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May 23, 2013

The head coach: Dusan Ivkovic

The man who guided Olympiacos to the mountaintop for its only Euroleague title yet, Dusan Ivkovic, hopes to mark the 15th anniversary of that accomplishment by lifting the trophy with the Reds again this season. Ivkovic, the only head coach to have won all four major European titles, spent three seasons with the Reds between 1996 and 1999, guiding the team to the 1997 Euroleague title.

After a decade-long playing career at Radnicki in his hometown of Belgrade, Ivkovic made waves as soon as he went into coaching, leading Partizan to both the Yugoslavian League and Korac Cup titles in 1979. Ivkovic remained mainly in Yugoslavia, apart from a stint at Aris in the early 1980s, until he joined PAOK in the 1990s, where he won the 1992 Greek League and reached his and the club's first Final Four in 1993.

Then, in his first season with Olympiacos, Ivkovic ended the frustration of the club's two previous title-game losses by pushing the Reds into the winner's circle in 1997. They made it a triple crown together by winning the Greek League and Greek Cup that season, too. Two years later, in 1999, they were back in the Final Four, but lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Zalgiris Kaunas.

Later, in between winning the 2000 Saporta Cup with AEK Athens and the 2006 Eurocup with Dynamo Moscow, Ivkovic took CSKA Moscow to three consecutive Euroleague Final Fours from 2003 to 2005. Three more Russian League crowns with CSKA, plus the 1990 World Championships title and three EuroBasket gold medals with Yugoslavia, also highlight his consistently outstanding career on the bench. Considered a dean among world basketball coaches, Ivkovic was honored in 2008 as one of 50 legends of the first 50 years of European club basketball.

At 68 years old, with more than 300 games in European competition under his belt, Ivkovic is still going strong as ever as he leads Olympiacos into the 2012 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four.

Euroleague.net