Dusan Ivkovic has won the annual Euroleague Coach of the Year award for the recent 2011/2012 season.
The entitled Alexander Gomelsky trophy was established in 2005 when the father of the Soviet and Russian basketball plus one of the best and most successful European experts died.
Basketball coaches of last season’s Euroleague participants had no doubt to choose the best. The now former Olympiacos coach was that one guy.
At 68, Serbian Ivkovic was the oldest coach to win the Euroleague as he steered the ultimate underdog in Olympiacos to glory in May at the Euroleague Final Four in Istanbul.
He is the only coach who has won trophies in all European club competitions, the Euroleague twice (Olympiacos Piraeus), Radivoj Korac Cup (BC Partizan Belgrade), Raymond Saporta Cup (PAOK Thessaloniki) and the ULEB Cup (MBC Dynamo Moscow), he also has seven national titles with Partizan, PAOK, Olympiakos (2) CSKA (3) and six national cups.
He led the national team of the former Yugoslavia to three European Championship gold medals (1989, 1991, 1995), World Championship gold (1990) and two Olympic Games silver medals (1988, 1996), and with Serbian national team won the silver medal at Eurobasket in 2009.
Pini Gershon (Maccabi Haifa, 2005), Ettore Messina (CSKA, 2006 and 2008), Zeljko Obradovic (Panathinaikos, 2007, 2011), Dusko Vujosevic (Partizan, 2009), Xavi Pascual (Barcelona, 2010) have all won the Alexander Gomelsky trophy in the past.
The award ceremony will be held on July 6 in Barcelona.
