By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
When it hired Dimitris Itoudis in the summer of 2014, CSKA Moscow knew what it was getting: an experienced coach ready to take his career and the club to a new level. In their first season together, Itoudis led CSKA to a 26-4 record in the Euroleague, but Vassilis Spanoulis’s late heroics for Olympiacos Piraeus prevented them from reaching the championship game.
This season, CSKA returned to the Final Four fully focused on going the distance after having led the competition in scoring and both two-point and three-point shooting percentages, while remaining effective on defense and playing fun-to-watch basketball, too. After its two victories in Berlin, including the highest-scoring title game since 1969, Itoudis was able to celebrate CSKA’s seventh Euroleague title. CSKA finished having averaged more points, 91, than any team in the competition since another legendary, run-and-gun team, Maccabi Tel Aviv‘s 2004-05 Euroleague-winning squad (92.0 ppg.).
Coincidence? Not at all, Itoudis told Javier Gancedo in this Euroleague.net interview. “We will try to stay competitive, consistent and play good, high-scoring basketball. This is something that I defend; when you have quality, you have to use it,” Itoudis said. “We can win in several ways, but basketball is a very attractive sport because a lot of things can happen within a second. When you have such players who can create and score, you have no right to play any other way. At least, this is my philosophy.”
Hello, Dimitris. Congratulations for winning the Euroleague title. Five times you won as an assistant coach. Now you have won as a head coach. What is the difference? What does it mean to you to do this for the first time as a head coach?
“Well, Javi, I will tell you this and you know we talked about it before. Yes, it is special, being the head coach and everything, but also the five titles I have won as an assistant and an important member of the Panathinaikos staff have a special place in my heart. Definitely, I am very proud of this one, but only because it is the first as head coach in my second season and after back-to-back Final Fours. I am proud for many reasons, and allow me now to use your time to number those reasons. First of all, I am proud of my players and the team. Don’t forget that we made 12 players Euroleague champions. That’s a big number. Going into the Final Four, only Kyle Hines, Victor Khryapa, Nikita Kurbanov and Andrey Vorontsevich had been members of a Euroleague-winning team. The other 12 players are first-time winners. Also, I am proud of my president Andrey Vatutin, who waited all these eight years going consistently to the Final Four, but never having the privilege to win it. I am happy for him because he put in so much effort. It is not easy to be a CSKA player or coach, but it is not easy to be its president, too. I am proud of Andrey Vatutin, Natalia Furaeva and Shchepan – sports director Andrey Shchepankov. And of course, our sponsors Norilsk Nickel and Mr. Ivanov for making it happen, to have such a team. For me, of course, it is special and this is why I named all those facts. By the way, not only 12 players became new Euroleague champions for the first time, but also four coaches. It is also important for this organization. This is the chemistry we were looking for since the beginning of the season.”
There is always pressure in the big clubs, but was there maybe more pressure and expectations put on CSKA this time to win after falling short in the previous six Final Fours?
“Listen, this kind of pressure is matching my expectations as well. Everything that comes of constructive criticism is positive pressure that makes you bette. And the pressure I put on myself is even higher, otherwise I can’t function. On the other hand, I know what kind of club I am leading and it is a challenge. When I signed with CSKA in 2014, we talked about that and I said I was very familiar with pressure, like you said. I grew up with Panathinaikos and this is what I said to Zeljko [Obradovic] after the final. Experience is something you cannot buy: you just gain it year by year, game by game, practice by practice and situation by situation.”
That pressure only got greater when Fenerbahce came back in the championship game. What did you want to communicate to most to your players when it looked like another CSKA heartbreaker might be happening?
“You know, until that moment, we had played 30 minutes of great basketball and with all due respect, we had a great opponent in front of us. Fenerbahce is a great team, very well coached and a great organization, and they managed to come back. Of course, the important thing is that we stayed calm and had direct, fresh, concrete ideas on what we wanted to do in overtime. To you, me and anyone who analyzes the final, it looks like we won it easier than expected in overtime, especially considering that Fenerbahce had the momentum and Sloukas hit a big three right away to give them the lead. We were so calm and determined, so focused that we knew where the mismatches were and where to get advantages. We showed character and this is what I like about this team. We are like chameleons: we can change colors and make certain adjustments that are needed in order to win games.”
One tactic you used in that game was putting Jan Vesely on the foul line, and you had Dimitry Kulagin ready for that purpose. How far in advance did you decide to prepare for that possibility?
“It is something you prepare: basketball is also mathematics and mind games. At that time, to be honest, the first time we sent Vesely to the free throw line was because Aaron Jackson made a quick, unnecessary foul on him on a matchup zone we were using. I was mad at him because he made that foul when it was not necessary. What I am saying is a true story: I turned to the bench and told our captain, Victor Khryapa, ‘Something good is going to come out of this. I [hope] that Vesely misses free throws [and then] we are going to foul him more often’. And it happened like I said. By the way, Vesely is a great player and the real picture is not the 1 of 14 free throws he made at the Final Four, in the semifinal and final combined. Still, the 0 of 4 he had against Laboral and the numbers he had all season, after following him, made us send a message to our players in the scouting report: if it is necessary to foul somebody, then we would definitely pick [Ekpe] Udoh or some players who are not consistent shooters, which is normal, a part of the strategy. Yes, we used it a little bit more. If we could not solve a situation, we could foul, but not intentionally or dirty.”
Milos Teodosic, much like CSKA itself, has lost his previous six Final Fours before this and never won ne. Did you talk with him in any special way to make him forget all the bad luck he had before this?
“I like – and I believe a lot – in individual talks and team sessions. Like I said before, I also believe a lot in constructive criticism, which can make you better. When you are ready to accept criticism, it means that you grew as a person and have character. There are certain things that happened during the season. We had ups and downs, but eventually you have to create that atmosphere that is necessary to be a winning team. It is a fact and it is obvious that we had this hunger, this thirst, this fire in our eyes. The team was so determined from the very beginning! If you go back to what Jack [Aaron Jackson] said when he arrived to Berlin – ‘We have been in the Final Four many times, this time we came to win it’ – it may look arrogant, because the other three teams went over there to win it, too. They didn’t go there for vacation and had the quality to do it, from Loko to Laboral to Fener, of course. I can only talk about my team and my players. Milos is a special player for us and is definitely one of our leaders. I talk a lot with him and it helps that we speak the same language: I speak Serbian, as you know. We had to talk about a lot of things and thanks to his character – he is a winner – he changed a lot of things in his approach to practices, to nutrition, to sleeping and resting, which is part of every player’s routine. I tried to get the best out of him. I would be stupid if I couldn’t use such a talented player. Definitely, I found Milos in a year that he already passed through a lot of situations, and I tried to build on those situations. He is intelligent and we had very good conversations and some arguments, of course. Without arguments, if you want to go out there and not have confrontations with your leaders, you are going to lose your whole team: that’s my approach. I am thankful to him and Nando, who combined to become a great perimeter combo together with other players like Jack, Cory Higgins, Vitaly [Fridzon] and Nikita [Kurbanov], who also play on the perimeter. This year, we had a good atmosphere because of the players and first of all, because of my captain. Victor is very experienced and played the Final Four under his own responsibility. He came back earlier from his injury to compete in the VTB League playoffs against Nymburk. Despite the fact that he had a red line, meaning that he was risking a lot, he wanted to be a part of the team and gave us a huge help. I am very happy for him because history is written with his basket tying the game. He was on the other side so many times, being frustrated. I am very happy for him. If there was a superstition, he put that away by tying the game.”
Nando De Colo had more points in the Final Four, 52, than any other player this century. He won all the awards and got to the next level with you as his coach. What did you do to bring out his best basketball?
“This is a good question, thank you for bringing this up. Actually, we could talk about this in two parts. First of all, when we came over there to this awards ceremony, the MVP, the Top Scorer, the All-Euroleague teams, the Best Defender and so on, Zeljko and [Lokomotiv coach Georgios] Bartzokas were laughing and joking and Georgios used that in the press conference, saying ‘What are we doing over here if CSKA won everything?’ That can be kind and the journalists, your colleagues, asked me about it. I said the truth, that I use these awards to motivate my players. Okay, individual awards are great and a big part of it, but you could never reach those if you didn’t have your teammates screening, passing, defending or just doing their job, accepting their role. This can be a little bit manipulated, making you feel comfortable about what you achieved until then, and then you don’t go for the big goal, the team’s award. We talked about that, but my players were very determined. It is different to be the Euroleague MVP than justifying it at the Final Four, during the games, in clutch moments. I am happy for Nando. First of all, Nando is very focused on what he is doing. He is a great professional and I definitely like working with him. He is in a different level and we understand each other. I talk to him a lot. Nando comes from a sports family. All the members of his family – father, mother, sister – play or coach basketball. Nando is also an athlete: he could be a soccer player, a volleyball player, and be good at that sport. Thankfully, he is a basketball player that plays for CSKA Moscow. As I told him, joking, the summer I tried to convince him to come back from the NBA, every relationship starts with a doubt. Nando had some kind of doubts – what kind of systems we would use, what kind of team we would have, what kind of coach am I? – but eventually he realized about everything: that is his character. This meshes well together with Teo and I am happy he is a leader, like him.”
The Top 16 group you played in was much like the Euroleague is going to be, the best teams playing the best, from now on. Did going through that group make CSKA a tougher and better team at the moment of truth in Berlin?
“I definitely talked about this: once again, thank you for this question. If we go a little bit back, we would all agree that teams are created during the summer, that you try to establish its philosophy during the pre-season, then you establish a character during the season and you win games with all those weapons that you have during the whole season, coming to the finals. So, you build the character by choosing not to go to the other Top 16 group. It seemed a bit easier, even when nothing in easy. We went to Malaga to play our last regular season game and it was a do-or-die game for first place: we couldn’t lose because we had lost against them at home. If we lost, we would have been second, but we chose to go and play this game like a final, qualifying to the most difficult group in Top 16 history with, be careful, six potential Final Four teams, plus a well-coached team like Brose Baskets and Zalgiris, which has a great home court. We built our character in this group and said that we needed to keep our home court untouched, something we managed to do. We got some key victories on the road against Madrid and Zalgiris, and managed to beat Laboral at home by a bigger margin that we lost. That allowed us to get the playoffs with the home-court advantage, which was huge.”
You had great words for head coach Zeljko Obradovic after the championship game. How much credit does he deserve for helping you become the coach that you are right now?
“That is exactly what I said, what came from my soul. If you are going to see the end of the game, I was running towards him because I felt I had the need to do it, to dedicate this win to him, although it was a difficult moment for him and his team. He is a born winner: Zeljko is a winner. But also, we are great friends, know our families and those years we spent working together and being together in several situations, going through several moments of our lives, it is something you cannot forget. That is how I feel and why I said that. He and the whole Panathinaikos organization have a part of what I became, what I am. Of course, I went back to my team, CSKA, and celebrated. I owe them a lot for choosing me and like I said, I am happy for Andrey [Vatutin] because we worked together and did that together.”
You’ve now won two incredible finals in Berlin. This one was one of the greatest finals ever and left a lot of people amazed. Is it a sign of how much better this competition gets every year?
“Well, now you got me and I have several answers for that. First of all, I will give you that. I was just talking to my wife two days ago and I said: ‘What a coincidence!’ First of all, Berlin is something special for me and my family. I coached my first Euroleague official game with CSKA against ALBA Berlin in that same gym, on the road. So, that is also part of my own history! The first regular season game in the 2014-15 season was ALBA vs CSKA, my first game, in which I also had some injured players. A lot of memories came here and there about the 2009 Final Four and then it’s 2016, of course. Berlin has a special part in my heart, for sure. Now, going to the competition, you know that I am a fan of playoffs and Mr. Bertomeu knows that as well with a full, huge respect to the organization. The Final Four is great, but I do believe that, slowly, in the next few years, I don’t know when though, basketball will become even bigger and the competition will be even bigger with playoffs. The Final Four is great, well-organized, there was something special with that atmosphere and Fenerbahce fans, but allow me to say that we applaud and say thank you to 1,500 CSKA fans that came over there and were loud! We could hear them behind our bench! Laboral and Loko fans were also great. It was spectacular and I am looking forward to the next one because a lot of people say reaching the goal is easier than staying on top. We will try to stay competitive, consistent and play good, high-scoring basketball. This is something that I defend: when you have quality, you have to use it. The quality brings more fans to the stands and that is the purpose of Euroleague Basketball and our purpose, too. We can win in several ways, but basketball is a very attractive sport because a lot of things can happen within a second. When you have such players who can create and score, you have no right to play any other way. At least, this is my philosophy.”
After being so close so many years, how important from a psychological point of view was this Final Four? Do you think this win puts an end to an era in which everything wrong seemed to happen to your team?
“Yes, the psychology was a huge part, I talked about that. You need to work hard, practice and have a good strategic plan, like we had in the semifinal, playing against a very good team, a surprising one. We forced Loko not to move the ball that much. And yes, psychology was important. We talked a lot, had a lot of meetings and tried to go and build our character, like I said, with constructive criticism, watching a lot of film and keeping our players always intense and alert. You saw that in the Final Four; their eyes were burning from the desire of winning that title. I am very proud of my team because all my players accepted their roles, we had a good chemistry. They accepted their roles even if it is a player who plays 6 seconds or another who plays 36 minutes. If you ask all players, they would love to play 40 minutes, but we all understood during the season what was each other’s role and nothing was just given, it was earned on the court, from Nando to Teo to young kids Misha [Kulagin] and Ivan [Lazarev]. They had an impact and a big contribution to what the team provides all year. Don’t forget that we were a team that had a huge miss in the Final Four, talking about our center Joel Freeland. He only played 26 games this year. Still, the team stepped up with a huge performance from Kyle Hines, Pasha Korobkov and Ivan Lazarev, who came from the [Russian] second division. Eventually, 12 of my players became new Euroleague champions, they lived their dream! Last season, Lazarev was a spectator in the Final Four in Madrid. He never could have imagined he could reach that close and lift the trophy. Each individual in this team has his own story and I am proud of that, us making it that far being part of this great organization.”
They say getting there is tough, but staying on top is even more difficult. CSKA has been to 13 Final Fours in 14 years. Which are the next challenges for CSKA and Coach Itoudis?
“The challenge is building another team with character and desire. The big goal should be to reach Real Madrid [in total Euroleague championships]. Me, personally, and CSKA have huge respect for Madrid; it is a huge organization, but they have nine titles and we have seven. That has to be the future goal. We don’t make, and especially me, such big plans. We need to be healthy and keep working together to build a winning team.”