By Antigoni Zachari / info@eurohoops.net
EuroLeague Basketball and CEO Jordi Bertomeu joined the basketball family across the globe in mourning the late Dusan ‘Duda’ Ivkovic, who passed away on Thursday a few weeks before his 78th birthday.
“We at Euroleague Basketball are beyond sad to know that a close friend and a true giant of our sport, Duda Ivkovic, has left us too soon,” Bertomeu said on euroleague.net. “It is no exaggeration to say that Duda impacted European basketball as much as any coach ever, growing up in one of the cradles of the sport, Belgrade, and taking many teams to the heights of success. Even more than his accomplishments, however, Duda will be remembered as a true leader to his thousands of players and to generations of coaches. Basketball has lost one of its pioneers, but Coach Ivkovic’s legacy lives on in a thriving European game that he helped lift to where it is today.”
Ivkovic, a two-time EuroLeague champion and a EuroLeague Basketball Legend coached at 12 clubs in his native Serbia, Croatia, Greece, Russia and Turkey, as well as leading the Yugoslav and Serbian national teams in three different decades.
Photo: EuroLeague