By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
This will be their seventh time playing each other in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. So far, their record in these games is 3-3, the most remarkable being the championship game in Berlin in 2016, when Itoudis’s CSKA Moscow won the title. One year later in Istanbul, Obradovic led Fenerbahce Dogus Istanbul to the first EuroLeague trophy in their history and the first for Turkish basketball in general.
A strong relationship that became kinship!
The two of them met at a tournament in Amsterdam in 1993. It took some years before fate brought them to work together in a collaboration that was to make history. In the summer of 1999, Obradovic took over Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens and chose Itoudis to be his partner. In fact, as the Greek coach has revealed, Dusan Ivkovic advised Obradovic to take him by his side!
There were two main reasons why Obradovic trusted Itoudis in a position of great responsibility when he was starting out his career in Panathinaikos. The first was that, at the age of 29, Itoudis had already managed to collect many experiences coaching teams as an associate or even head coach.
The second was that, because of Itoudis’s studies in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia – his first professional basketball job was in Zagreb, first as coach of the U18 team and then, for three years, as an assistant coach in KK Zagreb’s men’s team – they shared a language, so it was possible for their communication to be direct, in Obradovic’s mother tongue.
Thus started a collaboration that made history. From the 1999-2000 season to 2011-12, they celebrated 23 titles together: five EuroLeague trophies, 11 Greek League championships and 7 Greek Cup titles. Through the countless hours they spent together, the shared experiences, the many successes, some disappointments, they developed a very strong relationship off the court as well.
They became best men, Obradovic became the godfather of Itoudis’s daughter, Alexandra, and their long and successful professional relationship essentially made them family!
Disagreements, mutual respect, trust and… the alter ego!
Those who have experienced from up close the way the two of them functioned in Panathinaikos claim that their relationship and the way they worked together was unique and helped differentiate the concept of “assistant coach” and establish the term “associate” coach, not just in Panathinaikos, but in general at the top level of European basketball.
One influenced and evolved the other, they talked about everything and they often disagreed. Those who didn’t know the balance and the quirks of their relationship and saw them discussing intensely, either during training sessions or in games, thought that it was a matter of time before they started quarrelling.
No! This was the way they had chosen to communicate out of Obradovic’s own volition, because they thought that through the exchange of different opinions and questioning, they ended up with new ideas that helped the team constantly upgrade the basketball they played.
It’s characteristic of the trust that in all their years at Panathinaikos, Itoudis was the one who essentially “ran” the training sessions and Obradovic, whenever he deemed it necessary, made his own interventions by using his classic whistling, something that we often see during games, as well!
People who have come into contact with them from up close and know them very well, like Itoudis’s current associate in CSKA, Andreas Pistiolis, confirm that one’s influence on the other is very intense and that they share many common characteristics in the way they approach basketball and coach, train and manage players.
Every time they meet, the battle is… double!
Doesn’t it make perfect sense? Everyone is affected by their experiences and here we’re talking about two people who spent every day together and shared everything and had common goals for 13 years!
What has changed? When they meet on the court they are rivals now, and only one can be the winner! Each one fights for the club they represent, for their own goals and for themselves. CSKA and Fenerbahce are EuroLeague superpowers that aim at winning the title every season. You need proof? The last two trophies have ended up in the hands of these two best men and former fellow travellers.
Be sure that it’s a matter of time before they meet again in a Final Four, in clashes that decide everything and separate the one who is simply successful from the one who makes history, the one who gets the trophy and all the glory!
Each one knows the other’s philosophy, his thoughts, reactions, wildest inspirations and weaknesses. Each one is aware of even the smallest detail the other has in his mind. Besides, according to both men’s philosophy, it’s the details that make the difference in modern basketball and the information overload and advanced scouting that exist on every level.
Well, this is what is so magical about them. One of them, the “Lord of the Rings”, is the only coach in history with nine EuroLeague trophies, which he has won with five different teams.
The other may have won only one as head coach, but has essentially experienced this wonderful taste six times as an alter ego and key contributor! We’re talking of course about Itoudis’s role in five of nine trophies they won together at Panathinaikos.
Every time they go up against each other, as will happen on Friday night in Moscow, a battle on the coaching chessboard will be born in front of our eyes, one that will remind us of the famous “Kramer vs. Kramer”.
But here there is no divorce. Only two coaches who did great things together and who are now on opposite sides. They know their opponent as well as they know themselves – and they want to beat him, badly! This is why the battle they give when they meet is double! Every time it ends and the lights go out, however, that family feeling will take over again.
Even if shortly before there has been a battle, tension, and even disagreements, these experiences have bound them and have made them family in their everyday lives in the 13 years they lived side by side.