By Antonis Stroggylakis / info@eurohoops.net
BERLIN– It took five years for Fenerbahce Beko guard Marko Guduric to finally return to EuroLeague Final Four.
Over this period, Guduric experienced a lot. He had a brief stint in the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies and then returned to Europe to join Fenerbahce once more. In 2023, the Serbian player committed to multiyear contract extension, confirming that his bond with the club runs deep.
“I changed of course. I’m older. My body hurts more,” Guduric told Eurohoops a day before the EuroLeague semifinal vs. Panathinaikos Athens.
While asked how Guduric plans to help Fenerbahce win the EuroLeague championship that would be the team’s first since 2017, he switched the conversation from himself to the mastermind of the Turkish team’s turnaround this season: Coach Sarunas Jasikevicius.
Saras replaced two-time EuroLeague champion as head coach Dimitris Itoudis after Fenerbahce began the season with a 5 – 8 record. He steered the squads towards the playoff spots and a flirt with the Top 4, before a 6-th place regular-season finish.
The full impact of this metamorphosis was felt in the playoffs. Fenerbahce eliminated AS Monaco by becoming the first team ever in EuroLeague history to in the knockout Game 5 on the road.
“Just with Saras coming to the team, it changed a lot of things for us,” Guduric said. “It took us some time to adjust to his system and to his philosophy but once we clicked it’s been going really well for us. I’m just trying to be part of the team, part of the system and the rules and trying to do my best in any possible way.
“Sometimes it’s scoring, sometimes it’s creating for others,” Guduric said. On a team where offensive duties are quite equally shared, Guduric is averaging 9.1 points, 2.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds in 21:33. “We’ll see what’s going to happen tomorrow.”
Saras had built a reputation for being a coach who operates with a rigorous set of basketball principles that some would call them “strict.” Guduric believes that adhering to the Lithuanian tactician’s rule book, paved the road to success for Fenerbahce.
“It’s this team spirit,” Guduric commented. “Team game first of all. And just staying with the rules. Following the rules. He’s really preaching a lot about this. Follow the rules – do this. And it has been like this. Every time we’ve followed the rules it was good for us.
“We should try to do more of this,” Guduric added, referring to the upcoming Final Four that starts with the semifinal against Panathinaikos Athens.
There are many different weapons that Panathinaikos used to make its Final Four comeback for the first time since 2012. The most prominent offensive one is arguably former NBA guard Kendrick Nunn.
Nunn emerged as a EuroLeague superstar in his debut season in the competition, posting 15.9 points, 3.0 assists and 2.6 rebounds. He quite increased his numbers in the playoffs vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv, moving to 19.2 points to earn a spot on the All-EuroLeague First Team.
Guduric respects what Nunn brings on the court but picks another Panathinaikos player as the one who put the team’s wheels in motion.
“I would say Slouki (Sloukas) is the engine of the team to be honest,” Guduric commented. He was a teammate of Sloukas back when the Greek guard played at Fenerbahce. “Because of his experience. He’s Greek and players know him and trust him. Of course Kendrick is having a great season but I think him without Slouki… Both of them are very very dangerous and of course our focus is going to be on them.”