Dusan Ivkovic is, finally, a finalist for the Basketball Hall of Fame. It’s far past time. This April, it’s time for the Naismith to finally recognise a man who shaped the sport we love.
The disgraceful part is that this debate is happening posthumously. Few people have influenced basketball like Dusan Ivkovic. He’s already a FIBA Hall of Famer. It’s time for THE Basketball Hall of Fame to recognise him. Induct Duda to the Naismith and right a wrong.
The resume is beyond reproach
Dusan Ivkovic never coached a day in the NBA. That is irrelevant to the debate. Duda’s achievements in basketball from a pure resume perspective are enough. As an international coach, he guided Yugoslavia to a world title in 1990 along with three EuroBasket titles.
At club level, he won 2 Euroleague titles and managed to claim major honours in his homeland, in Greece, in Russia, and Turkey. The man received a lifetime achievement award a full 18 years before he retired from full-time coaching. Filling in his simple trophy count could take up this entire article. In a coaching career that spanned nearly 50 years, he did it all.
When compared to the other coaches in the Basketball Hall of Fame that never coached in the US, Ivkovic comfortably stacks up. Considering that list includes names like Alexsandr Gomelsky, Aca Nikolic, and Cesare Rubini, that alone means he should merit some attention.
Layers of influence
Notice the way European bigs have long been described as different in the NBA. That they brought a different approach to the game. Dusan Ivkovic is fundamental to that in the sport. What is now normal in basketball with big men is heavily down to the influence of this gloriously straight talking man.
Ivkovic unleashed the brains of the bigs to find new ways to contribute. He didn’t just do so close to home. As he traveled across Southern and Eastern Europe throughout his career, Duda, spread new ways of thinking around defensive play in the sport. While a defensive maestro, he also aided in developing more dynamism on the offensive end with his ball movement philosophies.
For a man who never coached a day in the NBA or NCAA basketball, his influence is visible across courts there. He was just a dude, spreading his gospel and helping ballers be the best possible version of themselves. They would go on to spread that word to the farthest reaches of the sport. This isn’t the first time I’ve made an argument for Duda, as you’ll see in the video below. I’m just hoping it’s the first time people listen.
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The very purpose of the hall
The Basketball Hall of Fame, the Naismith, is not just a NBA hall. The NFL has the Pro Football hall, College Football has its hall, while FIBA has one too the purpose of the Naismith is clear. Its role is to recognise all of basketball.
Dusan Ivkovic influenced all of basketball. He is the definition of the global game. The players that learned under him directly include Vlade Divac, Dejan Bodiroga, Peja Stojakovic, and Nikola Pekovic. The influence however goes far beyond.
The thinking big? That’s Ivkovic’s handiwork. Hello Nikola Jokic. An extra pass ball handler with offensive joie de vivre? Hi to Luka Doncic. The guy with defensive versatility while maximising physicality? Good to see you Giannis Antetokounmpo. Duda’s basketball philosophy laid the ground work for these glorious talents to maximise what they do.
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An ongoing influence
I haven’t even touched on the coaching tree yet. There’s Zeljko Obradovic, who belongs in the Naismith and would be the first in line to argue Dusan Ivkovic belongs in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Dimitris Itoudis, Svetislav Pešić, and Igor Kokoškov have all either been mentored directly or influenced heavily by Duda.
His fingerprints are on the sport we watch today and will continue to shape it for years to come. The argument for whether Dusan Ivkovic belongs in any hall of fame in basketball is long past over. Half of his career would comfortably get him over the line.
It’s sad that he passed before getting such recognition. At 77, Duda died in 2021. Those he fought his hardest battles with as a coach led the tributes. Enemies were few, students were many. A great mind went to the beyond to give James Naismith a piece of his mind about spacing and ball movement. This April, there’s an opportunity to do right by him. It’s quite a simple message: Induct Duda.
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