Aleksandar Džikić (Serbian: Александар Џикић; born March 23, 1971 in Belgrade) is Serbian basketball coach who is currently head coach of BC Lietuvos rytas.
Contents |
He began his coaching career in 1991 leading the KK Partizan's youth squad, before being promoted to second assistant for the Partizan full squad. In 1994 he was named lead assistant coach for KK Beovuk 72 before advancing to become the club's head coach for two seasons (1997–98 and 1999).
In 1999, Džikić was named first assistant coach to Duško Vujošević at Partizan, helping the team to four consecutive Serbia and Montenegro national championships from 2002 to 2005.[1]
Then, he came to the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2005 with a lengthy international basketball resume.[2] He became the first NBA assistant coach with no prior coaching experience in the United States at either the collegiate or professional level. Additionally, he became just the second European native to become an NBA assistant coach, following the Pistons' Igor Kokoškov.
Džikić was an assistant coach for the Timberwolves entry in the 2005 Minnesota Summer League at Target Center. He has also spent time in summer leagues working with the coaching staffs of the San Antonio Spurs and Seattle SuperSonics. In 2007 he went back to Europe.
On January 7, 2008, after spent time in the United States, Džikić became head coach of Slovenian team KK Union Olimpija.[3] Olimpija Union dismissed him in December 2008, after bad results in Adriatic League and Euroleague and was replaced by Jure Zdovc.[4]
On July 15, 2009, he became head coach of KK Krka in Slovenia.[5][6]
In his first season, Krka did not compete in Adriatic League thus fully focusing on the domestic league in Slovenia from the start of the season. Džikić led the club to the Premier A Slovenian League title, the club's third in history, beating his old club Olimpija 3–2 in the playoff final series.[7]
In the following 2010–11 season, he added to his success with Krka. Following the 17–9 regular season, they made the Adriatic League final four in Ljubljana where they lost to old rivals Olimpija. Some ten days later Krka won the 2010–11 FIBA EuroChallenge, defeating PBC Lokomotiv-Kuban in the final. Finally, they repeated as champions of Slovenian Basketball League.[8] Soon after the successful seasons with Krka, richer European clubs, like BC Khimki, expressed interest in his services.
On May 4, 2011, he got named the head coach of Serbian under-20 national team, in parallel with his duties at Krka.[9] In July he led the team at the 16-squad 2011 European under-20 Championship where they got eliminated at the group stage where they recorded a win versus Russia in the opening game, which was followed by two blowout losses to Montenegro and Slovenia. This sent the team to the 13th to 16th place classification round with Lithuania, Croatia and Austria with knowledge that bottom two teams would be relegated to European under-20 B division. Džikić's team finally got their act together, recording six assured wins to stay in the A division.
In July 2011 he was named as the head coach of Lithuanian team BC Lietuvos rytas.[10]
Džikić and his wife, Lilly, have a daughter Katarina.
|
|||||