By Niki Bakouli/ bakouli@eurohoops.net
One of the reasons we love the game of basketball, is because you can never know what will happen till the fat lady sings. The numbers are always important, but at the same time they cannot assure anything on this little thing called “result”. For some people though, there are collateral damages to that…
Euroleague felt the need to change the pioneer idea on who will qualify from the Adriatic League to next year’s tournament (since this is the first season Adriatic League won’t send to Euroleague the best teams from Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, counting their records to their national leagues). And that’s were the story starts.
The “before” and the “after”
Before the beginning of the season, it was announced that the tickets to next year’s competition, will be given to the first of the regular season and to the champion of the Final Four. The finalist of the Final Four would gain a place at the preliminary round. In case there were three teams from the same country, they two first would get the qualification and the third one would be chosen from Euroleague – according to its general criteria.
When KK Igokea came in the picture, Euroleague felt the need to add a few more parameters. It was necessary for ABA Liga to harmonized its rules with Euroleague’s, for the common good of the competitions. They also said it was obvious that some compromises had to be made. Which actually meant that the outcome (the final decision regardless of the standings) would be in Euroleague’s hands. UPDATE: According to Euroleague, from the start they had informed Adriatic league that according to their by laws the tickets were supposed to be given to the two teams playing the Adriatic league final and the best semifinalist. However, the Adriatic league changed the rules and decided to give a ticket for the regular season top team and that’s why after negotiations between the two sides we had this decision.
The main problem with KK Igokea (concerning Euroleague’s standards) is that their arena has a capacity of 3.050 seats and for Euroleague they need one with 5.000 seats. That means they will have to move from Laktasi to Banja Luka. But in order to do that, Euroleague has to approve the application. If they won’t approve it, they will use their right to give this spot elsewhere via wild card.
The miracle of KK Igokea
To understand how KK Igokea reached to the point of being a difficult question to answer for Euroleague (as the first one of ABA Liga’s standings), we asked Milun Nesovic, from “Sportski Zurnal”, to explain few things for us. “They brought experienced players who didn’t have a great career, but they know all about basketball and they had the hunger to achieve things. Players, like Branko Jorovic, like Milan Dozet, like Nebojsa Joksimovic, Clifford Hammonds and Sinisa Stemberger. Above all things, they are really hard workers, who enjoy their lives at a small district like Laktasi, which is situated in the Republic Srpska, near Banja Luka. They can be focused on basketball and they are really happy with their daily routine”.
Dragan Bajić is the coach of this team and “at first, nobody knew why. Nobody believed he would stay in his place for more than 2-3 weeks. As you can see, he is still there! Why? He managed to find the chemistry of the team, to communicate great with his players. He allows them to take responsibilities, to do what they believe it should be done”.
Bajic wasn’t the only one people didn’t believe in. And this luck of trust was the main thing KK Igokea used at their advantage, as they were making a statement. At the premiere, they won Siroki WWin. Then Buducnost VOLI, Radnicki, Split, Crvena Zvezda Telekom, Union Olimpija and their first loss was to Cedevita, for the 7th day, in Zagreb, at the last seconds (Bracy Wright “killed” them with a three pointer). Then, they lost to Zadar (again, at the last seconds) and when everybody started to believe that the treasure turned out to be a carbon, they beat Partizan, by 23 points! That day, everybody was sure KK Igokea was a real contender. And they became 100% sure, after the game against Crvena Zvezda, at Laktasi, when the Bosnian team became the favorite to win the top spot of regular season of ABA Liga which is ending today and yes, Igokea has the first place in the standings.
Their budget is around 1.000.000 euros (less than one million, to be exact) and they have the backing of Milorad Dodik, president of the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Serbian entity of Bosnia). The president of the club was Goran Dodik, his brother. He had to resign after his infamous “middle fingers” incident (video) in January after the win over Crvena Zvezda, however it seems that the Dodik family is still involved with the team.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmY4YX4DJkE