Their origin story foretold a lot.
Although Dimitris Itoudis and Zeljko Obradovic had met years before through the late, great Dusan Ivkovic, and had kept in touch, it was not until a meeting in 1999 that they became a tandem. Obradovic was taking over the Panathinaikos Athens bench that summer. Itoudis had been a head coach in Greece and was negotiating to remain that way with his team, MENT. Then he got a call to meet Obradovic in Thessaloniki, where the latter was coaching his national team.
"I remember very well those days because at the same time my father was in intensive care at the hospital after having a heart attack," Itoudis explained in an interview last year. "So, it was like the first three crucial days, if he's going to make it or not... The main focus was if my father is going to make it. But at the same time, I had MENT negotiating the possible extension of the contract, and then Zeljko called me.
"I went to the meeting with Zeljko and we talked at the Hotel Panorama, and I said I'm going to be very proud and thrilled and motivated to work together and everything. And I told him about the story of my father. And I went to the hospital immediately after that meeting and I said to the doctor, 'Can I go to the intensive care, and if I go, should I said to my father that I'm going to be assistant coach with Zeljko and working at Panathinaikos, a great club?' And the doctor says, 'Of course. You're going to give him a boost.' I said, 'Yeah, but emotionally, you know?' He said, 'No, no, go ahead and tell him.' And I went into the intensive care unit and I told my father that. Tears came to his eyes, and it was very, very good actually. It gave him a boost. And later that evening he went out of intensive care. He was after that in a normal room, and he made it. And now he's proud that he was witnessing the great 13 years we had in Panathinaikos."
Indeed, from that day forward, they became a coaching Dream Team for those 13 years, winning five EuroLeague titles with Panathinaikos.
"In 13 years, we shared a lot of moments in terms of family issues and all other things, emotions," Itoudis said at the 2016 Final Four. "Every relationship starts with doubts, no matter what kind of relationship. It could be your girlfriend, your wife, your friend, in your professional life; you have doubts. You have to win trust, build trust. So it was the same with us."
