By Lefteris Moutis / moutis@eurohoops.net
What is the origin of championship coaches in the biggest European leagues? In the six big leagues a native coach won the title for the first time, but ne third of coaches in the Euroleague in the coming season originate from former Yugoslavian countries.
For many years in the biggest European championships most top teams chose coaches from former Yugoslavia. They had the highest level and they had the best results over time. Besides, if one looks at the Euroleague Final Fours up to 2013 there was not a single tournament that didn’t have at least one coach from former Yugoslavian countries.
Something similar still applies in the Euroleague, as 1/3 of the teams that will compete in the tournament next year will have a coach from former Yugoslavian countries. Giorgos Bartzokas was the last who was announced by Lokomotiv Kuban and now all the benches in the Euroleague teams are occupied. These teams will have a Serbian coach: Fenerbahce (Obradovic), Efes (Ivkovic), Bayern (Pesic) and Panathinaikos (Djordjevic). Aside from the Croatian Cedevita (Mrsic), Laboral (Perasovic) and Milano (Repesa) will also have a coach from Croatia. Also, Crvena Zvezda will have a coach from Montenegro (Radonjic).
However, paradoxically, in this year’s season no coach from former Yugoslavia won the championship away from their home country, at least in some of the advanced leagues. In Spain (Laso with Real), in Turkey (Sarica with Karsiyaka), in Greece (Sfairopoulos with Olympiacos) and in Italy (Sacchetti with Sassari) native coaches won the title, while in Russia the title was won by the Greek Itoudis with CSKA and in Germany by the Italian Trinchieri with Bamberg. Something similar happened in 2013 as well.
If you take a look at previous years you’ll see that there were seasons in which at least four coaches from former Yugoslavian countries became champions in the top five European championships. Actually, in Italy after Blatt in 2006, foreign coaches are a dying breed…
| Year | Spain | Turkey | Greece | Germany | Russia/VTB | Italy |
| 2015 | Laso | Sarica | Sfairopoulos | Trinchieri | Itoudis | Sacchetti |
| 2014 | Pascual | Z. Obradovic | Alvertis | Pesic | Messina | Banchi |
| 2013 | Laso | Ataman | Pedoulakis | Fleming | Messina | Banchi |
| 2012 | Pascual | Ataman | Ivkovic | Fleming | Kazlauskas | Pianigiani |
| 2011 | Pascual | Spahija | Z. Obradovic | Fleming | Kazlauskas | Pianigiani |
| 2010 | Ivanovic | Tanjevic | Z. Obradovic | Fleming | Pashutin | Pianigiani |
| 2009 | Pascual | Ataman | Z. Obradovic | Krunic | Messina | Pianigiani |
| 2008 | Spahija | Tanjevic | Z. Obradovic | Pavicevic | Messina | Pianigiani |
| 2007 | Plaza | Ors | Z. Obradovic | Bauermann | Messina | Pianigiani |
| 2006 | Scariolo | Ozyer | Z. Obradovic | S. Obradovic | Messina | Blatt |
| 2005 | Maljkovic | Mahmuti | Z. Obradovic | Bauermann | Ivkovic | Repesa |
| 2004 | Pesic | Mahmuti | Z. Obradovic | Herbert | Ivkovic | Recalcati |
| 2003 | Pesic | Ongoren | Z. Obradovic | Mutapcic | Ivkovic | Messina |
| 2002 | Ivanovic | Mahmuti | Sakota | Mutapcic | Belov | D’Antoni |
| 2001 | Reneses | Didin | Z. Obradovic | Mutapcic | Belov | Messina |