{"id":207000,"date":"2026-04-08T21:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T19:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/?p=207000"},"modified":"2026-04-08T21:33:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T19:33:14","slug":"column-kovacevic-the-greatest-serbian-coach-has-left-a-man-who-did-not-ask-for-money-to-buy-but-time-to-create-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/column-kovacevic-the-greatest-serbian-coach-has-left-a-man-who-did-not-ask-for-money-to-buy-but-time-to-create-players\/","title":{"rendered":"COLUMN, KOVACEVIC: The greatest Serbian coach has left. A man who did not ask for money to buy, but time to create players\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today, the greatest Serbian basketball coach of all time has left us. Respect to Aca Nikoli\u0107, Ranko \u017deravica, Duda Ivkovi\u0107, Svetislav Pe\u0161i\u0107, \u017deljko Obradovi\u0107\u2026 but Du\u0161ko Vujo\u0161evi\u0107 is the man who won the most domestic titles from the bench and who, more importantly, created the most players who won medals in the jerseys of the national teams of Yugoslavia, FR Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro, and Serbia.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dule is the one who made Divac, \u0110or\u0111evi\u0107, Paspalj, Danilovi\u0107, Obradovi\u0107, Rebra\u010da, Krsti\u0107, \u0160\u0107epanovi\u0107, Toma\u0161evi\u0107, Vujani\u0107, Bogdanovi\u0107, Veli\u010dkovi\u0107, Ra\u0161i\u0107, Kecman, Perovi\u0107, Pekovi\u0107, Milutinov\u2026 but he never had the opportunity to stand on the winning podium with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vujo\u0161evi\u0107 won all those numerous trophies in his career with Partizan, but none with the national team. And that is probably the greatest injustice in the history of our basketball. Because Dule is responsible for everything that our national team, whatever it was called in the last few decades, has won in the last 35 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In times when everything was viewed and calculated in banknotes, he was a visionary, a man who did not ask for money to buy players, but time to make them. To dedicate it to the children he taught basketball, from whom he created masters and grandmasters, national team players (not only for Serbia but also for Montenegro, Slovenia, Macedonia, France, Latvia), European and world champions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even more importantly \u2013 from whom he made men, proud and upright!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The words by which generations of basketball lovers will remember him, as well as those who wanted to become someone and something in basketball, will echo forever\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 One can make a mistake in what kind of player someone is, and even more easily in the assessment of what kind of player someone will become. But one must not make a mistake in what kind of person they are. If you have an excellent player who is a bad person, he will eat the rest of the team like cancer. You don’t need such a person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simply, there must be people there who are ready not only to endure, but to correct someone else’s mistake. When someone has made a mistake, even when he has made a mistake in the sense of some egoism and selfishness, the other player should not criticize him, but return with a sprint and dive for that ball as if he had made the mistake himself. That is when the machine turns on \u2013 the legendary Dule used to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whoever knew how to hear and understand, became a player. If not a player \u2013 a man for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bishop Grigorije said goodbye to him today, saying that “another man who did not like to lie has left.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is how Dule was toward everyone, from the basketball players he coached, to his family and his own son, to the regime of Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107, which targeted him for years as a great enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 I told my son, whom I love more than anyone, when he was in the seventh grade to train, to be part of a group, but not to delude himself. There was crying, he cried all night. Since I live with dogs, a son, and a wife, everyone was angry with me then, no one talked to me, but a man must be honest \u2013 Vujo\u0161evi\u0107 said in one of the rare interviews in which he mentioned his family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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