Božidar Maljković
[4] Having ended his playing career prematurely at only 19 years of age, Maljković immediately began coaching at Ušće, newly established basketball outfit from the eponymous Belgrade neighbourhood.Working in extremely modest circumstances without regular access to a gym and with mostly outdoor practices in Ušće park, the club still managed to gain multiple promotions and jump several ranks of competition.Despite being in constant shadow of the city giants Crvena zvezda and Partizan, Radnički nevertheless managed to carve out a place for itself on the Yugoslav basketball map, establishing an identity of a scrappy small club regularly punching above its weight.It also experienced major budgetary problems with its main financial backers, state-owned Fabrika odlivaka Beograd (FOB) iron foundry factory, cutting its sponsorship.[7] Playing their home games at Hala sportova, 28-year-old Maljković's debut season as head coach in the First League brought no improvement for the club that finished with identical 9–13 record, good for 9th place this time.Summing up his time with Radnički, in 2013 Maljković expressed "certain sadness all these years later due to feeling I could've done more with that team, something like what I managed with Jugoplastika later, but on a smaller scale, because we had a very talented group of young players along with some older ones".[8] After Radnički, during summer 1982 Maljković took a head coaching offer from KK Lifam, a club from Stara Pazova playing in the Yugoslav First B League, the country's second-tier competition.Jugoplastika ended the just completed 1985–86 league season in 6th spot (outside of the top four required to make the playoffs) following a turbulent campaign that started with Slavko Trninić as head coach, before he got the sack due to poor results early on and got replaced with Zoran Slavnić.Freewheeling Slavnić initiated a squad overhaul by bringing younger players into the first team (including great 17-year-old prospect – small forward Toni Kukoč who was equally adept at playing any other position) and giving them greater freedom on the court.Maybe the more financially powerful clubs like Cibona (who were reigning Euro champs and in the middle of this great domestic winning run) will pillage half of my squad and lure Kukoč and Rađa away'.Liking Sretenović's character qualities and believing in his basketball skills, Maljković decided to give him a chance by bringing him in to be the team's primary playmaker, envisioning his role at Jugoplastika as the main distributor on offense for Kukoč and Rađa.To that end, in stark contrast to his predecessor Slavnić, Maljković insisted on strict discipline as well as frequent and exhausting training sessions, believing the sheer quantity of work put in will eventually yield results for Jugoplastika[12] against its formidable Yugoslav League rivals such as reigning European champion Cibona led by 22-year-old Dražen Petrović, reigning league champion Zadar, young and up-and-coming Parizan, and experienced Crvena zvezda.Drawn in a round-robin group with Olympique Antibes, Divarese Varese, and FC Barcelona, Jugoplastika managed only two wins in its six games, finishing last and getting eliminated from the 1986–87 FIBA Korać Cup at the very first hurdle.Back in the Yugoslav league, in the playoff semifinal best-of-3 series Jugoplastika lost 2–1 to Duško Vujošević-coached Partizan led by youngsters Saša Đorđević, Vlade Divac, and Žarko Paspalj.During the summer 1989 off-season, Maljković and club general-manager Josip Bilić faced a crisis over Rađa's status after the young center got drafted by Boston Celtics in late June.[13] Maljković even publicly called on Yugoslav Basketball Association (KSJ) to adopt safeguard policies, preventing players younger than 26 from transferring to NBA teams.[14] After weeks of wrangling over his status, Rađa tried to force Jugoplastika's hand by acting unilaterally – flying over to the U.S. and signing a one-year contract with the Celtics, reportedly in the neighbourhood of $500,000.In the middle of the Rađa saga, not knowing its outcome, Maljković did some contingency planning by bringing in 22-year-old Zoran Savić from Čelik Zenica who could play both the center and power forward positions.The friendly tournament was also Maljković's first chance to coach against an NBA team as his Jugoplastika put in a great effort against Doug Moe's Denver Nuggets featuring small forward Alex English, guard Fat Lever, and veteran Walter Davis, losing 129–135 in a run-and-gun contest.Barça ended up with a fairly thin roster consisting of a few experienced players such as Audie Norris, Piculín Ortiz, Steve Trumbo, Nacho Solozábal, and Epi as well as a slew of youngsters like José Luis Galilea, Roger Esteller, Ángel Almeida, and Lisard González, most of them called up from the club's youth system.I also coached the team the entire season without having Andrés Jiménez at my disposal because he decided, upon suggestions from club management, to go have knee cleaning surgery even though he didn't have to and thus missed the whole season...... From his newly assumed general manager position, Aíto also influenced club president Josep Lluís Núñez and Salvador Alemany not to sign off on the Toni Kukoč transfer, which I had previously arranged with even a pre-contract signed and sealed.I mean, it was obstruction every step of the way.... Then I staged a bit of a revolt by taking this absurdity to the very extreme by announcing I'm going to play the season with junior players.Led on the court by 32-year-old veteran Richard Dacoury, the team made the league playoffs final versus Pau-Orthez, but lost the best-of-three series 0–2 despite having the home-court advantage.The summer 1992 arrival of thirty-one-year-old veteran Michael Young as well as established Slovenian point guard Jure Zdovc from Knorr Bologna and power forward Jim Bilba set the club on an improbable run.Drawn in a tough EuroLeague round robin group with Dušan Ivković-coached Greek champions PAOK featuring fresh NBA arrival Cliff Levingston as well as holdovers Panagiotis Fasoulas, Ken Barlow, and Bane Prelević, Ettore Messina's eager-for-Euro-success Knorr Bologna led by freshly arrived rising star Saša Danilović, EuroLeague runners-up Joventut Marbella led by the Jofresa brothers (Rafa and Tomás) and Jordi Villacampa, Maccabi Electra with veterans Doron Jamchi and David Ancrum, Scavolini Pesaro featuring emerging star Carlton Myers and veteran Walter Magnifico, few gave modest-looking Limoges roster much of a chance.In summer 1995, Maljković took the offer from Greek giants Panathinaikos, a club bankrolled by the pharmaceutical riches of the Giannakopoulos brothers – Pavlos and Thanasis – who invested heavily in search of elusive EuroLeague and domestic league success.However, the roster was about to get a big boost as the Giannakopoulos brothers managed to bring in 35-year-old NBA legend Dominique Wilkins to Athens, signing him to a two-year contract worth US$7 million.In an interview with Sportski žurnal, he said that he had been offered the role of head coach of the Lithuanian League club Žalgiris, but that he would only take the job in the summer, after the season had finished.Maljković said he didn't want his players "driving airplanes after three-pointers" citing reigning Euroleague champion and Yugoslav League rival KK Cibona's shooting guard Aco Petrović as a negative example in this regard.In August 2011, during the EuroBasket 2011 preparations, Slovenia head coach Maljković opened a public row with the Serbian Olympic Committee (OKS) president Vlade Divac, calling the former player a "fraudster and a liar" in Croatian sports daily newspaper Sportske novosti as a response to Divac's remark in Slovenian media that Slovenia would've been better off keeping Jure Zdovc as head coach instead of hiring Maljković.