101 Greats of European Basketball

Professional
winner
The best way for me to start this story,
which is dedicated to – if not the best,
then the most decorated French player of
all time (not including active players) – is
a detail that Boza Maljkovic, the boss of
Limoges in the early 1990s, told me in
October 2012.
“When I arrived to Limoges, I had to build a new
team from scratch,” Maljkovic said. “For different reasons,
of the eight players that finished that season,
only one was expected to stay for the following season,
Richard Dacoury. He was a player I liked a lot because
of his physical potential, his willingness to work, his
strong winning character and a personality that is always
welcome in any locker room. Also, he spoke good
English, which was important to interact with Michael
Young and Jure Zdovc, our foreigners back then.
“One day, I was told that we had to go to some
school that was to take the name of Richard Dacoury
because he had decided to ... retire! It was hard for me to
convince him not to do that. He was about 32 years old
and thanks to his physical condition, he still had some
basketball years in him. Plus, he was a key man in my
defensive schemes. He was probably the best athlete I
ever coached in my career. Fortunately, I convinced him,
and he is thankful to me for that even today!”
The biggest consequence of that decision happened
on April 15, 1993, in Athens, at Peace and Friendship
Stadium. Limoges was crowned European champion by
beating Toni Kukoc’s Benetton Treviso 59-55. Two days
before, in the semis, Limoges beat the other favorite:
Arvydas Sabonis’s Real Madrid by the score of 62-52.
I was there, at one of the 20 out of 24 Final Fours that I
have attended, and I still think that was the biggest surprise
in the EuroLeague to date! Nowadays, many people
don’t give Maljkovic enough credit because of his
style of “basket control” – or even “anti-basket” – which
was based on few points and a slow pace. However, if
the goal in sports is winning, especially in pro sports,
what Maljkovic did with that “team of miners,” as he
called his squad, is something to be studied through
a technical, tactical and psychological point of view. It
was the recipe of how a coach must adapt to the players
he has in order to get the best out of them. Even
Dacoury himself, on occasion of the 50th anniversary
of European club competitions, celebrated at the 2008
Final Four in Madrid, agreed.
“Our coach did a huge psychological job on us,”
Dacoury told EuroLeague.net. “I saw that later, but now
I can say it: He did the best work ever on our confidence.
He was so relaxed, especially if you compare him to the
rest of season until that point. He smiled, laughed. We
had no pressure. He told us that it was only pleasure.”
Before surprising Real Madrid and Benetton, Limoges
played the preliminary round to eliminate the Guildford
Kings (with a tie in London!), while in the group
stage it finished second behind PAOK Thessaloniki with
a 7-5 record and on top of teams like Scavolini Pesaro,
Knorr Bologna, Joventut Badalona, Cibona Zagreb and
Maccabi Tel Aviv. In the quarterfinals, Limoges got rid
of Olympiacos with a 2-1 series win, making good use
of the home-court advantage.
As the captain of that team, Dacoury lifted the EuroLeague
trophy, the first title ever in a top continental
101 greats of european basketball
Richard Dacoury
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