| Jao Mile podcast | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube information | ||||
| Years active | 2022–present | |||
| Genre | Basketball | |||
| Subscribers | 63100 (09 September 2024) | |||
| Views | 3,066,563 (29 September) | |||
| Contents are in | Serbian | |||
| Basketball career | ||||
| Personal information | ||||
| Born | (1984-06-02)2 June 1984 (age 40) Tuzla,SR Bosnia and Herzegovina,SFR Yugoslavia | |||
| Nationality | Serbian / Bosnian | |||
| Listed height | 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) | |||
| Listed weight | 229 lb (104 kg) | |||
| Career information | ||||
| NBA draft | 2005: 2nd round, 43rd overall pick | |||
| Drafted by | New Jersey Nets | |||
| Playing career | 2002–2020 | |||
| Position | Center | |||
| Number | 5, 9, 33 | |||
| Career history | ||||
| 2002–2006 | FMP | |||
| 2006–2007 | New Jersey Nets | |||
| 2007 | →Colorado 14ers | |||
| 2008 | Bilbao Berri | |||
| 2008–2009 | Cajasol | |||
| 2010 | Metalac Valjevo | |||
| 2010–2011 | FMP | |||
| 2011–2012 | Crvena zvezda | |||
| 2013 | Vojvodina Srbijagas | |||
| 2013–2014 | Mahram Tehran | |||
| 2014 | MIA Academy | |||
| 2015 | Qatar Club | |||
| 2015–2016 | Lietkabelis | |||
| 2016–2017 | Al Nuwaidrat | |||
| 2017 | Tadamon Zouk | |||
| 2017 | Al Nuwaidrat | |||
| 2018 | Al Mouttahed Tripoli | |||
| 2018–2019 | Al-Manama | |||
| 2019 | Al Seeb | |||
| 2019 | Al-Ahli | |||
| 2019–2020 | Baniyas | |||
| Career highlights | ||||
| ||||
Stats at NBA.com  | ||||
| Stats atBasketball Reference | ||||
Medals | ||||
Mile Ilić (Serbian:Миле Илић; born 2 June 1984) is a Serbianpodcaster and former professionalbasketball player.
Known in Serbia asJao Mile (word play referencingYao Ming and theSerbian expression forouch,jao), the 2.15-metre-tall (7'1")center won twoAdriatic League championships withKK FMP. Additionally, he played with theNew Jersey Nets of theNational Basketball Association (NBA) during the2006–07 season, having beendrafted one year earlier as the 43rd overall pick.
Born to aSerb family inTuzla,SR Bosnia and Herzegovina,SFR Yugoslavia due to it being the nearest town with a maternity ward, young Mile was raised in aLopare area settlement ofPriboj [sr] together with two older siblings, including sisterSlavica [it] (born 1973) who would soon begin pursuing basketball with theJedinstvo Aida youth squads and eventually grow to 193 cm in height.[1][2]
After coming up through the Jedinstvo Aida youth system for years, in 1990, youngster Mile's sixteen-year-old sister Slavica Ilić made the team's full squad as replacement atcenter for celebrated futureFIBA Hall of FamerRazija Mujanović who had just transferred abroad to play withCB Godella inSpain.[2]
With the outbreak of theBosnian War in spring 1992, eighteen-year-old Slavica fled the armed conflict area forBelgrade,Serbia where she resumed playing professionally, finding a spot on theŽKK Partizan roster quickly. Several months later, during summer 1992, her younger eight-year-old brother Mile, who had just finished the first grade of elementary school, was sent by their parents to join her, while the parents and the middle brother stayed behind in their Serb majority home village that had by this time become the scene of fierce shelling by the Muslim forces from the neighbouring hillside settlement ofTeočak.[3] Their father soon joined the armed conflict, fighting as part of theRepublika Srpska Army (VRS).[2] Meanwhile, in Belgrade, joining his eighteen-year-old professional basketball player sister, eight-year-old child Mile, by his own admission in interviews decades later, initially spent majority of his day riding thecity's public transit while waiting for his sister to finish her daily basketball practices.[3] In September 1992, he resumed his schooling, starting second grade at a primary school in Belgrade.[3] However, being cared and provided for by his teenage sister only, without any parental supervision, soon proved untenable and, following a disciplinary incident at school, a decision was made for him to return to his parents in the war zone.[3] The youngster spent the following year and a half attending school in makeshift facilities in his village, before going back to Belgrade in 1994 to rejoin his sister.[3]
Upon returning to Belgrade, encouraged by his sister Slavica, the tall ten-year-old began practicing basketball by enrolling inKK Partizan's youth categories coached byAleksandar Bućan.[2] Living with his older sister in aKonjarnik neighbourhood apartment provided for by her basketball salary, in addition to attending primary school, pre-teen Mile bussed to Partizan youth team practices at the 20th October Elementary School gym facilities on the other side of Belgrade inBlok 70.[2]
By 1996, Slavica Ilić secured a transfer abroad toFrance withStade Clermontois BF and twelve-year-old Mile rejoined their parents by moving back to Bosnia where the war had ended in the meantime. Still in primary school, he continued pursuing basketball, this time within the KK Rudar Ugljevik youth categories.[2]
Though now part of a small provincial club well off the radar for most basketballscouts, teenage Ilić kept drawing attention due to his exceptional height and, by 1999, he was scouted byKK Hemofarm's head coachŽeljko Lukajić who facilitated the fifteen-year-old's tryout at theVršac club's youth system. Following the late summer 1999 tryout, during which Hemofarm's youth team head coachPetar Rodić reportedly liked teenage Ilić's skills, the youngster still did not get placed on the team due to the club's 1999-00 youth squad already being completed. Instead, he returned toUgljevik where he even enrolled in a local high school. Some ten days later, however, the team created a roster spot for him and the tall teenager joined KK Hemofarm, a club financed by thestate-owned pharmaceutical company of the same name led by CEOMiodrag Babić [sr].
Coached by Rodić, teenage Ilić played for the KK Hemofarm youth team alongside fellow youngstersDarko Miličić,Miljan Pupović,Nenad Mišanović,Vukašin Aleksić, Marko Kolarić, Nikola Tutuš, etc.
After three seasons in KK Hemofarm's youth system, seeing his opportunities of entering the club's first team limited, Ilić decided to unilaterally leave Vršac during summer 2002 and transfer toYUBA League rivalsFMP. The legal basis he took advantage of for doing so was an unmet clause in hisstipend-based contract at Hemofarm that stipulated the club's obligation to provide the youth player with a professional contract by the time he turns eighteen years of age.
Arriving inŽeleznik, to a club run by club president and ownerNebojša Čović and sporting directorRatko Radovanović, eighteen-year-old Ilić thus started his first team, full squad career.
In the2005 NBA draft he was drafted by theNew Jersey Nets as a 43rd overall pick.[4]
Having been drafted one year earlier in 2005, Ilić signed for the Nets on 13 September 2006 once a roster spot opened due toZoran Planinić leaving the club. Initially, twenty-two-year-old Ilić was brought in as a foreseeable future backup for countrymanNenad Krstić with the Nets' general managerEd Stefanski singling out Ilić's lateral movement, pick-and-roll, and defensive help as well as his overall adaptation to the speed of the NBA game as the areas the NBA rookie needs to improve in.[5]
On 26 February 2007 the Nets assigned him to theColorado 14ers, theirNBA Development League affiliate.[6] Ilić thus became the first player that the Nets assigned to the D-League since instituting affiliate teams (prior to the2005–06 NBA season). Playing for the 14ers based out ofBroomfield, Colorado, his Development Leagueseason ended early due to anankle joint injury in early April 2007. The injury would end up having a major impact on his basketball career in subsequent years.
On 29 October 2007 he was traded by the Nets toNew Orleans Hornets along withBernard Robinson forDavid Wesley (both Ilić and Robinson were immediately waived by the Hornets).[7]
After getting waived in the NBA, Ilić returned to Europe and signed withLokomotiv Rostov on 26 November 2007.[8] However, he never managed to play for the Russian club due to the effects of the nagging ankle injury he had picked up in the United States and then exacerbated at theEuroBasket 2007 training camp with Serbia national team.[9][10] Instead, the center went back home to Serbia in order to further rehab his ankle.
On 24 February 2008, midway through the 2007–08 season, Ilić signed with the SpanishACB league clubCB Bilbao Berri.[11] Hampered by the recovery process from the ankle injury, he only appeared in 10 games for the club, averaging 5.6 points and 4.1 rebounds per game.
On 28 July 2008, Ilić signed withCB Sevilla for the 2008–09 season.[12] Playing on a squad with compatriotDuško Savanović under head coachPedro Martínez, Ilić's not-fully-healed ankle injury got exacerbated again and he started missing games again. On 27 March 2009, he parted ways with Sevilla after averaging only 2 points and 2 rebounds per game.[13]
The 2009–10 season began with Ilić without a club as teams shied away from acquiring the tall center due to concerns over his re-occurring ankle injury.
After ten months away from competitive basketball, Ilić found a club in March 2010, signing for the remainder of the season withMetalac Valjevo that decided to acquire him after qualifying for the Superleague stage of theirSerbian Basketball League campaign.[14]
For the 2010–11 season he returned to FMP.[15]
The 2011–12 season he played withCrvena zvezda. In March 2013, signed withVojvodina Srbijagas for the2012–13 Serbian Superleague season.[16]
In October 2013, Ilić signed withMahram Tehran BC of theIranian Super League.[17] In January 2014, he left Tehran and signed withMIA Academy of theGeorgian Super Liga for the rest of the season.[18]
In 2015, Ilić played for Qatar Sports Club of theQatari League.[19] On 17 October 2015 he signed with the Lithuanian clubLietkabelis Panevėžys.[20]
In September 2016, Ilić signed with Nuwaidrat of theBahraini Premier League.[21] At the end of March 2017, Ilić signed withTadamon Zouk of theLebanese Basketball League.[22] In July 2017, he returned to Nuwaidrat.[23] In September 2018, Ilić signed for a Bahraini club Al Itihad.[24]
In summer 2019, Ilić played for Al Seeb of theOman League. In July 2019, he signed for a Bahraini club Al-Ahli.[25] Prior to the 2019–20 season, Ilić signed for Baniyas of theUAE National League.
During late August 2003, nineteen-year-old Ilić represented Serbia-Montenegro at the2003 Summer Universiade inDaegu,South Korea as part of the country'suniversity basketball team.[10] The makeshift squad consisting of ten FMP players plus Milan Bralović andMarko Marinović fromBorac Čačak was put together by FMP's head coachVlade Đurović on a short notice.[10] Following an arduous 36-hour journey from Belgrade viaLondon,Hong Kong,Taipei, andSeoul, the team arrived in Daegu less than 12 hours before its opening game, a hard-fought win versusChinese Taipei.[10] Serbia-Montenegro ended upwinning gold.
In summer 2006, fresh off winning theAdriatic League title with FMP, Ilić was called up for national team duty by head coachDragan Šakota as part ofSerbia and Montenegro's selection process for the upcoming2006 FIBA World Championship inJapan. The center ended up making the12-man roster taken to the tournament where he played as backup toDarko Miličić.
One year later, Ilić was called up by the new head coachMoka Slavnić to the training camp forEuroBasket 2007.[10] Carrying an ankle injury from his time in the U.S., hesitant Ilić still showed up on the insistence of head coach Slavnić who reportedly called the player personally on multiple occasions, convincing him eventually.[10] At the training camp, Ilić exacerbated his ankle injury and in the end did not make the12-man roster, with Slavnić picking Miličić andDragan Labović for center spots.[10] Together withAleksandar Rašić, Ilić was among the last two players cut from the squad in late August 2007, right before the start of the championship.[26]
At the beginning of summer 2011, after completing a return season with FMP, Ilić was called up by the Serbia national team head coachDušan Ivković for theEuroBasket 2011 training camp. Ilić made it to the last 16, this time, before getting cut by Ivković in early August 2011 together withNovica Veličković.[27]
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game |
| FG% | Field goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field goal percentage | FT% | Free throw percentage |
| RPG | Rebounds per game | APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game |
| BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game | Bold | Career high |
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006–07 | New Jersey | 5 | 0 | 1.2 | .000 | — | — | .2 | .0 | .0 | .0 | .0 |
In March 2022, Ilić started hispodcast show namedJao Mile.[28][29]
and Basketball Reference
