Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic has been named the coach of the World team for this year’s All-Star event, the NBA announced today (via Twitter).
Typically, the two All-Star coaches come from the teams with the best record in each conference as of February 1, as long as they didn’t coach in the game the previous year. J.B. Bickerstaff of the Pistons and Mitch Johnson of the Spurs fit that criteria this season and have already been named All-Star coaches.
However, the NBA tweaked the format of its All-Star game this year — instead of being a matchup between two 12-player teams, the event will be made up of three teams of eight players apiece competing in multiple shorter games. Two of those teams will consist of U.S. players, while the third will be a “World” team featuring international stars.
As a result of the format change, a third head coach was required, so Rajakovic will join Bickerstaff and Johnson for the festivities in Los Angeles later this month.
Rajakovic’s Raptors have a 30-21 record and currently hold the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference. One of the only current NBA head coaches born outside of the U.S., Rajkovic is a native of Serbia who has previously coached teams in both Spain and Serbia, making him an obvious fit to lead the World team.
Rajakovic never coached pro in Europe, not so obvious fit.
Tf are you talking about? You’re on the internet, writing foolishness, and didn’t think to use that very same internet to educate yourself before commenting about things that you clearly don’t know about? Figures.
what is foolish in my comment?
(pls be respectul same as I am with you)
Darko was the head coach of the Crvena zvezda youth system, in Belgrade. Then, he was the head coach of a Spanish EBA League team for 3 years before coming to the US.
Do your googles.