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50 Years interview: Jure Zdovc, Limoges
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 There are journeymen and then there are journeymen. Jure Zdovc not only played on 12 teams in a 20-year career, but he was a leader everywhere he went, although never moreso than in Limoges, France in 1993.
Hello, Jure. it is time to remember that unbelievable 1992-93 season in which Limoges lifted the Euroleague title. What comes to your mind when you remember those days?
"When I remember that year, two things come to me. One, before I signed for Limoges, I had an offer from the Los Angeles Lakers, so I was between two big choices. I had promised our coach, Boza Maljkovic, that I would come to Limoges. But on the other side, the NBA was the NBA. At that time, however, all my friends who had gone there had bad experiences in the NBA. They didn't play, the coaches didn't trust them, so they didn't get any chance. It was not like now. It was different then, so I decided to stay in Limoges. The other thing I remember is that Mr. Maljkovic was such a hard coach, especially from me. I was the only player from ex-Yugoslavia and the point guard. So he was always on me: 'Jure, why do you do this? Why don't you do that?' It was a hard year for me. He was in my dreams every night. It was not easy. But in the end, we won all the titles, the Euroleague and the French League too. I think we lost only one playoff game in the whole French League season. But of course, the biggest was winning the Euroleague."
Limoges surprised a lot of people. Did the players go into the season thinking that, with a coach who had won two of the previous four titles, a Euroleague trophy was possible?
"I don't think so. Limoges when I arrived was a complete new team. They had changed a lot of players. Boza had come the year before in the middle of the season. He read the situation and changed the team. Just Richard Dacoury and maybe one other guy stayed from the previous team. So, it was a completely new team and definitely we didn't have the great talent to think about winning the Euroleague. In our mind was just to try to win as many games as we could."
Maljkovic made Limoges competitive with a style based on strong defense and long possessions, keeping games between 50 and 60 points. What did the players think of that idea when the season was just starting?
"It was hard to play that way, especially for me, a point guard who liked to play a fast game. He didn't allow us to play with fastbreaks anymore. It was slow, control basketball and hard defense. In the end, everybody complained, but in the end, everybody copied it, too. Over the next few years, all the big teams played like this, and all the results were pretty low, a lot of games with scores in the fifties and sixties, sometimes the low seventies. The way we won the Euroleague showed the way that basketball would be played for some time after that."
At the Final Four, seemingly against all odds, Limoges defeated Real Madrid with Arvydas Sabonis first, and Benetton Treviso with Toni Kukoc in the title game. Some people consider Limoges the biggest surprise ever in Euroleague history. Do you agree?
"Yes, I agree, but the truth is that we really played good all year long. And by the time we got to the Final Four, we were very, very self-confident. When we played the Final Four, we weren't intimidated by those teams because we had one big advantage: we had nothing to lose. That is always a big advantage over teams that must win. When you play without pressure, you play free: if you win, perfect, and if you lose, well, no one gets hurt.".
What did it mean for you to win the Euroleague title with Limoges and where does that trophy stand in your career?
"At that time, I didn't think much about it. Life goes on, and in basketball, your most important game is always your last one. If the last game was bad, people talk against you and forget about the Euroleague title. But these days, especially around Final Four time each year, the memories usually come through, sometimes because someone calls you, friends or journalists. Or if Limoges has a celebration, they always remember you. This is nice. But I am a coach now, and tomorrow is new game, so you must win again. I don't have much time to remember, but it means a lot to me, for sure."
You and fellow Slovenians Ivo Daneu and Matjaz Smodis are among 100 players nominated to become one of the 50 greatest basketball personalities in the first 50 Years of European Club Basketball. How does it feel to have your name considered as one of the all-time greats?
"Definitely, it's a great honor to see your name in this list with all those great players. I didn't always have such a great opinion about myself when I was a player. That was one of my weaknesses, maybe. So it's great honor to see my name with theirs now. I know so many great player are on the list that it is almost impossible to be named in the final 35, but it's nice to see myself there, anyway."
You played against and alongside all the great European players in the late eighties and throughout the nineties. Did any particular player impress you the most in your basketball career?
"I definitely think that Nikos Galis was one player that I respected a lot, especially because it was really difficult to play every game so good and so concentrated as he did. I remember the detail of us playing him right after his father died in the United States, but he still came to the game and played great. You could see sadness in his eyes, but he still scored 40 points. He was really a special player."
European club competitions keep growing and become more competitive. Recently you experienced a five-overtime classic in which your team, KK Bosna, lost against Alba Berlin. Do you think that the average level of European clubs is higher than ever?
"I definitely think that after a few years of things going down, now things are going up again, slowly, just in the last two or three years. During five or six years before that, especially with the group of European players going to the NBA and borders being opened to all players, basketball in Europe became a little weak. Now, things are slowly getting better and better, and I hope the future will go in the same way. It would be good for all of us, and coaches especially. The problem is that there are still a lot of countries that don't respect contracts, and this is sad for players and coaches who work hard and must try to win every game. These kinds of things either ULEB or FIBA or both must fix as soon as possible. I have had bad experiences with some teams that don't respect contracts."
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Friday, December 28, 2007
Frank Lawlor, Euroleague.net
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