Aleksandar Dzikic teaches the basketball brass in the skeptical country that there are several ways to succeed. It turns out that you can make a good team even without shining stars
Published on: 20.1.23 00:12
Aleksandar Džikić is really a good coach. To take a fairly mediocre group of players and get out of it what he gets out is very impressive. When Eyal Chomsky announced at the beginning of the year that this year’s main actor in the show is the coach – I believed him. Nevertheless, the Serbian coach has a nice resume, a lot of knowledge and a charismatic presence. On the other hand, I wasn’t sure that such a match would be successful. Džikić put together a very incompetent squad, with quite a few professional problems. I quickly realized that Chomsky was right, but with an asterisk: this is a coach’s team that was built in his image and likeness and he is the main man in it, but that does not necessarily mean that such a team can succeed here in Israel, but the main thing is that the coach is a show.
Israeli basketball is built on talented and dominant Americans, who are the main thing, while the coach, mostly Israeli, is pushed to the side, with his main job being to try and navigate between the centrality of the foreigners alongside the Israeli complements, and it is usually a mix that succeeds. Big or small, this is how the basketball teams in Israel are usually built, better or less.
Džikić brought his ideas from the Serbian habitat, i.e. the team game, i.e. there is no star above the team. the truth? We have already seen several European coaches in Israeli basketball, who tried unsuccessfully to instill the style they learned at home. But Džikić, at least in the test of the result, is succeeding for the time being and probably the word “and by and large” can be added next to it, there is no other way to avoid it.
Even if there is a smell in the air of a dominant player, let’s say Cadin Carinton, he will make sure to limit him in playing minutes, so that he does not overdo the offensive initiatives without the team method, which is more important than any player for the coach’s perception. accepts and respects. I didn’t really think that such a method could be successful in Hapoel, and even at the time of writing these lines I am skeptical, and this despite the fact that the Serb is teaching me and those who think like me a life lesson: there are probably several ways to succeed, and no – not only in the familiar and well-known style of Israeli basketball. On the other hand, the method can be perfected. Džikić’s control over his players is welcome, but it is not against if more talent is added to the team and it absolutely does not have to come at the expense of teamwork.
Last point: It is rare to see a basketball coach (Dzikic) who manages to implement the method, be honest and a gentleman almost at the same time and not just be a Danny Franco-style coach-dealer, who is busy hinting to his management through the media about a purchase or diminishing the opponent after the loss in the quarter The final (when he announced without being asked that his team had a tougher game than Po’el Jerusalem in Europe). Zero class, zero collegiality, zero stateliness.