By Eurohoops Team / info@eurohoops.net
Serbian Darko Rajakovic was officially named the 10th head coach in the Raptors’ history on Tuesday, ending days of speculations and he now spoke to the Serbian media outlet MozzartSport about his new adventure.
“It is definitely a great honor and privilege to be in this situation. I am aware that this is a consequence of the huge results and success that our coaches and players have achieved in the past. Igor Kokosov, who came to the NBA league some twenty years ago, started to open doors for international coaches,” Rajakovic said.
As he explained, he feels that he is a product of Serbian basketball, despite spending a decade in the US: “I am lucky that I was born in Serbia, that I grew up in a Serbian basketball school and that helped me a lot to be in the situation I am in today, to be appointed as the first coach of the Toronto Raptors. I grew up watching our national team and our coaching greats, from Željko Obradović and Duda Ivkovic to Svetislav Pešić and Božo Maljković… There is a very long list of people and coaches who left a very, very deep mark on our basketball and who helped me a lot. Boša Tanjević also. I had the opportunity to be in Fenerbahce with him for two weeks, to improve, he opened the doors of his team to me and shared his knowledge with me. A lot of people have helped me on this journey“.
From Čačak, through Red Star, to the fifth division of Spain, and then to the G-League, Oklahoma, Phoenix, and Memphis for the last nine years, before taking over the helm of Toronto, it’s a long and unusual journey.
As Rajakovic says: “You know how no path is easy, everyone has their own story and development path. I learned that very early on, that as a coach I don’t have to compare myself to anyone and that I shouldn’t look at how someone else succeeded or failed, but that I should fight my way, to persevere. Of course, there were many sacrifices. It was not easy to leave either Serbia, or my home, to work in Spain, and then go to the USA. These are my big sacrifices, as well as my family’s who accompany me on that journey“.
NBA media claim that at the beginning new Bucks coach Adrian Griffin, Kenny Atkinson, Charles Lee, and Sergio Scariolo were ahead of him on the list, but in the end, Rajakovic came out on top.
“That’s a great question”, he said when asked about what made the Raptors pick him, “but it’s for Masai Ujiri and Bobby Webster and the rest of the franchise people who made that decision. When I entered the whole process, I had no intention of pleasing anyone and simply wanted to present myself, who I am and what I am, what my beliefs are, and what my basketball philosophy is. In the end, they liked it the most, so they decided to hire me“.