Božidar Maljković

Božidar "Boža" Maljković (Serbian Cyrillic: Божидар "Божо" Маљковић; born 20 April 1952) is a Serbian professional basketball coach, one of the most successful in Europe, having won league titles with practically all the clubs he trained; including four Euroleague titles with three different clubs (Jugoplastika Split, Limoges, and Panathinaikos).

In 2008, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors. Most recently, he spent three years as head coach of the Slovenian national basketball team.

His daughter Marina is a Serbian professional basketball coach, currently coaching Union Lyon Basket Féminin and Serbia women's national basketball team.

Early life

Born in Otočac within the region of Lika, Maljković's family moved to Kraljevo when he was eight and in that time he set a record for crossing a road distance from Kraljevo to Vrnjacka Banja in less than 30 minutes with some old rusty bike.

He took up basketball at the age of 12, playing the shooting guard position at KK Sloga. Assessing his own playing skills, Maljković later said: "I had a decent shot, but no defensive skills. As a coach I would never pick Maljković the player in any serious team".