Darko Rajakovic is simply the second European to be at the moment head teaching within the NBA, however he comes from a protracted checklist of trainers who’ve traditionally impacted the league with their international basketball affect. As curious as it could sound, Serbia is likely one of the nations that has contributed essentially the most to the game each on the teaching sidelines and the court docket. 

The 44-year-old, who final month was appointed as the most recent Raptors coach, insists in bringing his Euroleague expertise to the NBA, additionally borrowing good performs from a few of the most essential Serbian coaches of the previous couple of many years.

From working beneath Sasha Djordjevic, to sharing the identical start place as legendary strategist Zeljko Obradovic, it appears as if Rajakovic has all of the knowledge he wants to achieve Toronto.

Darko Rajakovic brings extra Europe to the Toronto Raptors, after borrowing from Sasha Djordjevic’s playbook and being mentored by Zeljko Obradovic #NBAhttps://t.co/vhZv7Bx9a9

— Eurohoops (@Eurohoopsnet) July 6, 2023

“Europe has an incredible affect on the NBA,” he not too long ago mentioned in an interview. “There are an increasing number of NBA coaches, who research, watch, and respect the EuroLeague and European coaches. I come from Serbia. I used to be at all times near the ABA League, the Spanish League, or the EuroLeague.

“I at all times discovered from the very best coaches. I used to be trying to ‘steal’ information from them. At any time when I may apply it in working with my groups with a view to assist us, we used all this stuff. Not solely in offense but additionally in protection. I’ll definitely proceed to do this now in Toronto.”

Igor Kokoskov’s 2018/19 marketing campaign with the Phoenix franchise was one of many first play-callers from Europe to actually affect the NBA. Rajakovic is satisfied he’s out to observe his footsteps and past.

“Impressions are slowly coming collectively,” he mentioned about his first month in Canada. “On daily basis I’ve an increasing number of alternatives to get to know folks and the way the group works, which is likely one of the finest, if not the very best, within the NBA. This issues the construction, the individuals who work within the franchise, the expertise they’ve, and the continuity of success. The whole lot was delivered to the very best degree.”

In accordance with sources, Spanish coach Jordi Fernandez and Italian coach Sergio Scariolo had been additionally among the many principal candidates for the Raptors job. With this data, there’s little doubt that the Toronto membership was in search of European affect on their sport.

“The method was lengthy. There have been totally different components of the interview and dialog,” Rajakovic recalled about his first talks with the membership. “The whole lot was organized from early within the morning till late within the night. We had discussions concerning the crew and my offensive and defensive philosophy.”

Rajakovic reminisced on all of the steps he had to soak up his profession to lastly land a head-coaching job within the NBA

It took the Serbian coach 28 years of teaching to lastly land a head-coaching job within the NBA, together with assistant roles with the Memphis Grizzlies, Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder and the Phoenix Suns since 2014.

“After working in Crvena Zvezda, I felt the necessity to be taught and enhance. I simply wished to see a distinct work system,” he expressed. “At that second, the Spanish nationwide crew was making nice outcomes. They’d the very best home league, they usually nonetheless have it. So it was inspiring for me to attempt myself in a distinct setting.”

Earlier than he began out within the NBA, he suceeded in head-coaching jobs with the G League’s Tulsa 66ers, in addition to coaching Espacio Torrelodones in Spain’s fourth-tier division for 5 years.

“It turned out to be the best transfer as a result of there I discovered a whole lot of issues that ready me for the G League,” Rajakovic recalled. “To start with, when it comes to interpersonal relations, professionalism, strategy to video games. I used to be ready in Spain to improve the fundamental schooling I obtained in Serbia.”