By Kostas Giataganas / info@eurohoops.net
If there is something that makes the Final Four in Belgrade intriguing, that’s the common denominator of the coaches of the four finalists that will compete for the European throne. That is none other than Zeljko Obradovic, who has the peculiarity of facing a former assistant (Dimitris Itoudis) and two former players, now all rivals on the benches (Sarunas Jasikevicius, Pablo Laso).
Saras, with this season’s miracle-working Zalgiris team, will go up against ZOC’s Fenerbahce in the semifinal in Belgrade (18/5), in a game with a lot at stake, but also several… subplots revolving around the relationship of the two coaches.
Obradovic and Jasikevicius are not just two people who found themselves on the same team at some point in their careers. They are two great figures who have made history throughout their career and, of course, their shared journey when they were both in Panathinaikos.
Just a few years ago the two men were fighting on the same team, as coach and player, and now they remain perfectly competitive in other basketball homes and, for Saras, in a different capacity, that of head coach.
Eurohoops chronicles their shared journey as fellow travelers in the Olympic Sports Center Athens and the destiny that now pits one against the other, to compete for the ticket to the EuroLeague final, with Saras, the student, wanting to show the teacher that he can use everything he taught him in order to beat him.
They won everything together
Their paths were destined to cross in 2007. Obradovic had led Panathinaikos to the first Triple Crown in their history, after a dominating season at home and abroad. But, because the motto of the Giannakopoulos family was “strength to strength,” the only choice was to select the best, with Saras signing an unbelievably rich contract and becoming a citizen of Athens on a galaxy of stars like Diamantidis, Alvertis, Batiste, Tsartsaris, Chatzivrettas and many others, under the instructions of ZOC.
“The reason I came to Panathinaikos was Obradovic and that decision was the best I could have made,” Saras had said about his signing with Panathinaikos and what led him there on his way back from the NBA, after flirting strongly with Olympiacos…
Jasikevicius’s three-year stint (his first) with the Greens was accompanied by many titles (three Championships, two Cups, one EuroLeague), with the 2008/2009 season being the most special, as it had a Championship, a Cup, and the European title!
This title that was won in 2009 in the Final Four in Berlin, where the best played against the best and where Saras made the difference, especially in the unforgettable semifinal against Olympiacos that was decided at the very end, in Panathinaikos’s favor. These games always intrigued the mind of the charismatic Lithuanian, who showed how many great things he was capable of on the court as a player and everything he promised to do as a coach and which we now see for ourselves.
His relationship with Obradovic had its ups and downs, with summers being something more than heated in regards to whether he was going to stay or not, however what remained the same for both of them was the common desire to win, the overpowering competitiveness and the constant mutual respect that characterizes them from then to this day.
He left but came back
In 2010, after three years together, Panathinaikos was a thing of the past – temporarily, as it turned out – for the Lithuanian, who played in Lietuvos and Fenerbahce before returning to Athens (2011/2012) to win another Cup and be ZOC’s mind on the court.
Saras’s presence in the Serb’s last season with the Greens was no accident and that was also the year he started to think about his future in basketball as a coach.
Even if – in the summer, amid the hurricane of departures and the team’s reconstruction – he said no to Dimitrios Giannakopoulos’s offer to take off his jersey and put on a suit to become the team’s… Obradovic overnight, the future was already written.
Jasikevicius was destined to become a coach. It didn’t happen with Panathinaikos but with Zalgiris, where he played in the last season of his career (2013/2014), before heading for the bench, where he accomplishes something bigger every day, always finding new motivation, just like his mentor.
The influence
Hanging up his jersey with his favorite No 13 (or No 19 in Panathinaikos), Jasikevicius jumped into the coach’s suit immediately and with ease, since he had acted as a coach as a player and was the coach’s mind on the court too.
As Saras has admitted countless times, his main coaching influences were two: Obradovic and Pascual, while in his autobiography “To win is not enough” he has mentioned influences from the other side of the Atlantic, from the great Gregg Popovich to Doc Rivers.
Regarding ZOC’s influence, it is obvious. Not just in the kind of basketball he wants to play, but also the kinds of principles he has. The trademark pick-and-roll the Serbian coach introduced for good in basketball is used excellently with variations by Saras.
It’s not only basketball principles but also the body language, the intense reactions, the attention to detail, as well as the need for something to be done right even if it ends up being wrong, rather than doing it the wrong way even if it comes out right in the end.
There is no better example than his reproach of Arturas Milaknis for the three-pointer that sealed Zalgiris‘s triumph in Istanbul against Obradovic‘s Fenerbahce. While everyone is celebrating, the Lithuanians’ coach is telling his player off for his thoughtlessness in shooting the ball rather than grinding down the clock in the few seconds that were left, so that Fenerbahce wouldn’t have enough time to shoot.
This yelling doesn’t just happen at the moment but has the aim of teaching a lesson so that he can get what he wants, in the way he wants it, always guided by his motivation, like the multi-winning Serb. “When, one morning, I’m no longer motivated, then I’ll stop,” Obradovic has repeatedly said, and that is a philosophy shared by Saras.
This is why he never stops creating motivation for his players. Reactions like giving out instructions to the bench players during the game, mostly to point out examples of what to avoid on the court, changing colors in his face from the tension or even protesting on the verge of getting a technical to wake his team up, all of this reminds one of Zoc.