The wider non-basketball public heard about Igor Kokoškov a little more than a decade and a half ago, when he became the first non-American member of the coaching staff of an NBA team. He became the first non-American coach to win the NBA league, and the first in the All-Star game, and in September he won the European championship with Slovenia, defeating Serbia in the final in Istanbul.
But behind that CV, hides the life story of a young man in a JNA uniform whose dream of becoming a basketball player collapsed due to a car accident while the country was collapsing.
In a big interview for Nedeljnik, Igor Kokoškov, the current coach in Utah, spoke about his life, his days in the JNA during the country's disintegration, about the car accident that ended his playing career, about the American dream, meetings with the biggest names in basketball, as well as US President George Bush.
One of those meetings was with Greg Popović. Kokoškov told an interesting anecdote for Nedeljnik:
"I worked for Larry Brown, and Popovic was an assistant to Brown. Quin Snyder, my current coach, worked in San Antonio. We have a lot of mutual friends. I met Greg in 2001, I was with the Clippers and we played at the Alamo ', it's an impressive building that also serves as a rodeo. David Robinson was still playing, and Duncan was dominating the NBA for his second year. After the game, Popovich came to check on Alvin Gentry, the Clippers' coach. And I, young and crazy, approach Greg , let's say goodbye, and I say: 'You are a good coach because you are Serbian.'
And he sneers like that and says: 'I'm not a Serb, I'm a Montenegrin.' I say: 'Well, it's the same.'
And he: 'And I'm not a good coach, but I have Tim Duncan in the team,'" Kokoškov said.
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