By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Tony Parker, the coach, will face a legend, Zeljko Obradovic, in the Greek capital on Wednesday night as Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens hosts LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne in the second round of the new EuroLeague season.
Both teams started the campaign with a win, so this won’t be a simple game. ASVEL will not only face Sylvain Francisco, the star who signed with the club and was supposed to become its flagbearer into a new era before leaving due to financial issues, but Parker and Obradovic will also meet again as opponents in an official game for the first time since the notorious night in Novi Sad that ended Zoc’s second tenure on the Serbian and Montenegrin national team bench.
Obradovic hasn’t coached at the national team level since that game, and Parker went on to have a legendary career on the other side of the Atlantic. Their paths on the court crossed only once in the years between, when Fenerbahce Istanbul hosted the San Antonio Spurs in a preseason game back in 2014.
But 21 years ago, Obradovic and Parker starred in an unforgettable basketball drama.
It was September 20, 2005, at Spens Arena in Novi Sad. Serbia and Montenegro were hosting EuroBasket 2005 after failing to achieve anything meaningful at the 2004 Olympics, and the hosts, still the reigning FIBA World Cup champions, wanted revenge. It was also the last tournament for Dejan Bodiroga, now the Euroleague Basketball president, with the national team. Obradovic had been back on the national team bench since the summer of 2004, and this would turn out to be his last time with the squad.
As a player, Obradovic won a silver Olympic medal (1988) and a FIBA World Cup (1990) with the Yugoslavian national team. As an assistant coach under the late, great Duda Ivkovic, he won gold at EuroBasket 1995. As head coach, he added an Olympic silver (1996), another FIBA World Cup (1998), another EuroBasket gold (1997), and a EuroBasket bronze (1999).
The Serbs and Montenegrins expected a home triumph, but things in sports rarely go as planned. Suddenly, the heavy favorite was playing for its life in an elimination game before the quarterfinals, against an up-and-coming French national team.
Anchored by Tony Parker and fresh off gold at the 2000 U18 EuroBasket, that French generation was bound for greatness. Still, in 2005 it remained a question mark, with veteran leader Antoine Rigaudeau, a EuroLeague champion with Virtus Bologna in 2001 and an Olympic silver medalist in 2000, still the team’s leader.
France finished third in its group with a 1-2 record behind Slovenia and Greece. That put it in a tough spot, forced to play the tournament hosts, who had finished second in their group but tied with first-place Spain and third-place Israel at 2-1. The odds were against them, but France pulled off a 74-71 win over Serbia and Montenegro, with Rigaudeau scoring 14 points and Parker adding 13, and all hell broke loose.
Suddenly, the hosts were out of the tournament, a national tragedy in a country where basketball is a dominant sport. Many still remember Obradovic’s infamous postgame press conference, where he described the national team’s internal strife and the egos in the locker room, and essentially resigned on the spot.
That was just the tip of the iceberg. The Serbian and Montenegrin team returned to Belgrade by bus under police escort, a trip that took an hour. Behind the bus, at a safe distance, followed the cars of fans who had also made the trip from the Serbian capital for the game, creating a river of sadness visible for kilometers. It was especially visible from one of Belgrade’s most renowned restaurants, which overlooks the highway entering the city. Team officials and members of the press gathered there during the tournament, and, fittingly, the restaurant still goes by the name “Frans,” which is Serbian for “France.”
The story didn’t end there. Three days later, Obradovic appeared as a guest on a television interview with journalist Jugoslav Cosic on B92, further elaborating on the failure. It was one of the most painful moments in the sport’s history for the country, and Parker was among those who made it happen.
After so many years and so much water under the bridge, it’s both strange and fitting that two of that night’s biggest stars are opponents on a basketball court once again. This time, though, Tony Parker is clearly the underdog, and he’s already proven, 21 years ago, that he can make it in a hostile environment.
What can Panathinaikos counter with? Well, Dimitris Diamantidis will be sitting on the bench for this one, and his iconic three-pointer for Greece killed France in the semifinal four days after the game in Novi Sad. But that’s another story.
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