By George Adamopoulos / gadamopoulos@eurohoops.net
It is not just his profile or institutional role, whether on team benches or as the former president of the EuroLeague Coaches Association.
It is his vision, passion for the game, and commitment to its daily evolution that make coach Dimitris Itoudis speak openly about the sport he loves and his work, on and off the court.
Endless performances and experiences, titles, extroversion for what is happening or what he believes should happen in basketball, and at the end of the day, the pursuit of the next goal, for the past two years with Hapoel Tel Aviv.
Dimitris Itoudis spoke to Eurohoops about the return of his friend, Zeljko Obradovic, to Panathinaikos, as well as his personal “why nots” that he hopes will “open doors.”
The coach of Hapoel Tel Aviv also shared his proposal for EuroLeague clubs and their complementary presence in domestic championships proposing every EuroLeague club to have a second team for their domestic competition.
“I propose that the teams participating in the EuroLeague should have a second team, which will be called Hapoel Tel Aviv 2, Panathinaikos 2, Olympiacos 2…
These teams will essentially have a role of developing the athletes. This means that obviously that will be a second coaching team and the (main) team will be focused on having more games in the EuroLeague. In the domestic leagues there are different regulations and restrictions and this is also something you should communicate.”
He clarified things once again speaking about the roster rules about foreign players in the domestic leagues.
“In the Euroleague, no coach is told to play someone because of superficial reasons like having a beard, black hair, or a specific passport, be it Greek, Turkish, German, or Spanish. There are no restrictions or limitations. On the contrary, once we go to the domestic leagues, there are restrictions that are interesting, varying per country. But all of us in the Euroleague play under the same regulations in Euroleague, and under different regulations when we return to our countries.
This creates a huge inequality in terms of the coaching ability needed to manage all this in relation to the geographical and existing data. To recap, I think it is possible if we communicate it properly with the authorities of the corresponding Ministry of Sports and the European authorities and the people who govern the countries politically.”
The former Greek national coach refers to the condition of the Israeli club with its “home” games in Bulgaria, the combination of politics and sports, and does not hide his opinion on the potential return of his former team, CSKA Moscow, to the EuroLeague.
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