Incredible story: When Obradovic “laid hands” on the president of Real

THE Joe Arlaukas hosted James Nunnally on his podcast and of course they couldn’t help but discuss the latter’s coach at Partizan, Zeljko Obradovic. “Zots” was also Arlaukas’ coach when he took over the reins of Real in 1994, revealing an unlikely story with the Serbian coach that shows that he never raised a fly on his sword.

“I hated Zeliko at first. Before we had a player-friendly manager who we could talk to, negotiate with and say ‘I’m tired, maybe I’d better not train today’. When he came, right after the year he beat us in the Euroleague, after three days I was saying ‘get him out of here’“, said Arlaukas.

Obradovic’s start at Real was problematic, before the Euroleague triumph came in Zaragoza’s Final 4. With four defeats in the first ten matches in Europe and eight in 17 matches in the ACB respectively, the management called everyone to a meeting. And then “Zots” showed who he is. “We started the season badly, we scheduled a meeting with the president and he came 20 minutes late. When he went to speak, Zeliko stood up and said to him ‘President, before you start, I want to say two things. First, you never cancel my team practice without telling me first, because we have a specific schedule. And secondly, if you want to meet my players, you have to be here ten minutes before they do. Don’t disrespect them by getting here late.’ When I heard him say these things to the president, I said, ‘This guy is the one I like to play for!’Arlaukas emphasized.