By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Coach Ivkovic, 73, is stepping down from an unprecedented 48-year career on the bench by coaching one last game in which an all-star team of his former players will face Olympiacos Piraeus, the club that he led to two Turkish Airlines EuroLeague titles. He joins players Dimitris Diamantidis, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Juan Carlos Navarro, Theo Papaloukas, Ramunas Siskauskas and Mirsad Turkcan as recipients of the award.
“It gives us great pleasure to know that Dusan Ivkovic is the first coach to become a Euroleague Basketball Legend,” said Euroleague Basketball President and CEO, Jordi Bertomeu, who will present the award to Coach Ivkovic on Wednesday in Piraeus. “It’s impossible to overstate Dusan’s status in the world of coaching, both as a mentor to an endless list of great players and as a shining example to others in his profession. His contributions to Euroleague Basketball – which go beyond his being the only coach to win the title in both of our competitions – are immense.”
Among the players who Coach Ivkovic helped make famous who will play for him in his last game on the bench are point guards Thomas Heurtel, Stefan Markovic, Milos Teodosic and Nikos Zisis; shooting guards Bogdan Bogdanovic and Kostas Sloukas; small forwards Cedi Osman, Nikola Kalinic and Furkan Korkmaz; power forwards Pero Antic, Dario Saric and Viktor Khryapa; and centers Kyle Hines and Boban Marjanovic.
Source: EuroLeague