RS Week 10: We meet again!
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 Wednesday night's clash between reigning Euroleague Basketball champion
Panathinaikos and Serbian champion Partizan Igokea will have the winningest
coach in European basketball as a centerpiece. Six-time Euroleague winner
and Panathinaikos coach Zeljko Obradovic not only finished his playing
career with Partizan, but began his coaching career there and led Partizan
to its lone Euroleague crown as well. Obradovic wore the Partizan
black-and-white between 1984 and 1991, helping the club win a Yugoslav
Championship in 1987 and a Yugoslav Cup in 1989. His best season was the
1989-90 campaign, when he averaged 12.5 points per game. Obradovic took over
as the Partizan head coach during summer of 1991 and in that first season on
the bench he did the unthinkable: Winning the Yugoslavian Championship and
Cup plus the Euroleague in Istanbul by edging Joventut Badalona 71-70 with a
buzzer-beater from Sasha Djordjevic.
Panathinaikos center Dejan Tomasevic played for Partizan Belgrade during
four seasons in the late 1990s, winning the Yugoslavian championship in
1995-96 and 1996-97.
Efes Pilsen head coach David Blatt also will play against his former home
club. Blatt was head coach at Maccabi Tel Aviv for two seasons, between 2001
and 2003, winning two
Israeli championships and two cups, as well as reaching the 2002 Euroleague
Final Four in Bologna before being eliminated by the eventual winner
Panathiniakos in the semifinals, 83-75. He also was assistant coach with
Maccabi during two different periods, helping the perennial Israel champs
win a pair of European crowns: the 2001 Suproleague in Paris and in 2004 the
Eruoleague in Tel Aviv. Blatt coached many current Maccabi players,
including captain Derrick Sharp, Tal Burstein, Nikola Vujcic, David
Bluthenthal and Yotam Halperin.
Lietuvos Rytas playmaker Hollis Price began his European career with Le Mans
Sarthe Basket during the 2003-04 season, winning the French Cup and playing
in 10 ULEB
Cup games, averaging 11.5 points and 3.6 assists per game.
Montepaschi Siena has two Lithuanian players, forward Ksistof Lavrinovic and
guard Rimantas Kaukenas, but neither has ever played with the historical
powerhouse of their native country, Zalgiris Kaunas. Lavrinovic grew up with
Alita Alytus, while Kaukenas who will not be in the game due to his recent
knee injury, played college basketball at Seton Hall and then with Zalgiris
archrival Lietuvos Rytas.
AXA FC Barcelona head coach Dusko Ivanovic faces Chorale Roanne with some
sweet
memories of his own from France. Ivanovic coached CSP Limoges to a triple
crown of the French League and Cup and also the Korac Cup in the 1999-00
season.
Cibona Zagreb guard Damir Mulaomerovic returns to a former home when he
faces Aris TT Bank. Mulaomerovic spent two seasons, 2003-05, playing in
Thessaloniki for Aris's bitter rival PAOK.
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Monday, December 31, 2007
Euroleague.net
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