101 Greats of European Basketball

Vladimir Stankovic
Jiri Welsch, Marko Milic, Slavko Kotnik, Matjaz Tovornik,
Peter Vilfan and Radoslav Curcic as players. The “white”
team, coached by Dusan Ivkovic and Zeljko Obradovic,
featured Toni Kukoc, Vlade Divac, Dino Radja, Sasha
Djordjevic, Stojko Vrankovic, Predrag Danilovic, Velimir
Perasovic, Zarko Paspalj, Zoran Cutura, Dejan Bodiroga,
Richard Dacoury, Panagiotis Giannakis, Lefteris Kakiousis
and Roberto Brunamonti. Zdovc played one half
with each team. That is when Ivkovic awarded him his
EuroBasket 1991 gold medal. Better late than never...
Leader of the “miners”
Zdovc was a smart player. He had really quick hands,
was a safe ball-handler with a reliable shooting touch,
and, above all, was a great defensive player. He wasn’t
very attractive for fans, but he was perfect for any
coach. He wasn’t a pure scorer but could do it if his
team needed that. He was a point guard with very good
court vision and an excellent defender who was always
assigned to guard the best opposing guard.
When Bozidar Maljkovic started his first full season
with Limoges in the summer of 1992, the first player he
asked for was Zdovc, who had played for Kinder Bologna
the previous season. Limoges managed to sign him
and the great tandem Jure Zdovc and Michael Young
was born. Limoges was not even a favorite to reach
the Euroleague playoffs. Nonetheless, it managed to
get all the way to the Final Four in Athens – and win the
competition! To this date, it is still the biggest upset
in Euroleague history. Partizan had been a surprising
winner in 1992, but with a much more talented team
than Limoges. Maljkovic called his players at Limoges
“miners” as a way of comparing their hard work on the
court with the toughest work in a mine.
Zdovc also led Limoges to win the French League
title in 1993 and won it again with Racing Paris in 1997.
The three seasons in between those he played with
Greek side Iraklis. And after Paris, he played one year in
Turkey for Tofas Bursa (1997-98), came back to Olimpija
(1998-00), returned to Greece (Panionios, 2000-01),
rejoined Olimpija (2001-02) and went on to play for Slovan
(2002-03) before finishing his playing career with
Split in 2003-04 by winning the Croatian Cup.
A new generation
Zdovc started his coaching career with Split in
2004. His second step was coaching Sloven Ljubljana
and after that, he joined Iraklis before getting back to
“his” Olimpija in the 2006-07 season. Zdovc coached
Bosna in the 2007-08 season, returned to Ljubljana
from 2009 to 2011, then had Spartak St. Petersburg for
two seasons, reaching the EuroCup Final but losing to
Khimki Moscow Region on the latter’s home court. He
has since coached Gaziantep in Turkey, AEK Athens and
Cedevita Zagreb. He was also the Slovenian national
team head coach twice. The first stint was from 2008
to 2010, when the team reached the EuroBasket 2009
semifinals, but lost to Serbia in overtime in a game that
Slovenia had under control. The second was from 2014
to 2016, highlighted by a seventh-place finish at the
2014 World Cup.
Zdovc is a member of what is called the Yugoslav
coaching school. As a player, he had the luck to learn
from the best, like Dusan Ivkovic, Zmago Sagadin and
Bozidar Maljkovic. He played with Zeljko Obradovic at
the 1988 Olympic Games and the 1990 World Championships,
also with Drazen Petrovic, Divac, Kukoc, Radja,
Danilovic, Perasovic, Komazec, Cutura. He learned
a little bit of everything from his coaches and former
teammates and adapted that to his own basketball phi-
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