Legendary Serbian Basketball Coach Duda Ivkovic Dies At 77

One of Serbia's top basketball coaches, Dusan Duda Ivkovic, has passed away aged 77, the president of Radnicki Belgrade BC Goran Kalinic told Sport Klub TV on Thursday. 

Fans and colleagues across Europe have all expressed their sadness and appreciation for Ivkovic's life work.

Rest in Peace, Duda! 🙏

The legendary coach Dusan Ivkovic has passed away at the age of 78. pic.twitter.com/B96FOFQsSa

— FIBA EuroBasket (@EuroBasket) September 16, 2021

Ivkovic was born in Belgrade on October 29, 1943. In 2008, he was named one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors. In 2017 he was elected to the FIBA Hall of Fame and was named a EuroLeague Basketball Legend.

Ivkovic started his career as a basketball player at senior level, from 1958 to 1968 with then-First Federal Basketball League club Radnicki Belgrade. As coach, he led Partizan, Aris, Radnicki Belgrade, Sibenik, Vojvodina, PAOK, Panionis, Olympiacos, AEK, CSKA, Dinamo Moscow and Anadolu Efes. 

He was one of the most successful European coaches of all time, and the most successful selector of the Yugoslav national basketball team at the European Championships, where he won medals in Zagreb in 1989, Rome in 1991 and Athens in 1995. 

He was also the selector of the Serbian national basketball team from 2008 to 2013, during which time it won silver at the European Championship and was fourth at the 2010 World Cup. 

He finished his coaching career in 2016, and led a show match as a sign of his farewell against Olympiacos on September 20, 2017. 

With the national team, he won three European gold and one silver, one world gold, silver at the Olympic Games and a gold at the Universiade. At club level, he won the Euroleague...