By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
Zeliko Obradovic is one of the important personalities in the history of European basketball. The 8 Euroleague titles, his dozens of other trophies and every country he has coached, his mythical career in Panathinaikos already belong to the lore of this history.
So what’s his secret? It’s so easy and so hard on the same time… Because in life in order to succeed even if the greatest of tasks, you have to do simple thinks. Obradovic doesn’t work for a living. He lives to work! To work on what he loves, for what he was born for: Basketball.
The coach of Fenerbahce/ Ulker opened his office in Ulker Arena and spend an hour with Eurohoops, during a period in which he has many more things to do. There, in his office, we spoke about everythink. In more interviews, the journalist is looking for a strong title in order to get noticed.
This is not the case. This is Zeljko Obradovic speaking straightforward about everything with a smile. He enjoyed and we did also, that’s why the time of the interview was in the end was doubled from 30 minutes to one hour.
Now you can enjoy too one of the best interviews given by the most successful coach in the hustory of European basketball.
– Coach, Fenerbahce/ Ulker qualified to the final four for the first time in its history, having a strange mix in its roster. The most experienced and successful coach in Final Fours has only two players who have been there: Zisis and Vesely. That creates a differences in the mental preparation, compared to the Panathinaikos days?
“That’s exact and that’s why missing Ricky Hickman was an even bigger blow for us. He was present in last season’s Final Four and he won the title. We will miss his experience. Still, for me personally things are the same. I try to get the team to feel as loose as possible and prepare every detail for everything we expect to face.
On the same time we have a very important job to do in TBL, in order to finish on top of the regular season. We expect a very difficult game in Besiktas’ home court. We have to be focused also in our middle goals. However, it’s also true that for many players who neven been in a final four, it will be a very different feel for them to play in a semifinal. At the end of the day, they have to think that they will do, what they do every day, play basketbal”.
– Real Madrid has a front line with many players who can score, but it’s still a back court team. The trio of Llull, Sergio and Rudy are producing the 50%+ of points and assists. Is it the key for Fenerbahce to slow them down, force them to play five on five basketball and control the tempo?
“I believe that Real has quality. Individual quality and also team quality. They also have a big advantage. They play together for many years under the same coach. They have been in two straight finals. Without a doubt the players you mentioned are really important. The same applies to Carroll and Reyes. Bourousis also has been there for two years, like Slaughter.
Of course the players you spoke about are the better creators. Still Real does many other things in high level, not only the transition. They have great plays on five on five situation, very good pick and roll, many isolations. They can score with many different ways, so we have to focus on everyone”.
-You mention pick and rolls. You are one of the coaches who teached Europe how to play it. Still the best pick and roll creators in Europe are either getting old, or they have already retired. We have seen Maccabi winning the Euroleague with two combo guards, Rice and Hickman. Is there any chance that in the next years we will see less and less pick and rolls?
(laughs!) “The point is to find easy ways to get the ball to the basket! If you have quality offensive players, you have to put them into a system that will produce score. I also insists that also in the pick and roll what matters the most is the quality and the IQ of the players”.
-Fenerbahce/ Ulker after a certain point in Top16 changes the “chip” and became much more effective. This was almost done overnight. How did it happened?
“During the regular season we played pretty well. Then we had a very bad game at OAKA against Panathinaikos. My reaction was to put the team in a hotel for six days. We ate together two times per day and the rest of the time was practice. Gym, hotel and then back. That did us good. I believe that we managed to change a lot in the team. And then the big time games came.
We lost to CSKA and to Olympiacos with a similar way. One of the games needed overtime, the other no, but both games were decided in the last minute. I spoke to my players and said to them: When you are played like this against two of the Euroleague favorites, CSKA and Olympiacos, then you can play and win anyone. You just have to fight from the first to the last minute. If you do that, then we have the chance to do anything. After that we started winning on the road in Euroleague and in TBL”.
-In your recent interview together with the GM Mauricio Gherardini you mentioned that you expected from Euroleague to evolve into a league which will give even more motives in the good European players to stay and not leave for the NBA. However, what does Zeljko Obradovic himself expects from the league?
“First of all, I believe that this is also about the person. It’s obvious that some kinds want to go really early in the NBA, even if they know that they will not play much. I can understand them. But why not stay here, have an important role and get better, instead of sitting on a bench? It’s always better to play!
The players must got to the NBA when they are really ready to play in the NBA, something hard in any aspect, since the contract you sign usually dictates also your role in the team. In Euroleague more and more gyms are full. The important thing is how more money can Euroleague attrack during the next seasons. In any case it’s not possible for Europe to compete financially with the NBA. Still, I believe that with even better conditions in Europe, some players will prefer to stay close to their families and play for the teams they really like. In Europe every distance is small.
I will give you an example. Every one is asking me how it was possible for the Greek players of Panathinaikos to be so important to their team. It’s a simple answer. They worked really hard. Before and after the game, the only thing that was interested them was to practice, to get better and be prepared. I am really proud for this! I want one day not to be asked anymore if the Americans, the Greeks, the Spaniards, the Serbs, the Italians, or the Turks are better. Good and smart players who work, are going to be the top. No matter where they were born”.
-The way things are going, after 2017 the salary cap of the NBA teams will be more than huge compared to Europe, the finanical gap will be chaotic. How can Euroleague and the European clubs react to that? If every player leaves for the NBA at his 20, then we will have a real issue…
“You already have your examples from the past, fille (ed.note: friend in Greek). Great players like Bodiroga and Diamantidis decided to stay in Europe. Some others leave early and they return. Let me tell you something that I never understood… How can someone gets to pick me and decide for my life? A players gets picked in the draft. He has no choice. No matter when any NBA team needs him, he has to play only where he was picked. Is this normal? No, it’s not. Everyone should have the right to decide for his own life. A kid gets picked in the second round and no matter what, has to play for the team which has his rights.
Are the players satisfied with that? What if the team which picked them has already many good players in their position? Maybe it’s the perfect system for the organization of the NBA! I am talking about how I feel about it. The big European clubs must extend offers to the players who are thinking about leaving for the NBA. To ask them what they think and what they prefer. If they want to leave, then they can leave. You can’t keep anyone if he doesn’t want to. It’s the same with love!
The problem is that in many cases the players are influenced by people close to them. When I am asked, I am always honest to them and tell them what I believe is the best for them. At the end of the day, it’s their decision and their life”.
-Ettore Messina is working with the best coach in the world. David Blatt is coaching a title contender, having in his roster the most complete player in the world! So I can’t but ask, will Obradovic ever work in the NBA?
“Honestly the only period that I was really thinking about it, was when I was in Detroit together with Dimitris Itoudis. They invited us and we stayed for more than a month, during their preseason camp. It was great experience. I spend all day with Joe Dumars, who is a real friend of mine. He would tell me every day: “Zeljko, basketball is the same all over the globe (laughs)!
We talked a lot about it and that was the only time that I was really thinking that a job in the NBA will not be problem for me. Since I came back, I never thought again about it. The future? Nobody knows the future. If I open my office closet and you see the videos of how many games of Real I have to see, you will understand that I don’t have time to think about the future. I am not ruling out the NBA, but it’s not on my mind. I am devoted to what I am doing now”.
– There a major issue in Europe between Euroleague and FIBA. What’s you take on the matter and first of all should we have national teams games during the season?
“The secret is one. Everyone is representing the same sport. So they can’t be enemies. They should be on the same table and talk. Unity is the better way to go. Now about the national team games during the season, I think that if the NBA players are not in their national teams, then the games will not matter. Will the NBA teams let their players go to their national teams during the season?
We all know that this is not going to happen. So I am asking something else. What’s the point of asking from the Euroleague players to stop playing for the clubs and compete in qualifying national team games, while the players of the NBA will not do the same?
-It’s a very logical analysis. So you expect that in the end everyone will be on the same page for the good of basketball?
“Yes, we all have to be carefull and not hurt the sport we love. You know what’s my dream? Unification of the rules all over the world! The NBA has some really good rules. We have also some great rules. The technical committee of FIBA is doing a great job on the matter. And if you noticed, during the last years NBA also adopted some of our rules. We must think of basketball as unified sport. When you talk, you find solutions. When you don’t sit on the same table, it’s hard… Euroleague during the last years is always in contact with the clubs. You see that things are improving every day, but more money is needed”.
-Coach, as a Greek and a basketball lover, I know from first hand your relationship with Panathinaikos. You don’t have to be a fan of the Greens in order to understand it. I believe that at least during the last 30 years in Europe, there was never a connection of love and adoration between a coach and an organization like yours. I include in this word the fans, the team members and the management. And specially with the fans, you had a special bond. So I have to ask, is there in the back of your mind the possibility to ever some day?
“I agree and I confirm that I am feeling exactly the way you described. I agree with every word you picked. My relationship with Panathinaikos is not normal! It’s not the normal connection between a coach, fans and a club. Whenever I have a day off, I feel that I want to visit Athens, as much I want o visit Belgrade. This need comes from inside me.
I will always continue to speak with my friends. Some of them are Greens, some others are fans of Olympiacos. I will never, never forget those 13 years of my life in Panathinaikos. That would be imporssible.
I don’t think in my life in stereotypes. If I will return or no. I respect the evolution of life and I know that it’s unpredicted. Did I expected when I signed with Panathinaikos everything that happened in the next 13 years? If someone told me that at the time, I would say to him that he is jocking! Only life can answer such a question. I am only sure for one think. Basketball is my life. For sure it will be really hard to stay so many years in an other club. If you look at the history of European basketball, you will notice that there are no cases of a coach staying so many years with a club”.
-I remeber you after the games between Olympiacos and Panathinakos in Greece in which there were fans’ incidents to say the same think: It’s not the job of the players and the coaches to solve the problem. The situation was similar in the last game at OAKA. Will this situation ever change in Greece?
“How many times have you seen the same fans behaving like that outside Greek borders, or in Euroleague? They know the risk is bigger. It may even cost them the right to play in the competition. Do you remember how things were in the English football? They decided not to let their teams play in Europe for some years. In Greece there should be stricter laws and those laws should be upheld without any loopholes. You entered the court? You are in danger of being banned from the league. No questions asked. I am very happy for the situation we have in our gym and everywhere else in Turkey.
It’s a basketball game atmosphere without any issues. I feel Greece like it’s my country. I dream of the moment in which in Greece normal people will go the gyms and enjoy the games. It’s unthinkable to have those two great teams on the court and not being able to enjoy it. You can’t go to the gym with your friend, if he supports the other team, and jock about it. So what’s the point? Sports were invented in order to celebrate the value of life and bring people closer. I hope that in Greece they will finally understand it. If they trust and invenst on the law, it can be done”.
-Coach I believe that you decide to work in a club not only because of its bugdet and the prospects it may have, but most importantly because you can feel at ease and have a sentimental bond with the team and its environment. Fenerbahce wants to have a new contract with you and keep you for many years in Istanbul. Is your priority to stay, do you feel this club as your home now?
“For one more time, I agree with the way you put the question. It’s the exact way that I work as a person. The most important think for me is to get what I try to give to everyone: Respect. I want to feel that they appreciate my job and the fact that I am at the gym from 9 a.m. untl late at night. At this moment, my mind is on the final four and the top position in the regular season of TBL”.
(Can you believe it? In Fenerbahce/ Ulker’s office there are boards with all the roster of the Euroleague and TBL teams, which are constantly refreshed and from those boards the possible transfer targets may emerge)!
I know that we are near the moment in which will talked with Fenerbahce about my future. It will be a very important discussion, because it concerns the project we have started and the continuation of the job we started. Do you remember how easy it was to extend my contract with Panathinaikos? Very easy. That’s the key for me. To be on the same page with the club and think the same way”.
-Out of respect to Fenerbahce/ Ulker’s fan base I have to continue my question, because your answer burns them! Do you feel that everything here is like you want to be and you will continue with a new contract?
“Honestly, everything is good here. The only think that concerns me is the following. I want to know that the president, the sponsors, our GM Gherardini, have the same ideas for the future of Fenerbahce. That’s the most important. We will talk and we will see. In order to continue in the same organization, you have to have the same philisophy and the same needs. Then you go on, specially in a club with the prospects and quality of like Fenerbahce. If this doesn’t exist, then it’s impossible to go on”.
– What is happening in recent years with the Euroleague champions? Since 2011 and the win of Panathinaikos by getting Barcelona out of the way, the favorite never preaviled. Panathinaikos, back to back wins for Olympiacos and last season Maccabi got the title. Why the teams with lesser budgets in the end get the title?
“That’s the beauty of basketball! The motive and the fighting spirit of the players, the fans, all the people who create a team, are the most important think. When you enter the court is just five men against five men and the press or the fans can talk about favorites and underdogs, but we you are on the inside, you know that everything can happen.
In how many games in Europe, or in the NBA playoffs you have seen a team losing by 30 and after two days winning the same opponent by 20 points? Everything counts, mental preparation, the extra motive, or having a good day”. .
The 8 cups and Madrid!
We asked from the most succesful coach in the history of Euroleague to describe us in the shortest possible way the first think that comes to his mind for each of his eight titles and also about Madrid. We didn’t expected that he would like the idea so much, so here are his answers!
Istanbul 1992: Partizan
My first season, young coach, young team. I will never forget the “professor” Nikolic entering the court and telling me: “Congratulations! I wish you many more titles”. I was in my own world in this moment and I was thinking that I got the title and that was the end of it, I will not win anything more. We were the youngest Euroleague champions ever with an average age, I think, of 21.7!
Τel – Αviv 1994: Juventut
I remember intensely the last 9 seconds of the game. Many of my players were already celebrating. I went to the scorers table to ask if the final was over. It was crazy. I remember that I was trying to relax my players before the game. We played against Badalone and the other semifinal was Olympiacos vs Panathinaikos. No one gave us any chance.
Ζaragoza 1995: Real Madrid
It was the time of Sabonis being dominant. We also had Joe Arlauckas. If I remember correctly Sabas played almost 20 minutes and he got 20 easy points. We gave the ball to him and to Arlauckas and every worked. Of course, without their teammates, we wouldn’t be able to make it.
Thesaloniki 2000: Panathinaikos
I think about Oded Katash. We got him from Maccabi, he played there for his whole life. Before the final he came to me and said: “Coach there’s not way for Maccabi to beat us. I will play really well”. He was totally confident and those kind of players have a positive effect in the whole team.
Bologna 2002: Panathinaikos
We were losing by 14 points. From a team that send so many players in the NBA and many of them had or are still having great careers. Even Ettore is in the NBA now (laughs)! You know what I remember? Just before the game a guy approached our bench and left an object just under my table. I asked him in Italian what it was and he said to me: “Don’t worrry coach, it’s nothing”.
After the game I took the object and asked some others what it really was. They answered me that it’s an object that Italians consider a bad luck charm! I started looking for him during the time of the trophy ceremony to thank him for his present! He was nowhere to be found. It’s probably the funniest story I have from a Final Four! It was the night that Bodiroga played like a master!
Athens 2007: Panathinaikos
This is probably the best final we have seen in the final four era in terms of quality and scoring.
Berlin 2009: Panathinaikos
This was the best Final Four in history, considering the competition and the total quality of the teams. We beat Olympiacos by two and CSKA also by two, despite the fact that in the final we were leading by 20 points. The life of four teams decided by one play! It was a great final four.
Barcelona 2011: Panathinaikos
The key was beating Barcelona in the playoffs. Then we had tremendous confidence.
And Madrid in 2015?
Who knows! I am thinking something funny! Many Turkish journalists were impressed by the way I was hailed at OAKA when I returned. So they ask me coach what do you think will happen in the semifinal? Because, you know, I was the last coach who won the Euroleague with Real Madrid in 1995. And I answered them, we have to see if anyone still remembers me after 20 years!