By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Dominique Wilkins, a living NBA legend still remembers his short stint in Europe when he was in Panathinaikos and Bozidar Maljkovic was on the bench, as he said on an interview at Greek television station COSMOTE TV.
It was 1995 and the training method of Maljkovic is still fresh in his memory.
“When I came, we had gone to some French mountains. He wanted us to run almost 5 kilometers and more on the way back. The next day, in the middle of the course, I turned to him and said, “Coach, I didn’t come here to be a runner but to play basketball. It didn’t go too well, but we were trying really hard in training. All of us. So he knew our skill level in every match.”
He recalled the famous photo when Maljkovic hugged him after winning the European championship.
“You know… Maljkovic had the same approach as anybody on the team. Not just with me. I never saw him hug Stojan Vrankovic. He never hugged them. The only time he hugged me was when we won the European Championship (1996). I was looking at him like this… What’s going on here? It was the only time he hugged me.”
He only played one season in Greece.
“It was perfect. I had the opportunity to do many interesting things and visit many interesting countries. But there I played with a very good team. The Greek fans treated me like I was a god.”