Dimitris Itoudis on building a championship team, coaching and the NBA

2020-03-23T13:04:59+00:00 2020-03-23T13:11:46+00:00.

Aris Barkas

23/Mar/20 13:04


Eurohoops had the chance for a long talk with EuroLeague defending champion Dimitris Itoudis about basketball and the end result was a clinic about coaching and the sport.

By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net

Just two weeks ago, when the coronavirus was only an issue in China and Italy, Eurohoops met in Athens with coach Dimitris Itoudis. The two-time EuroLeague champion as a head coach and probably the most successful ever assistant on the modern EuroLeague as the deputy of Zeljko Obradovic in Panathinaikos needs no other introduction.

What nobody was expecting, however, was that an interview with him would expand to a 40 minutes talk about the sport, starting from the Xs and Os and moving on to the NBA, the European influence in the league, and its future.

The topics were many, and that’s just the first part of the conversation as Itoudis explain how he tried to cope with following up a “golden year” for CSKA Moscow and then tackled a tone of issues, from leadership on a basketball team, the evolution of the European coaching style, a discussion with Dusan Ivkovic on this matter, his years in Panathinaikos with Zeljko Obradovic and the relationship of European coaches with the NBA.