An Interview with Dimitris Itoudis, Basketball Coach

I was born in Veria, which is in the north part of Greece, pretty close to Thessaloniki. I grew up in a normal family in small-town Trikala, and I’m very grateful for the guidance I have from my parents regarding respect, education, and being honest and humble.

Back then, information was not easily accessible as it is today, so I searched on my phone and exchanged post mail. I found out that the best destination for me was ex-Yugoslavia, more precisely, Zagreb, Croatia. As a result, I went to the Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of Zagreb for physical education, and I studied basketball. Back then, Yugoslavia had one of the best basketball championships, and I wanted to learn from the best. This is where I made friendships and started working as a coach.

First of all, thank you for saying that I’m a great coach. I’m very humble, and I don’t know if I’m great, but I’m always trying to be professional, and that’s what’s important.

Secondly, regarding the organization, I believe in working together and that everyone is important when they have a mission to follow. Therefore, everyone on my coaching staff has some specific tasks to fulfill during the game.

In order to prepare, before the game begins, the players analyze the opponent, get to know the strengths and weaknesses of every one of the players they are going to face, and think about the strategy. So, we work based on the things we’ve seen and based on things that we scout.

During the game, there are many occasions when we gather together before a timeout, and coaches give their advice. It’s very interesting because the other team’s coach is also prepared. He’s also trying to implement his own strategy, and it’s pretty much like a game of chess where we make our moves. Basically, that’s the organization of the bench, where everyone has something specific to do, someone from a defensive point of view and someone from an offensive point of view.

Moreover, we have one assistant coach that is present during scouting. During the first half, he cuts the video of the game in pieces, so at halftime, I have the opportunity to show my players images of the game. It’s not the same when a player listens to the coach talk and when they can see an image of what the coach has been saying during the first half.

One of the things I keep saying to my team is that working together is essential. Even though every person on the team has their own skill set and individual characteristics, they need to combine those characteristics according to the needs of the team.

Therefore, it’s very important to understand that one individual cannot win or lose the game. So, it’s essential to work together, be united as a team, and not have personal agendas. That’s why basketball is a team sport, and you need to build good chemistry between the players.

The thing that inspired me was that I wanted to be taught by the best at the University of Zagreb. I have played basketball, but I never played in the highest rank. So, at the age of 21, I realized that I was not going to be a national team player, but I was thrilled and driven to teach young people.

Therefore, I feel privileged to have passed all categories from mini basketball, cadets, juniors, women’s basketball, senior basketball, and of course, EuroLeague Champions. Additionally, I evolved during my career, and I was thrilled to teach people and see them develop their skills. Also, the biggest benefit of my career is seeing people evolve and having so many friends worldwide. That, to me, is priceless.

I’m glad and very proud that I worked with great coaches. I wouldn’t use the term idol, but Dusan Ivkovic is someone that has definitely inspired me throughout the years. Another person that has inspired me is Zeljko Obradovic, who is my best man, and we worked together for 13 years. Besides these two, I have worked with a lot of great coaches like Bosko Bozic, Efthimis Kioumourtzoglou, and Djurovic.

You learn something from everyone you meet, and I’m very glad that all of these guys shared their knowledge and experience with me. I’m grateful to Zeljko, Duda, and all the other coaches that I worked with.

The individual awards are great, and I’m very thankful for my colleagues who voted for me. Therefore, the individual awards deserve to go to all of the people working behind the scenes, like physiotherapists, assistant coaches, my management, and all the people that are helping.

Moreover, I understand that as a head coach, I’m going to be in the spotlight, but I want my players to be grateful for all the help I had. Also, I believe in teamwork, so a big part of these individual awards goes to all my associates and all the players that helped in making this happen.

I’m a strong believer in the process. However, the process takes time, and we are proud that right now, we have been invited to coach the 3rd generation since 2014, which I signed when I came as head coach at CSKA. In this interview, I want to thank Norilsk Nickel and Andrey Vatutin for the invitation and, of course, my associates and players that I worked with. Furthermore, I’m very glad to coach the 3rd generation.

It doesn’t mean that if you sign the best 12 players, you’re going to have the best team. You need certain new roles to be fulfilled by every single individual. For example, somebody has to do more with fewer minutes, and somebody has to do the opposite. Therefore, everyone should accept their role and work together. However, that takes time, which is why you cannot build the best team in just one day.

I believe in the project. Besides that, we are coaches, we teach basketball lessons, and we need to remember that the players are from different countries and different religions, have different education and a different perspective on how life is supposed to look like, and we are supposed to teach them what the reality is.

Actually, the question is very related to what we were going to do a week from now, and it was one of my ideas when I signed in the beginning. I want my players to witness where the money comes from. So I want them to meet our main sponsor Norilsk Nickel, to see the synergy of many people who work under the earth to provide metals. Therefore, I think that it will be a great example, we’re going to be there for 3 or 4 days, and the people of Norilsk Nickel will host us.

Love what you do, be dedicated, have a great work ethic, respect the game, and the game will respect you back.