Marko answers call for family-first Trevor Gleeson

• Trevor Gleeson misses the Hobart game for a family commitment and returns on October 24
• Marinovic won ABA League and EuroCup titles across a 19-year playing career
• He was a Serbia assistant at the Paris Olympics, where Serbia won bronze

Adelaide 36ers senior assistant Marko Marinovic will coach the side against the ladder-leading Tasmania JackJumpers tonight (Friday, October 16, 2026, ) in Hobart.

Head coach Trevor Gleeson is unavailable because of a family commitment, creating the opportunity for what basketball.com.au believes the first Serbian to head coach an NBL regular season game.

The 36ers confirmed the change on today, saying Gleeson had been granted leave and would return to lead the side against South East Melbourne Phoenix.

That leaves the 43-year-old former international in charge of a 3-4 team on the second leg of four straight road games, against a JackJumpers outfit sitting on top of the ladder at 4-1.

It is not the first time Gleeson has handed him the clipboard.

At the CODE Sports NBL Blitz in Bendigo on Saturday, September 5, 2026, Gleeson sat courtside while Marinovic ran the bench in a 112-86 win against the Cairns Taipans.  explained the call to ESPN that night, in comments published by the Adelaide 36ers.

"He just has a lot of faith in his assistants," Adelaide 36ers general manager of basketball operations Matt Weston said during the game.

"He loves to delegate responsibility and let people take that on and I think that's going to really come through later in the year."

Marinovic goes up against JackJumpers coach Scott Roth was his assistant at the Perth Wildcats between 2019 and 2021, and the pair won two championships together.

Marinovic has been in Adelaide since July 2024. The club signed him as senior assistant for NBL25, to work under then head coach Scott Ninnis, a week before he headed to the Paris Olympics as an assistant coach with Serbia, and he has since served under Mike Wells and now Gleeson.

"I'm very excited at this opportunity, it's a great thrill for me," Marinovic said when he signed.

"I have watched the NBL back home and it's a very strong league."

The Olympic campaign that followed ended in a bronze medal for Serbia, and it ran through the Australian Boomers. Marinovic was on the Serbian bench for the quarter-final against Australia in Paris, weeks after the Boomers had beaten Serbia by 11 points in a warm-up game in Abu Dhabi.

"Australia are very good, they beat us recently, but we will be ready next time," he said before that quarter-final.

Serbia then gave him a team of his own. He was named to lead its Under-20 side at the FIBA U20 EuroBasket in Greece from July 12 to 20, 2025, and called it "a great opportunity for me and the team to show our improvements" in remarks published by the Adelaide 36ers.

The coaching CV rests on a long playing one. Marinovic, known at home by the nickname Malina, started his professional career with his hometown club Borac Čačak in 2000. He then spent 19 years as a player, with stops at FMP, Crvena zvezda, Valencia, ALBA Berlin, Radnički and Olimpija.

He won the 2006 ABA League championship with FMP and the 2010 EuroCup with Valencia, and represented Serbia at the 2006 FIBA World Championship. When he retired in June 2019, the ABA League listed him as its record holder for assists in a single game, with 18.

He went straight from the court to the bench at Borac, taking over as head coach on June 29, 2019. He described the move as "something new in my life and in my sports career" and "a big, big challenge" when he spoke to the ABA League.

Borac reached the top tier of regional basketball under him, and the club parted ways with him after the eighth round of the 2022-23 ABA League season, on November 28, 2022, the ABA League reported. He spent the following season with Čačak 94 Quantox in the Serbian league before Adelaide came calling.

Key Details: Tasmania JackJumpers v Adelaide 36ers, NBL27 Round 5, Friday, October 16, 2026, at MyState Bank Arena, Hobart. Tip-off is 7:30pm AEDT (7:00pm ACDT), live on ESPN via Kayo or Disney+. Tasmania are 4-1 and Adelaide are 3-4.

Gleeson is due back for South East Melbourne at John Cain Arena on Saturday, October 24, 2026.