull out one contact or another.
How difficult was the decision to step down?
Sometimes in life, it’s good when others make decisions for you – but it’s better when you make them yourself. It was important to me to hand over something in a state where I had fulfilled my responsibilities. Every club, every company, and every person should shed their skin from time to time. You have to break habits to bring in new impulses. I no longer felt capable of putting the drive on the road the way a managing director should, in my opinion. A key task is to provide energy. But energy is not infinite. Especially in times of defeat, I always demanded of myself to pick people up, to check: What’s the mood? How is the coach doing? You have to be a source of energy. And I felt: I can’t do that anymore in the way I think is right. Then you have to find solutions – for yourself and for the club.
And how difficult is it to let go?
For me, it’s not that hard. Of course, there’s always the risk that the line between "helping" and "interfering" becomes very thin – that’s a challenge. But I don’t want to dictate. I don’t want to be the one who decides when that line is crossed or not. Others have to make that decision. I’m still available if someone needs something from me. But I won’t interfere or call to say, "I think this or that isn’t working." That’s not my job. If I’m asked, I’m happy to help – with my experience, maybe with advice. But actively intervening? No. Also because I don’t get all the information anymore. I don’t see training sessions, I’m not at every management meeting or lunch at the BMW Park. So I lack the information and the feeling for the daily happenings. That’s why I’ve decided for myself: I’m here if I’m needed – and if not, then I’m not. It’s that simple. I’m very straightforward about it.
"Hoeneß understood Stevic instead of Pesic"
Adrian Sarmiento and Dragan Tarlac are taking over as managing directors together. What sets them apart?
Adrian is truly a child of the club – there’s no one here who understands FC Bayern Basketball better. In the sense of: how everything came to be. With such changes, there are always two paths: Either you look for an external solution, or you look internally. FC Bayern Basketball has always been a club that has grown from within. When someone left, we usually found an internal solution. Because there’s something that’s hard to buy: identification and empathy. Both are essential. If you don’t have empathy, you can’t identify – and if you can’t identify, it’s hard to take responsibility. Not just for yourself, but for the bigger picture. That’s why our motto has always been: Is there an intern, student worker, or FSJ participant with potential for more? Then we invest time and trust. I say this because our basketball club has a culture that needs to be protected – and Adrian embodies that like no one else. He can develop things further and go his own way. But he doesn’t have to continue things the way I did. That would be wrong.
And Dragan Tarlac?
Dragan joined last summer and is a completely different type than me – and also than Adrian. He brings new energy and something fresh, with a lot of competence. He was a player himself, even in the NBA, he won the EuroLeague as a professional, and later, as part of the management staff, he won medals with the Serbian national team. Together, they form a team that will find its own style. That doesn’t happen overnight, but they have great potential. FC Bayern Basketball will present itself fresher, newer, and certainly a bit different.
When you joined Bayern back then, the whole thing almost failed due to a mix-up.
(laughs) Yes. The then Vice President responsible for basketball, Bernd Rauch, really wanted me. But I said I needed to know if Uli Hoeneß, as President, was also behind it. Bernd immediately called him and put the phone on speaker. However, Mr. Hoeneß misunderstood the name Marko Pesic as Micky Stevic, who was then the sports director at 1860 Munich, and shouted into the phone that Bernd could forget about it. So that was my first encounter with Uli Hoeneß. But of course, it was clarified during that phone call – and the journey began.
What was FC Bayern Basketball like back then?
We were five or six people, all basically doing three jobs at once, from marketing to ticketing to communication. Adrian was the U19 coach at the time. The first thing we did was hire a team manager to take care of equipment and organization. Then we just started doing things. The first adidas packages were simply lined up in the hallway of our makeshift office: 15 bags that we packed ourselves for the players who signed one by one. The current BMW Park was still a construction site. The players picked up their bags and trained in a small temporary hall that doesn’t even exist anymore. I started as sports director back then and didn’t even know the budget, had no idea how big the team budget was. Maybe they wanted to test me – I was 34, nobody really knew me, nobody knew if I might, for example, immediately tell the press everything. It was uncharted territory for everyone involved. I approached it totally naively.
How was the team built?
From the beginning, it was clear that we would need a solid core of German players. I also reached out to Jordi Bertomeu from the EuroLeague: "Listen, I’m going to Bayern – is there a chance we can play internationally?" He immediately offered me a wildcard, which allowed us to sign better players because we could offer a perspective. A club that has just been promoted, with a big name but no international stage – that’s not attractive to everyone.
And identity was a key word from the start.
Absolutely. I had two key experiences in the first few months that shaped me forever. I started a month earlier than planned, didn’t really know Munich, and my family was still in Berlin. Then Steffen Hamann and Basti Schweinsteiger rang my doorbell. At first, I thought I was seeing things. Basti said: "I heard you’re new here, looking for an apartment, and your son will soon start school. We’ve got some time – come on, we’ll show you the city." We were out until the evening: Glockenbachviertel, Schwabing, everywhere. The next morning, I woke up and thought: "That was real – that was truly real!" And that’s when I realized: If someone like Schweinsteiger does something like that for me, I can’t treat people who come to us any differently. On the contrary – that has to be the minimum. I also learned from Uli Hoeneß that this club is something special: A club where people care for each other and make others feel welcome.
"I apologized to the team"
And the second key experience?
That was the first Bundesliga game of the 2011/12 season against Telekom Baskets – then and now a true basketball city. We played well but lost in overtime. And then I saw how Bonn celebrated – as if they had won the championship. That’s when I realized why Basti Schweinsteiger had told me: "Take care of your people." Out there, outside your club, you will always be used so that others can write their own story – whether you’re a young basketball club or have won everything for 40 years: everyone wants to beat FC Bayern. For me, that still means: If you want to succeed, especially at Bayern, it’s about quality, but just as important, it’s about integrity and atmosphere. When new people join, they need to feel comfortable. To achieve that, you have to give them something first. I knew: It won’t be easy to win – because everyone will be against us. And I understood: Identification doesn’t work by demanding it – you have to create the conditions for people to want to identify. Whether they work in the office, are players, or coaches.
There’s a documentary scene where you say to the players on the team bus: "No matter what’s said out there – we are a team. Even when things aren’t going well."
I never really trusted the moments when everything was going well. Maybe that sounds paranoid, but I was suspicious when things went too smoothly. That’s exhausting. When I analyze myself today, I think: Why didn’t you enjoy the good times more? But my motivation always came from the difficult moments. When something wasn’t working, I wanted to find a solution. That’s when I felt alive. I was convinced: If you come out of such a phase, you grow – as a person, as a player, as a team, as a club.
But you’re never protected from making mistakes.
I’ve made many mistakes. I remember a game last year, crucial in the EuroLeague, at home against Fenerbahçe. First half: catastrophic. I stormed into the locker room and yelled at Andi Obst, Carsen Edwards, and Vladimir Lucic – our most important players. I thought I had to provoke them to get a reaction. The coach was outside, the whole arena was waiting, and I was raging in there. Then I went home. I was ashamed. A week later, I apologized to the team and paid a 1.000 Euro fine.
Was the game turned around?
(laughs) No. But we won the next game against Belgrade – through team cohesion. Did my action have anything to do with it? No idea. I often acted emotionally and instinctively, but always in the interest of the club. I wanted people to see: There’s someone who means it, who is there – morning, evening, always. Sometimes I wanted to provoke – out of positive motivation, to show that something matters to me. I don’t know if that’s still considered modern today. But within our club, a culture of trust developed. And that’s what matters. We all grow older – but this culture, this togetherness, must remain.
The Bayern basketball team grew up together – the club and the staff alike.
Until the 2018/19 season, we were essentially a start-up. We grew through "learning by doing." Back then, our staff didn’t know what working hours were. We slept in the office when necessary. That was the first phase, with Uli Hoeneß as the visionary and Bernd Rauch as the driving force. The second phase began with Herbert Hainer. Fortunately, the club always had the right people at the right time, and with Hainer, even more strategy came in through his vast experience as CEO of adidas. These experiences from the early years were molded into a structure. We are now a "real" club with more planning and organization.
"There is no better shareholder for collaboration"
When you were still playing – what was the significance of basketball in Munich back then?
When I attended the European Championship games as a teenager in 1993 – my father Svetislav was the national coach at the time – my memory of the Olympiapark is basketball. But they didn’t manage to establish the sport permanently. If you ask me today what I’m most proud of at Bayern, it’s not the titles. For me, it’s the fact that basketball is now played regularly in the Olympiapark and the BMW Park, and that Munich has a strong basketball community. I always knew: Munich has a basketball culture. There were people, there was a scene – but there was no professional basketball. Now the sport is alive here, and one of the most beautiful things: You see so many children and young people. Something is growing here.
How do you look back on almost 15 years at Bayern?
I am incredibly grateful and keep thinking about what I can give back to the club – truly. What can I return? Because you can be as good as you want, you can have graduated from Harvard – in Munich, that doesn’t automatically mean you’ll get the chance. I often think about that first conversation with Uli Hoeneß… if he had said: "Leave me alone with your basketball," nothing would have happened. What I’ve been able to experience here is pure joy. And I must also say clearly: I am well-connected in European basketball. When I look at how my colleagues work – in my view, there is no better board and no better shareholder for collaboration than here at Bayern.
Can you elaborate on that . . .
I probably would have lost my job five times in the beginning if there had been someone sitting there who didn’t understand sports. But Uli Hoeneß understands the mechanics of a club and knows how to build something. Of course, he called on Sundays and asked: "Why did you lose in Hagen?" or "Why wasn’t the arena full?" or "Why didn’t you sign player XY?" But it was never destructive. He wanted to know, to understand. And from that came: "Okay, how do we solve this?" And then Herbert Hainer came along. He understood: Sport is not just about today’s result; it needs a stable foundation. The club has to function – even if you don’t win sometimes. For that, you need a plan. I told Adrian and the others: You’re lucky to have shareholders like this. It could also be someone who says: "This is our money, what are you doing with it?"
Six years ago, you said in "51": "Munich must become the basketball hub of Europe." Where do we stand with this vision today?
Much further than I could have imagined back then. A performance center is being built at the FC Bayern Campus. When it opens in 2028, no basketball club in Europe will be better equipped in terms of infrastructure than FC Bayern. This is important because the industry will change. Clubs that own their own arenas will make money. The others will face challenges. If you have two arenas – one belongs to you, the other doesn’t – but the game days are yours, then that’s your golden road to success. Many events are already considering coming to Munich. Kids on the street now recognize Andi Obst and Vladimir Lucic. This vision of being the "hub of European basketball" cannot only be measured by titles. It’s about basketball becoming more and more visible in the cityscape.
Another quote says: "We are the cheeky younger brother of the big brother." How loud and cheeky can and should FC Bayern Basketball be?
Uli Hoeneß once said in his farewell speech as president that FC Bayern is a big tanker – we are the speedboat that sometimes goes ahead to see: What’s out there? I even believe that not only have we learned from football in some areas, but also vice versa.
What do you think about being called "Mr. FC Bayern Basketball"?
That’s not how I see myself. Maybe in ten years, people will say in some places: "Marko did that." But I say: Our office has always been the foundation – for the club and also for me.
What was the perfect moment in 15 years of FC Bayern Basketball?
The opening of the SAP Garden – with the backstory of the 48 hours before, when we were still setting up the chairs ourselves. We had ushered in a new era. In terms of sports, I think of the 2020/21 season, when we qualified for the EuroLeague playoffs during the pandemic. The pandemic was "net sports" for me – no spectators, no external circumstances. That’s when you see who really is who. It was interesting that Bayern achieved its best results in football and basketball during this net phase. Because it’s about structure: What is the foundation like? The football team became champions and Champions League winners – we could have made it to the Final Four against Milan with the last shot. During this net sports phase, FC Bayern as a whole club showed its full strength. A sign: The club is clean, honest, well-structured. Everything else is secondary. People forget that quickly. But during that time, you could see what this club is capable of.
And the darkest moments?
When Paul Zipser was diagnosed with a tumor at the start of the BBL playoffs – it came completely out of nowhere – everything else became insignificant. At the time, I thought: We shouldn’t even be playing anymore. It was impossible.
What do you wish for FCBB in the future?
That the club continues to grow organically. Not artificially, but naturally – otherwise, it’s better not to grow at all. The bigger you get, the greater the risk of losing the culture of identification. FC Bayern Basketball must not become an anonymous employer in sports. You shouldn’t just keep hiring more staff, but grow wisely. Quality and motivation must be preserved. In recent years, we’ve invested enormously in infrastructure – and starting next season, apart from the Performance Center, all investments will be completed: The BMW Park, the SAP Garden – everything is finished. This means the club is economically as stable as hardly any other. Serious, balanced between income and expenses. That’s an excellent foundation to take the next step in sports and establish itself at the top. I hope the club preserves its identity and continues to expand its role in Munich and its societal engagement. You can see how many children and young people are now coming to FC Bayern through basketball. If that continues to grow healthily, it’s the right path – regardless of whether titles are won every year or not.
"Fans can be proud and optimistic"
What would you like to say to the fans as a farewell?
Fans are, of course, allowed to be disappointed in the short term when a game is lost. But if they look at what’s happening here in the long term, they can be proud and optimistic. Criticism is important, the opinion of the fans is important – and it is taken seriously, even if it’s not always implemented immediately. And I’m sure: Munich loves basketball. You can see it, you can feel it.
And what remains for you personally after all these years?
I’ve become more mature and experienced. The club has shaped me, but at the same time, it has given me the freedom to try things out, to implement ideas. It has always provided a roof over my head – for me and my family. I will never forget that.
When asked about your greatest talent besides basketball, you’ve never had an answer. Do you now?
(laughs) Maybe I’ll find it now. When I became an honorary member at the annual general meeting, Herbert Hainer called me a "basketball idealist." I liked that. I will always be available to FC Bayern as long as basketball is done for basketball and not just to live off basketball. I want to help develop the sport further. I’m interested in the bigger picture: that basketball grows in Germany, that people are passionate about it. Together, we’ve managed to make basketball in Munich a "sexy" sport. The club must continue that.
What kind of Marko Pesic joined FC Bayern back then – and what kind of Marko Pesic is stepping down now?
I came as a rookie. It was incredible that I was even given this chance. I always joke: They probably gave me the chance because they didn’t really believe it would work, and my motivation was always: Yes, we can do it! Now I’m leaving as someone who, together with FC Bayern, has managed to give the club a name in European basketball. As a player, everything is finite. But what remains now are all the experiences, the people I’ve been able to meet – that’s more lasting. I’ve become who I am today thanks to FC Bayern.
(The interview was conducted for the FCB magazine "51.")