 Although Paris will be only his second Final Four, when it comes to experience, Dusko Vujosevic has lapped the other coaches he will see in the City of Lights. Vujosevic has about as many years on the bench coaching as the other three Final Four head coaches combined. In fact, he coached against two of them as players, including Olympiacos boss Panagiotis Giannakis at the original Final Four in 1988. But experience is not the only thing that separates Vujosevic, the Aleksander Gomelski Coach of the Year last season, from the rest. First a Partizan supporter and junior player before entering coaching, Vujosevic enjoys a special bond with the Partizan fans. He just completed his ninth straight season – and 14th overall – on the Partizan bench and has been, along with the fans, the main recurring factor in the club’s success. "There is a secret ingredient to our success... We always have a great desire to win," Vujosevic told Euroleague.net. "We work very hard and we try to improve every day in practice. We probably work more than all the other teams. I think the work we put in every day is more important than what we do in the games."
Hello coach and congratulations on reaching the Final Four! You have taken Partizan to the Final Four despite the odds. How do you feel personally about this accomplishment?
”Even the most courageous person could not have dreamed of us reaching the Final Four when the season began. But when the games began, we just thought about the best ways to beat our opponents. We simply tried to do our best. There are the fans, there is pressure, and you never think the opponents are better than you are. So we took things game by game and we arrived here at the end. The team was completed before we went on our preseason tour of the States, but without foreign players. After we added them, day-by-day we created the atmosphere we wanted and then the big wins came, giving us more courage and motivation. We're a good team, and by making a lot of upsets we arrived here. After the decisive game with Maccabi, there was a great happiness, but it was just for a short time. We had to look forward to the next challenge.”
When did you start to see the Final Four as a real possibility for your team this season?
”After Game 1 [of the Quarterfinal Playoffs] in Tel Aviv, that night I understood we had a good chance to reach the Final Four, but it wasn't easy to beat them three times in eight days. That is not easy for anyone.”
You said during the Euroleague American Tour back in October that it would help in the important moments of the season. How did that tour help you become a better team?
"It was very difficult to go there and play game against the best athletes in the world and lose by 30 or 40 points. Then you have to travel a lot, there is the jet leg, and we came back when the season was already started here in Europe. And we began with many defeats. But I think that when you go to play against big players, you understand what it means to play at that level, and you can improve. Those games gave my players a great lesson in playing at a different speed and intensity, for example. And I had the opportunity to talk with the coaches of those teams, exchange ideas and experiences, and it was very important for our improvements during the season. It was also for the club a good occasion to build more respect and tradition."
This will be your first Final Four since coaching Partizan at the original one back in 1988. What do you remember about your first Final Four, against such legendary players like Panagiotis Giannakis, who is now on the bench at Olympiacos?
 "We were victims of the competition system change at that time. Previously, there was just a final game between the first two in the standings, and in 1988 the Final Four arrived and everything changed. We were first in the table, but we played in the semifinal against Maccabi, which was ranked fourth, and we finished just third after beating Aris, which had legendary players like Nikos Galis and Panagiotis Giannakis, who was a player with great physical power, a great defender, a man with great pride. Our team was full of young guys and the better part of them became top-level players later."
What sort of particular challenge does Olympiacos present in the semifinal for your team?
"The game with Olympiacos is still far away. Let’s say that on paper, they are the favorite, but we play on a neutral court and all four teams coming to Paris have the same 25-percent chance of winning the Euroleague."
Even though Partizan is famous for its homegrown players, you found success with major contributions from Jan Vesely, Aleks Maric, Lawrence Roberts and Bo McCalebb - all relative newcomers to Belgrade. How do you turn new players into real Partizan stars so quickly?
“Each of us was born in a country, but it does not depend on us where that was. It’s just a fact that Vesely was born in the Czech Republic, or McCalebb in the United States or Maric in Australia. Here at Partizan everybody is a homegrown player! There are not Serbian players and foreign players. We know just Partizan players. All of them have the same rights and the same responsibilities. They play to accomplish what we set out to do in the locker room and during practice. They have to go out and do what they do best, simple things but all together, and the fans like that."
Partizan seems to lose important players every summer, but remains competitive. What is the secret to keeping Partizan a solid Euroleague team year after year?
"There is a secret ingredient to our success... We always have a great desire to win. We work very hard and we try to improve every day in practice. We probably work more than all the other teams. I think the work we put in every day is more important than what we do in the games."
Partizan has based its success on strength at home, where tens of thousands of fans create an incredible basketball atmosphere. How much did they influence Partizan getting to the Final Four?
”Listen, I think we won many important games on the road, like in Malaga against Unicaja, in Athens against Panathinaikos and Game 1 in Tel Aviv against Maccabi, so I think we're not just a home-oriented team. All teams play better on their home court, but we have the heart to win against big teams on the road. And we'll play the next games on a neutral court..."
Were you a Partizan fan as a young person, too, in the stands at Pionir, before making basketball your profession?
 "Yes, sure. I played for Partizan youth teams, but I did not have the talent and it was a bad situation for me knowing that I would never be part of the main team. So my job became different. I had no talent for shooting, but I had different talent, the one you need to be a coach, and I switched to that job. When I work for a team, I'm the first fan of that team, but when I'm without job, and it has happened, I support Partizan. My idol when I was a fan in the stands in Pionir was Drazen Dalipagic."
Partizan is just two wins away from its second Euroleague title. After so many years at the club, what would it mean for you, personally, to lift the Euroleague trophy in Paris?
"I know we are probably not considered the main candidate to lift the trophy, but to be there for me will be the chance to achieve the dream of my lifetime."
And how do you feel now for the players on your team when no one else believed they could do something like this?
"I¹m really proud of my players, they are great people first of all. They get along and work hard every day in practice, so I'm really happy for them."
|