We interviewed the Croatian coach of Polish nationality Igor Milicic, a great protagonist in recent seasons in the Polish championship. Milicic was born in Slavonski Brod in 1976 and has won numerous trophies first with Anwil and recently with the championship with Stal Ostrow.<\/p>\n
You have been coaching as head coach in Poland for about seven years. What level is basketball and the Polish league given that the most important players are from other countries?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI\u00a0had\u00a0started\u00a0coaching\u00a07 years ago\u00a0in\u00a0Poland\u00a0when\u00a0I\u00a0stopped\u00a0playing\u00a0basketball at a\u00a0professional\u00a0level.\u00a0Polish\u00a0basketball\u00a0was different. Now,\u00a0Usually\u00a0we\u00a0have\u00a0a budget\u00a0which\u00a0can\u2019t compete\u00a0with\u00a0best\u00a0teams\u00a0in\u00a0Europe. Players after good season\u00a0leaving\u00a0Poland for big contracts. So every season are produced new stars. Competition is on high level. \u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0looking\u00a0for\u00a0best\u00a0players with huge ambitions to produce and develope in tough conditions regardless from what country they are\u201d.<\/p>\n Stal Ostrow had an amazing season and Poland won the title. How did you feel? What were your emotions?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWith Coronavirus around and not friendly coaching market at the time, I took the job.\u00a0I took the team in december, it wasn\u2019t a great situation. With few changes team started to play better and better, witch led to great playoff and Fiba Europe Cup run and at the end we won the championship. It was a huge surprise. It was a first trophy for organization and city was on fire\u201d.<\/p>\n What memories do\u00a0you have of your experience as head coach at Anwil Wloklawek?\u00a0Keeping\u00a0in mind you weresuccessful\u00a0lots\u00a0of\u00a0times, I\u00a0think:\u00a0two\u00a0Polish Championships,\u00a0one\u00a0Polish\u00a0Cup\u00a0and\u00a0two Super\u00a0Cups<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI\u00a0won\u00a0those\u00a0titles\u00a0with Anwil before I took Stal Ostrow. It was\u00a0very\u00a0hard\u00a0to\u00a0become such dominant powerhouse in Poland.\u00a0Unfortunately\u00a0with\u00a0the\u00a0Covid\u00a0starts lot of things broke a part. It was great part of my career. Now, I am happy to win another title this year with another team\u201d.<\/p>\n Why did you choose Poland to play and train basketball?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAt the beginning when I was 20\/21 years old, in Croatia wasn\u2019t best economic situation. I had to go abroad. I\u00a0got\u00a0the offer from Poland in 99\u2019. I spent 3 years there, met my wife and got\u00a0Citizenship. Beside stunts in\u00a0Russia, Belgium and\u00a0Turkey, spent most of career in Poland. It was natural to\u00a0continue\u00a0training in\u00a0Poland as coach\u201d.<\/p>\n What do you think of Italian basketball, teams and players?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cTwo years ago I had the chance to play against Avellino and they were very talented. I think it\u2019s very complexed issue to compare Italian and Polish basketball. I believe Italian players are full of talent and tough. Poland is more tactical and physical. Armani is obviously the top team but there are other excellent teams like Venezia, Virtus Bologna and Trento. Great players like Rodriguez, Hines, Datome and Teodosic arrived in last two years so the level really raised up\u201d.<\/p>\n Would you like to coach in Italy?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cItaly would be a target for any coach at some point as it is a league that is improving and increasing its level. I would love to be in Italy!\u201d<\/p>\n How do you live in Poland?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI live in a beautiful city\u00a0with\u00a0my\u00a0family. In\u00a0Poland\u00a0is\u00a0a\u00a0high rise\u00a0economy. Standard of living is very, very high. You\u00a0can\u00a0get\u00a0everything\u00a0you\u00a0need\u00a0and\u00a0it\u00a0is\u00a0cheaper\u00a0than\u00a0in the\u00a0rest\u00a0of\u00a0Europe. When living next to the Sea it has to be great\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Croatian coach, but with Polish citizenship, has been the great protagonist of the last few seasons in Poland, winning numerous trophies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":217362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[67],"tags":[13768],"rumors":[],"typology":[],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-217360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polonia","tag-igor-milicic"],"yoast_head":"\n