{"id":11841,"date":"2018-10-09T21:24:20","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T21:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sportsrabbi.agpwebdesign.com\/?p=11841"},"modified":"2018-10-09T21:24:20","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T21:24:20","slug":"dusan-sakota-the-interview-of-a-lifetime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/dusan-sakota-the-interview-of-a-lifetime\/","title":{"rendered":"Du\u0161an \u0160akota – The Interview of a Lifetime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just as Hapoel Jerusalem gets ready to play their first Champions League game against AEK Athens, today Wednesday at 19:30 Israel time, The Sports Rabbi sits down with their Captain Du\u0161an \u0160akota<\/strong>, one of Greece\u2019s basketball greats in an intimate discussion about leaving Yugoslavia as a child during the war, his role models, fighting an illness that almost killed him, what drives him, achieving basketball glory together with his father Dragan and what he wants to leave behind. Enjoy.<\/p>\n

Although you were born in the former Yugoslavia, can we call you a Greek player?<\/strong>
\n\u201cSure. I am Serbian but as a player I grew up here and this is where I played when I began my career. The most important things that I\u2019ve done in my career have been for Greece and Greek basketball. So I guess you can call me that.\u201d
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AEKBC.gr<\/p><\/div>
\nYou moved to Greece at a young age. Do you have any memories from Serbia?<\/strong>
\n\u201cOf course. I moved with my family in 1991 and I was 5 years old. The war in Yugoslavia broke out and it was tough during the first few years to go back and forth, but we were able to do it because of our family and our roots. Any spare time I had I was always in Belgrade, so I have a recollection and a good relationship with my country of birth.\u201d
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AEKBC.gr<\/p><\/div>
\nHow did the war have an effect on you, your family and your father, Dragan who was a basketball player and coach in his own right?<\/strong>
\n\u201cIt obviously shaped both our careers, starting with my father\u2019s. That was why my father had to move the family out of the country where basketball was greatly developed. Yugoslavian teams were dominating Europe whether it was Jugoplastika or Partizan and by the beginning of the 1990\u2019s they had won 4 championships. It was a huge thing. So the only reason you\u2019re moving out are for reasons that have nothing to do with basketball. It ended up turning out great for my father as he made a very respectable career out of coaching basketball in Greece. Parallel to his career, Greek basketball also developed in the 90\u2019s and I began playing professionally for the first time in 2003 so it kind of shaped my career and my way of life. It\u2019s never easy to make a decision like that, but that is what family is for.\u201d
\n

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YouTube<\/p><\/div>
\nWho were your role models growing up on the court?<\/strong>
\n\u201cI come from a basketball family, but the sport wasn\u2019t pushed on me. It was just something that came naturally to both me and my older brother, Milo\u0161. We used to also play soccer and all kinds of sports, but basketball was always the sport that attracted me more and not because I saw it at home. When I was young I didn\u2019t even watch the games. Basketball came naturally to me and I love playing it. When I did start watching basketball Peja Stojakovi\u0107 was definitely a role model as was Aleksandar \u0110or\u0111evi\u0107 who scored 9 3-pointers for Yugoslavia against Lithuania in the 1995 Eurobasket. That\u2019s something you never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n

How about the NBA?<\/strong>
\n\u201cMichael Jordan goes without saying. I think that he\u2019s is an unanimous choice all around. Everybody wanted to \u201cBe Like Mike.\u201d But I also loved watching Reggie Miller play. I also like shooting and he was the player I pretended to be when I was playing out on the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you remember his game against the Knicks?<\/strong>
\n\u201cThose are legendary moments that I\u2019ve watched over and over again. The 1990\u2019s will never come back as far as the NBA is concerned. There was a certain charisma that is now missing from today\u2019s game and unfortunately I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did you ever think about trying to get to the NBA? Was it a dream?<\/strong>
\n\u201cRealistically it was. But I was never fixated on it. I\u2019m the kind of guy that likes to go step by step. When I was began trying to get to the senior team, that was my goal. When that happened my goal was to start playing. When I was 17 years old I signed for Panathinaikos which was such a big club and it was a 4 year deal. But I didn\u2019t have any immediate dreams or aspirations to go to the NBA, I wanted to establish myself there. I didn\u2019t make it to the NBA, but that\u2019s how life worked out. At some point in my young life that was a goal but it was never something that I said if I don\u2019t do that, then I never made it. I never had that kind of mentality. I just wanted to play and I think I did that during my 15 years as a professional.\u201d
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Euroleague.net<\/p><\/div>
\nAt Panathinaikos you won 2 Euroleague titles, but you didn\u2019t play a role in the finals. Is that something that you\u2019re bothered or sad about? On one hand you\u2019re a winner, but on the other you weren\u2019t able to contribute. How does that feel as a professional?<\/strong>
\n\u201cThat\u2019s a really good question if you don\u2019t mind me saying. It was a mixture of feelings. Obviously I\u2019m very happy to be part of history and of a significant and important achievement. Maybe if someone else was in my position they wouldn\u2019t feel this way, but we\u2019re talking about me and I didn\u2019t feel kind of sad or envious, but instead I felt a strong drive that said, I want to do this one day, I want to feel what these guys are feeling because I didn\u2019t feel the emotions that Spanoulis and others were feeling at that moment. When you\u2019re not playing and you\u2019ve gotten zero minutes you don\u2019t have the same adrenaline going through you. I was very happy for them as they were my teammates and for myself, but at the same time I did feel a strong motivation to do a similar thing one day in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s fast forward to this past year. How did it feel to win the Basketball Champions League and Greek Cup which were massive accomplishments for the club and for yourself alongside your father, Dragan who was the coach?<\/strong>
\n\u201cIt was surreal. It was like a dream. I fought so hard. But let\u2019s look back at your last question. In 2007 when we win the Euroleague it was in the same arena and the emotions were there at that time. For it to happen 11 years later to me with 20,000 fans there, being the captain lifting the trophy and playing a significant role, it was a sea of all the possible emotions. The team deserved it so much, they worked so hard. To achieve such a big accomplishment, which I agree with you that it is, as people don\u2019t realize the level of difficulty of the Champions League. You have Euroleague level teams like Monaco that have never won it or Besiktas who never made it to the Final Four and that says something about the level of difficulty. With my father being there as the coach, it all turned out to be a movie for me. Whenever I think back to it, it gives me such pleasure and motivation to want to repeat the experience.\u201d
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AEKBC.gr<\/p><\/div>
\nYou move from Panathinaikos to Panionios where you receive significant minutes and from there to Italy and Scavolini Pesaro where you suffer an injury that is mistreated and puts you in a coma. How do you come back from something like that?<\/strong>
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a tragic story with a happy ending. It\u2019s an experience that may sound cliche but \u2018Whatever doesn\u2019t kill you will make you stronger.\u2019 And this particular example is exactly like that. Nine out of ten times this is a mortality thing. In order to come out from this, which is something that we touched on earlier, you have to take things step by step. When this happened to me I never once stopped and began contemplating my life. When I survived after being in a coma for two days and fifty days in the hospital, I looked back to it and saw that I had never cried myself to sleep or thought about when will I ever play basketball again. I just focused on getting healthy first and then gaining back weight, trying to get back in the weight room and then trying to eat more. I had tremendous problems with my digestive system and the organs involved. When that was all done, then I began thinking about basketball again. By taking it step by step it helped me keep the rhythm I had as a basketball player which means routine. To this day, I believe that if I didn\u2019t keep to routine and I wandered off and just lived day to day, I\u2019m positive that I wouldn\u2019t have returned to basketball. I never began overthinking things and I believe that\u2019s how I was able to get back to my basketball career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even after such an experience you chose to go back to Italy. How did that feel?<\/strong>
\n\u201cI believe that this is what actually saved me. It goes back to what I said before. The doctors never had to deal with this type of incident in sports before and they didn\u2019t know what to tell me to do. They could have said that it\u2019s, stay in bed and what will be will be. But I wanted to play and I wanted to practice just as the routine I had my whole life, practice and being around a gym and weight room. I knew that if I would\u2019ve gone home to Belgrade which would have been \u2018comfortable\u2019 for me I would have never had the drive to keep working by myself and try to get back to where I was. I decided to stay close to the team which was so respectable and showed so much love to me during the injury. I wasn\u2019t part of the team, but I used their facilities and worked with the conditioning coach and that helped me feel like a professional player and not like a patient. At the end of the day, that\u2019s what I think kept me going.\u201d
\n

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Euroleague.net<\/p><\/div>
\nWhat were some of your favorite moments as a player putting aside all of the Cups, titles and accomplishments. Or was there a specific teammate that was just amazing or a fan that touched your heart?<\/strong>
\n\u201cWhen I was in Pesaro while I was recovering, the fans embraced me and my family who were with me during the whole horrible experience. That is something I will remember for the rest of my life. The fans at Varese after the first season that I had when we almost won the championship and played in the Cup Final were amazing towards me and the bond I had with them stays with me until this day. As for teammates and I don\u2019t like singling them out but there are two guys for sure. One has to be Bryant Dunston who played in Israel. I was the best man at his wedding this past summer. He\u2019s a really good friend, an amazing player and an amazing professional. We played together at Varese and we stay in touch almost every single day. The other other is Vassilis Xanthopoulos and we\u2019ve followed each other our whole careers. We first met in 2004 when we were both kids and then played together at Panionios where we had a good year and went to the Euroleague because of our third place finish which was difficult to do at that time. Now we are at AEK and we were able to do what we did together last year. We\u2019ve developed such a bond, I really love that guy.\u201d
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nAs we wrap up the interview I take out a flyer that says AEK Academy Dragan Sakota and I turn it over where there is a picture of Du\u0161an standing together with a child. I ask what does this mean to him and what is its importance?<\/strong>
\n\u201cI think that this is the whole point of our story. That\u2019s the key to everything. There\u2019s only one word I can think of when I see this and that\u2019s legacy. Every serious club has to have people who think about what they will leave behind and I consider myself one of those guys. I consider myself a player that one day, and that day will come, when I am going to leave this club and I want to leave something behind. I want at least one kid to take a ball and say that \u2018I want to be the captain of AEK, and I want to lift the Champions League trophy or the Greek Cup beating the two best teams in Greece and to also be someone like my father. He won the championship with AEK in 2002 and then to come back and win a double again, he\u2019s for sure the type of person who wants to leave a legacy and wants to work with young kids because he understands that this is the future of basketball. Not only in Greek basketball but in European basketball. He always wants to set a good example for the kids. We went to put a ball in their hands and let them just play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just as Hapoel Jerusalem gets ready to play their first Champions League game against AEK Athens, today Wednesday at 19:30 Israel time, The Sports Rabbi sits down with their Captain Du\u0161an \u0160akota, one of Greece\u2019s basketball greats in an intimate discussion about leaving Yugoslavia as a child during the war, his role models, fighting an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":11854,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9,208],"tags":[1347,1194,1120,980,1116,192,1348],"class_list":["post-11841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-european-competitions-holy-land-hoops","category-holy-land-hoops","category-articles","tag-aek-athens","tag-dusan-sakota","tag-greece","tag-panathinaikos","tag-panionios","tag-serbia","tag-yugoslavia","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nDu\u0161an \u0160akota - 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