By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
If you count in the one in which he was there as a player – with Partizan in 1988, Zeljko Obradovic has been to more Final Fours (16) than any club in European basketball history since the format was chosen as the standard. Putting his impact on European basketball into words is impossible.
It has been 24 years since his first Euroleague title – with Partizan in 1992, and Obradovic has lifted the trophy eight times, winning with Joventut Badalona in 1994, Real Madrid in 1995 and five titles with Panathinaikos from 2000 to 2011. Fenerbahce Istanbul is his sixth team in the Final Four. He also made it with Benetton Treviso back in 1998. And the best part is that Coach Obradovic always wants more. His next challenge is to make Fenerbahce the first-ever Turkish team to lift the Euroleague trophy, using last season’s Final Four experience in his favor and starting by playing a good game against difficult Laboral Kutxa Vitoria Gasteiz. “Naturally, this is the Final Four and everyone will have a big motivation, but we will try to play in a way that we believe is good for us,” Obradovic said. “The most important is to think about ourselves, to prepare ourselves and play a good game.”
Coach, for Fenerbahce, what are the differences between this season’s trip to the Final Four and last year’s?
“Going to the Final Four is always difficult, but this year, it was… let’s say there was a moment in which we understood we would be first in our Top 16 group, once we beat Lokomotiv in Russia. It was really a surprise for me, being first already with three games to play in the group. It was very difficult to talk about the opponents and prepare the players to keep playing the same way. We lost Vesely to injury in that moment, so we tried to use this time to prepare ourselves for the playoffs without knowing who we would play against. Anyhow, the road to the Final Four is always very, very difficult.”
Your semifinal opponent, Laboral Kutxa, has surprised a lot of people this season. Have they surprised you?
“Yes, they played very well. They are a very good team. They have a really good roster plus their coach, my friend ‘Peras,’ kept control of the team. They understand how they want to play. They really want to play hard defense and run the court. First of all, their two point guards are decision makers and they have a player who dominated this Euroleague, Ioannis Bourousis, but it wouldn’t be right not to talk about all of their players. They have some important players who didn’t play recently due to injuries. I really wish for them to have a full roster in the Final Four. They deserve it, and I know what it means for a player to be out in probably the most important games of the season. I hope that everybody will be ready and I wish for them to have a full roster.”
Like you said, Ioannis Bourousis is playing better than ever in his Euroleague career. You coached against him a lot over the years. What is different about him this season?
“He is playing with confidence. I know Ioannis for many years. He also had great games when he was with Olympiacos. Probably the relationship he has with his coach helped him a lot. I know he trusts Peras a lot and Peras trusts him. You can tell he is felling very good on the court. He is really someone who talks to all the players during the game, especially on defense, and in crucial moments in offense, the ball will go to his hands. He is a decision maker. He understands the game very well, has lots of assists and knows how to play one-on-one.”
Laboral depends a lot on very fast players like Mike James, Darius Adams and Adam Hanga. Does Fenerbahce have to take their speed away in order to win?
“Whatever we try will be difficult, because they have their style. Basketball is a game in which whatever you prepare, whatever you try to do, many things depend on the momentum, the players’ situation and their [desire] to play the game. Naturally, this is the Final Four and everyone will have a big motivation, but we will try to play in a way that we believe is good for us. A lot of Euroleague teams this year tried to stop their fast breaks, to slow it down and try to play halfcourt offense. I don’t think this is so important. The most important is to think about ourselves, to prepare ourselves and play a good game.”
Does the extra Final Four experience that your team has – you, Pero Antic, Kostas Sloukas, Ricky Hickman, Jan Vesely and others – need to be a factor in some way for Fenerbahce to win in Berlin?
“It is always the same question. If you make it to the final, everybody will talk about this, that it was very important for us. Some kind of experience for the players that were over there, especially if they won, will help them. They know what it means to be in the Final Four. But one more time, I believe that motivation and concentration in the game, especially in the Final Four, is more important than anything else. I hope everybody will have enough concentration. About motivation, I don’t even want to think about it; if one player doesn’t have enough motivation to play the Final Four, it is very difficult to understand this. I hope that the experience of the players that you mentioned will be a great help for us.”
You have a young floor leader in Bogdan Bogdanovic. What qualities do you look for in a young player like him before giving him so much responsibility?
“He is a player that likes basketball very much. He has understood long ago that he must work on his game if he wants to become an important player and maybe one day try to play in the NBA. In order to achieve this, he needs to work every day and I believe he needs a little bit more to be a leader, some very important things to become a team leader. It is what it is. It is not easy and it will never be easy for any player, but I think he is on the good track.”
Like Bogdanovic, Ekpe Udoh got better in each phase this season. How was he able to adapt so well as a first-timer in the Euroleague?
“It wasn’t easy at all for him. He was playing for Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA and had two players ahead of him, DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin, and it was very difficult for him to play over there. He came here and I remember that in pre-season, when we didn’t have many players available due to national team competitions and had to work with young players, things were not easy for him. First of all, he had to understand the way we work here, but I tried to talk to him a lot and convinced him that the situation would only last for two weeks and after that, things would be very different, and I think he understood that. He is a player that understands the game perfectly and has great quality as a person. He is helping the team in almost every aspect of the game. It is very difficult for him. After Vesely went down, we had another problem because one of our young players which we were betting on since the beginning of the season decided that he doesn’t want to play here. We were left with him as the only center in our team. Playing a lot of minutes is not a problem, but practice, I have to play him in practice at all times. We tried to do different things, but he is a big pillar in our team.”
Udoh, Luigi Datome, Nikola Kalinic and Bobby Dixon don’t have any Final Four experience. How do you try to make them understand what it’s all about before playing in Berlin?
“First of all, those players who were in Final Four will help them. We already talked about Pero Antic and Kostas Sloukas‘s experience, also Jan Vesely. They have to help them to understand this, just as me and my staff. I see that my team is very motivated, together, wanting to go all the way. It will not be easy, but I want to see the same spirit that we had in our playoffs series against Madrid. If we have it, I will be very happy no matter what.”
You and Velimir Perasovic were once world champions together. You’ve coached against each other several times. What do you think of how his team has played this season?
“They are playing very well and I am happy for Peras. I have always respected him as a person because I know him well, as well as a coach. He works very well and like I said before, you can tell that he controls his team in a way he gives freedom to those players that need it. I believe this is very important for any coach in any team. He is doing an excellent job this season, his team had a lot of really high-level games. The semifinal against them will be a very interesting game.”
Your former coaching partner, Dimitris Itoudis, is playing in the other semifinal. Last year you played each other for third place. How much would you enjoy meeting each other in the final this time?
“It is a similar situation to last season. I think that we have to think on the semifinal, and that’s it, this is enough. No matter what happens, I am happy to see Dimitris again! We are in touch a long time, we talk all the time and like I said many times before, we have a special relationship. We are really close to each other and I am happy for his success, once again.”
You’ve been to more Final Fours that anyone. You’ve won a lot and lost a few. What is it about this event that makes it so special to everyone involved?
“It is something truly special, yes. When you start the season, everyone is already talking about it and each and every one of us wants to be in the Final Four. It is something beautiful – you see fans from all four teams and the whole European basketball is in there. Media, TV, press… everyone is there and they want to talk about it. I know what it is like here in Istanbul: our fans already told me at the beginning of the season that they already had tickets to the Final Four! I told them ‘man, it is early!’ but it is what it is – people like basketball and I have no doubts it will be a great Final Four, because I was already in one Final Four in Berlin back in 2009 and know it is going to be. The atmosphere before and especially during the Final Four is special – that’s why everybody wants to be there.”