Milan Tomić

Milan Tomić (Serbian: Милaн Томић) (born July 24, 1973) is a retired Serbian-Greek professional basketball player, and a current assistant basketball coach for Olympiacos of the Greek Basketball League. Tomić has spent almost all of his professional playing and coaching career in Greece, after he took Greek nationality, under the name of Milan Tomits (Greek: Μίλαν Τόμιτς). During his playing years in Olympiacos, he became an idol among the team's fans.

Still considered a legend to Olympiacos fans after his retirement as a player, he took an assistant coach's spot with the team, under then head coach Panagiotis Giannakis.

Professional career

Early years and the golden era

Tomić started his career playing for Radnički as a teenager and made a name as a good young player. Summer 1991 set a fresh start for Olympiacos. New chairman Kokkalis appointed Giannis Ioannidis as head coach with a goal to put the team in European basketball's elite.

Ioannidis invited Tomić, amongst other young Serbs for a trial. The coach wasn't so impressed with Tomic's basketball skills or physical attributes but liked the young boy's passion, cleverness and will to win. So he offered him a spot in the team's roster.

But for the transfer to be concluded Tomić had to take the Greek citizenship since only one non-Greek player was allowed (that player was Žarko Paspalj). At the time, giving Balkan players the Greek citizenship was a common practice for Greek teams and a lot of players did the same. Some famous examples are Peja Stojaković, Dragan Tarlać and Rasho Nesterović.

Due to some legal problems concerning his citizenship he was not able to play for one season so he made his debut for the Reds in 1992-1993 season. It wasn't long before Tomić showed his value and potential and was named a starter. At the same time the team was growing stronger under Ioannidis guidance and managed to win the Greek League championship despite the fact they had home disadvantage against Panathinaikos, the team's arch-rivals, going into the playoff finals.

They also returned to European competitions and reached the Euroleague quarterfinals with Tomić averaging 32.5 minutes and 8.3 points per game. The following two seasons Tomić established his position as the starting play maker while Olympiacos dominated the Greek League winning both regular seasons and the playoffs beating PAOK in 1994 and Panathinaikos in 1995 finals respectively. They also found European recognition by reaching two consecutive Euroleague finals.

They lost both but the fact they won Panathinaikos in both semifinals was a big consolation for their fans. Tomić wasn't a leader in the statistics section but was the mind and soul of the team. Next season, 1995–96, wasn't a good one for Milan individually.

The arrival of David Rivers pushed Tomić on the bench reducing his playing time. Still he managed to help the team retain its A1 title. Season 1996-97 is without doubt the best in Olympiacos history.

Dušan Ivković took over as head coach and gave Tomić more playing time. Especially during the important last part of the season Ivković made him starting point-guard moving Rivers to shooting guard position. The end of the season found Olympiacos as A1 champions, Euroleague champions, for the first time and Greek Cup winners making them the first Greek team to hold those titles simultaneously. A few months later Olympiacos participated on 1997 McDonald's Championship and made it to the final where they faced the reigning NBA champions the Chicago Bulls. Tomić was guarding Michael Jordan and several funny incidents happened between them.

Captain of the team and downfall

After have won everything the previous year a lot of players left the team. One of them was team's captain Giorgos Sigalas. There was no doubt about who was the most suitable player to be the new captain.

Tomić was already acting as captain all those years. From the moment he was declared the new captain he was dreaming of picking trophies for his team in the years to come. Unfortunately for him that didn't happen for 4 years.

Olympiacos remained a top European team but wasn't capable of winning a title. They reached the A1 finals twice but lost and also participated in Euroleague's 1999 Final 4 only to take the third place. On the contrary Tomić evolved as a player. He was playing more, scoring more and was a true captain on and off the court as he became the fans most favorite player.

Captain's justification

Olympiacos' chairman hired Lefteris Subotic as head coach for the 2001-02 season. Subotic brought along a young talented point guard Theo Papaloukas. Papaloukas presence reduced Tomić's playing time but on the other hand their rotation and sometimes combination in the lineup made the team better in matters of team-plays organization, better passing and defense.

Olympiacos managed to win the Greek Cup so Tomic's dream of raising a trophy, as a captain, in front of his team's fans became reality. Later that season Olympiacos faced Panathinaikos in the A1 semifinals having home disadvantage and still managed to "sweep" them in two games. During the decisive second match's last minutes PAO seemed to have the momentum.

Suddenly a fight broke up after a hard foul. Moments later all eyes turned to watch Tomić fighting against Panathinaikos' star player Dejan Bodiroga who also was the most hated rival player for fans of Olympiacos. The image of Tomic punching Bodiroga became an all-time favourite for Olympiacos' hardcore fans.

After the fight Tomić, Bodiroga and several other players went off but the momentum had changed and Olympiacos won the game and advanced to the finals against AEK Athens. Olympiacos won the first two games but AEK made a huge comeback and won the series.

Beginning of the end

After 2001-02 season many important players left the team. Tomic was still giving his best but the quality of the team's roster had deteriorated. Season 2003-04 was even worse. The glory days of the past seemed so far away. Tomic performed way below his standards.

Olympiacos failed to win Aris in the Greek Cup's final. In addition to that the team was fighting for a playoff position. Chairman Kokkalis decided to fire head coach Dragan Šakota and to everyone's surprise asked Tomić to take the empty spot in the bench. Tomić loves the team so much that he didn't question that decision and took the job. Under his reign as head coach the team improved and played better but was eliminated in the playoffs.

The season ended and Tomic asked for a multi-year contract so he would have the time to build a new winning team. The team's new directors didn't like his demands and gave his position to Milan Minic. The new season started and after some bad results Minic was fired and replaced by Jonas Kazlauskas.

Tomić was given hardly any playing time while the team was constantly losing. Things got worst when they lost 59-110 to Efes Pilsen. That was the biggest home defeat in team's European history. It was a big embarrassment for the fans who were furious and began swearing at players, coaches and directors. Only one name was chanted in a good way. The name was Milan Tomić. Surprisingly Tomić was asked to leave the team few days later. He did so without complaining while the fans were shocked watching their team without its natural leader.

Career end

In January 2005 Lefteris Subotic took over as head coach of Sicc Cucine Jesi and brought Tomic, who was a free agent, to help saving the team from relegation. He played 14 games for the Italian team averaging 9.8 points but the team finished last in the standings. Tomic made another effort to continue his career and signed a contract with Kolossos Rodou in January 2006. The irony was that his debut match was against Olympiacos. When he entered the court Olympiacos fans once again chanted his name. He only played two games for Kolossos and then decided to retire because he felt he had nothing more to offer.

A new career

Tomić studied and got a 1st grade coaching degree. In February 2008, Panagiotis Giannakis became the new Olympiacos head coach. Giannakis asked Tomić to be a part of the coaching staff, so he returned to his beloved team as an assistant coach.

Career titles with Olympiacos

• Euroleague Champion: (1997)
• Triple Crown Champion: (1997)
• 5x Greek League Champion: (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997)
• 3x Greek Cup Champion: (1994, 1997, 2002)

Individual achievements with Olympiacos

• 1st in games played for Olympiacos both in Greek League (383 games) and Euroleague (214 games)
• Top scorer for Olympiacos both in Greek League (2,911 points) and Euroleague (1,482 points)
• 1st in assists given for Olympiacos both in Greek League (801 assists) and Euroleague (341 assists)
• 1st in steals made for Olympiacos both in Greek League (287 steals) and Euroleague (152 steals)

External links

• Euroleague.net Profile
• FIBA Euroleague Profile
• FIBAEurope.com Career Stats
• Italian League Profile (Italian)
• Draftexpress.com Profile
• Euroleague.net The Legend: Milan Tomic