Teodosic: “Olympiacos wanted to get rid of me in the summer of 2009 – Duda was not just a coach”

In the revelation that the Olympic sought to get rid of by him, in every possible way indeed, in the summer of 2009was done by Milos Teodosic!

“Pini Gerson brought me to Olympiakos. At 20 I was already playing quite a lot for a kid that age. Then there was a change, Panagiotis Giannakis came. He is a coach with principles that had to be respected. He had the theory that after the third pass you can penetrate, after the sixth pass you can shoot. We couldn’t adjust at first. Then came that game against Slovenia in Eurobasket 2009. I wasn’t good in the tournament“, initially mentioned the Serbian guard, in his statements on “X&Os chat”.

And he added on the subject: “In that match I happened to play well. There were rumors that Olympiacos wanted to loan me out for McIntyre. I heard that I wanted to be traded along with money for Holden. Whatever it was, as long as they get rid of me! Either for that year (s.s. means to be given on loan), or permanently. After the match against Slovenia, a lot changed. I returned to Olympiakos as a player with greater responsibilities, playing 30-35 minutes! It’s much easier to play when you know you have such playing time that you won’t be replaced after the first mistake».

At the same time, Teodosic was asked about him Dusan Ivkovic and the trust of the late technician in his person, speaking in the best words.

“I wonder why! Sometimes I didn’t understand why he trusted me so much. He is a man to whom I will be forever grateful, I have no words to describe it. At the moment when Olympiacos wanted to change me and kick me out, he gave me, at the age of 22, complete freedom, to be the first playmaker of the National Team. From that moment my career took off. Not a day goes by that I don’t tell some anecdotal story about Duda, about the way he used to talk to us. He didn’t just train us, he educated us“, characteristically commented the 37-year-old, now ace of Red Star.

Completing: “He was not just a coach, he cared about everyone individually, not only for the National Team, but also for the club. He was calling the president of Olympiakos about me, he was also calling about others. Even today, when we talk about Duda, we almost stand at attention, we speak with enormous respect. Duda’s preparations lasted two months, they were very hard. But he was telling us that he is not only preparing us for the national team, but also for the club later».