By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
In Dusan Ivkovic’s last game as a coach, his team, ‘Dusan Ivkovic Stars’ got the victory over Olympiacos with a 103-111 final score. In a game where he was honored from the EuroLeague, Olympiacos, all the players and fans who attended this event at the Peace and Friendship Arena, he got his final win as a coach.
He also became the 7th man to get the EuroLeague legend award and the first ever EuroLeague Legend coach. The other six legends include Theodoros Papaloukas, Juan Carlos Navaro, Ramunas Siskauskas, Dimitris Diamantidis and Misrad Turkcan. Kyle Hines and Kostas Sloukas were welcomed back with a round of applause from the Olympiacos‘ fans in the area.
Some of the VIPs watching the game at the Peace and Friendship Stadium were tennis superstar Novak Djokovic, as well as some of his former players, such as Turkcan, Papaloukas, Dino Radja, Zarko Paspalj, Drazen Dalipagic, Efthimios Rentzias, Predrag Danilovic, Dejan Tomasevic, Zoran Cutura, Nenad Krstic, Dragan Tarlac and Joe Arlauckas just to name some of the many legends, past and present, in the stands.
Four current Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and 7DAYS EuroCup coaches – Zeljko Obradovic of Fenerbahce Dogus Istanbul, Dimitris Itoudis of CSKA Moscow, Jure Zdovc of Cedevita Zagreb and Sasha Djordjevic of FC Bayern Munich, as well as Olympiacos co-owners Panagiotis and Giorgos Angelopoulos – were also in the VIP seats.
The game itself had an ‘All-Star’ type of feel to it, with both teams being relaxed on defense and showcasing their offense with some nice highlight plays, dunks, and three-point shots. The first half ended 53-64 in favor of Dusan Ivkovic Stars. Marko Kešelj had 14 points, while Kyle Hines added 10 points at the half.
The second half had the same ‘feel’ to it, as both teams came out to thank the fans for coming, but also to honor this great coach in Dusan Ivkovic. In the fourth quarter, Olympiacos cut the lead down to four points (87-91) (8:30 – 4Q), but Ivkovic’s team had an answer until the end. The three-point shots, the flashy passes, and dunks were there in the second half, and finally, the game ended 103-111.
The game was finished with 28 seconds left to honor Ivkovic’s 28 titles, and he took center stage to talk to the fans and thank them for their support all these years.