By John Rammas/ irammas@eurohoops.net
After a short hiatus playing in the 7DAYS EuroCup, Zvezda returned to the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague full of ambitions for a course that would be better than the last one (14th place) and – why not? – better than the one before that (ninth place), which was the first one with the current format, when they had lost the qualification for the playoffs in a tie with Darussafaka Tekfen Istanbul. This season, various reasons led to the premature removal of Milan Tomic after just three rounds (1-2), before Andrija Gavrilovic assumed the duties of interim coach to guide the team for the next seven rounds (2-5).
With just three wins almost a third of the way into the regular season, the need for an even more drastic change on the bench was more than imperative. Enter Dragan Sakota.
The 67-year-old Serb is not just anybody. He has decades of experience on benches, starting from 1983 in Serbia, Croatia, Greece, Italy and Turkey, and has won international titles (FIBA Saporta Cup 1991, FIBA Champions League 2018). But he hadn’t coached since the end of 2018, when he had stepped down from the helm in AEK in order to become the team’s sports director, in addition to being head of their development program. Also, he hadn’t coached in the EuroLeague since 2004 with Olympiacos Piraeus.
But he was no stranger to Zvezda, where he had coached from 2005 to 2007, and that was enough, considering the circumstances. And along with Sakota came the victories.
Zvezda has gone 6-2 under his guidance, moving to eighth place and 9-9 overall from 12th place on the day he was hired.
DRAGAN SAKOTA @ CRVENA ZVEZDA
vs. Valencia Basket 76-73 W
@ AX Armani Exchange Milan 67-77 W
vs. KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz 64-72 L
@ CSKA Moscow 100-74 L
vs. Olympiacos Piraeus 88-81 W
@ Zenit St Petersburg 58-65 W
vs. FC Bayern Munich 93-63 W
@ LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne 80-83 W
The last win was the most impressive – until the next one. Despite falling behind by 21 points against LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne, Zvezda was able to turn it around through a long counterattack and walked away from Villeurbanne with an 80-83 win. The man of the hour for the Serbian team was newly acquired guard Kevin Punter, who scored the game-winning three-pointer with 1.9 seconds left.
How did a player with very few days on the team and in just his second appearance with them ended up being a protagonist, and even taking on the last shot? The explanation is simple. The 26-year-old American shooting guard did the same when he was Sakota’s player at AEK in 2018, in a collaboration that had led to a FIBA Champions League trophy (Punter was MVP of that competition’s Final Four) and the Greek Cup title.
KEVIN PUNTER @ CRVENA ZVEZDA MTS BELGRADE
16.5 pts | 57.1% FG | 1 reb | 3.5 ast | 0.5 stl | 1.5 tov | 21 min | 15.5 PIR | 2G
As for the Serbian Vladimir Stimac and his third stint in the team (2008-10, 2015-16, 2019-today), things are even simpler.
VLADIMIR STIMAC @ CRVENA ZVEZDA MTS BELGRADE
13.3 pts | 75% FG | 5 reb | 1 ast | 1 blk | 1.3 tov | 24 min | 15.3 PIR | 3G
Obviously, they are not the only ones who are credited with the vertical rise in Zvezda’s performance. Lorenzo Brown and Billy Baron have been standing out throughout the season. It’s just that, until recently, they hadn’t seen their efforts pay off. But in the Sakota era, everything’s different.
It remains to be seen how much more different things can become as they move ahead, with Zvezda playing four of their next five games at home.
NEXT UP
vs. Zalgiris Kaunas 15/1
vs. ALBA Berlin 17/1
@ FC Barcelona 23/1
vs. Anadolu Efes Istanbul 31/1
vs. Panathinaikos OPAP Athens 5/2
Zvezda’s home record is not one of the strongest (5-4), but the first two games against teams outside of the top eight are the kind of games that can define the course of an entire season.
Mission possible?
Photo credit: Getty Images