Jurica Golemac is the new head coach of Cedevita Olimpija

Jurica Golemac, one of the most talented European head coaches on the scene today, is the new head coach of Cedevita Olimpija. The latter will replace former coach Slaven Rimac, with whom the club in Ljubljana, after Sunday's defeat in the Round 17 of the ABA League against Koper Primorska, which was the fourth in a row for the Dragons, concluded a cooperation with the Ljubljana club.

Jurica Golemac will lead Cedevita Olimpija for the first time on Saturday, when the Dragons will host the FMP in Belgrade at 19.00.
Golemac started his coaching career in 2013 in Cibona as an assistant coach to Slaven Rimac. In the first year he won the ABA League title with the Zagreb's club. He also gained coaching experience as an assistant to Elias Zouros on the Georgia men's National team. As a head coach, he got his first gig in Šentjur Tajfun, and, after taking over, after not so good of a start of the season, he made it to the final eighth place in the Nova KBM League. In 2017, Golemac sat on the bench of the then Sixt Primorska, and in the first season brought the Koper's squad to the title of Spar Cup Champion, the ABA League 2 Finals and the semi-finals of the Slovenian National Championship. The turning point, in which the Golemac showed all the luxury of his coaching talent, was the 2018/19 season, when he won the ABA League 2 title, the Slovenian National Champion title, and the Cup and Super Cup title with the Koper's 'Tigers'. The 2019/20 season, too, has started great, now winning the second consecutive Suoer Cup title under Golemac, and was considered the biggest surprise of the new season in the ABA League until the team collapsed due to the financial reasons. Following the financial difficulties of the Koper club, Golemac parted ways with Koper Primorska on December 20.

Golemac came to Slovenia in 1997, where he initially played for the young team of Cedevita Olimpija, and in his career he defended the colors of the then Union Olimpija, Slovan and the Krka Novo mesto on Slovenian soil. On the International scene, he has proven himself in the jerseys of European greats such as Efes Pilsen, Cibona, Virtus Roma, Panathinaikos and Alba Berlin. The fact that he participated as a naturalized basketball player at EuroBasket 2009 in Poland and with fourth place was one of the creators of the greatest success of Slovenian national team basketball until 2017, when Slovenia sat on the European basketball throne. He has collected 17 official appearances for our chosen line.

The Power Forward said goodbye to the professional basketball career in Krka's jersey, the coach has proven to be primarily committed to basketball, analytical, resourceful and hard and systematic work, where he wants to leave as little as possible to chance.

As he agreed on cooperation with the Ljubljana squad, Golemac told: “I am having mixed feelings. As a former player of the Ljubljana club, I have always desired to become Cedevita Olimpija head coach one day. However, for sure now it is not an ideal opportunity, especially since I replaced Slaven Rimac. But we need to get to work and fix the current state of our team. We can succeed, since the team is good enough to play a lot better than it played until now.”

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Jurica Golemac novi glavni trener Cedevita Olimpije

Člansko moštvo Košarkarskega kluba Cedevita Olimpija ima novega glavnega trenerja. Strateg Zmajev je postal Jurica Golemac, ki je zamenjal dosedanjega trenerja Slavena Rimca, ki je po nedeljskem porazu proti Koper Primorski sklenil sodelovanje z ljubljanskim klubom.

Na trenerski stolček članskega moštva Cedevite Olimpije bo sedel nekdanji košarkar ljubljanskega kluba, in eden izmed najbolj nadarjenih evropskih trenerjev, Jurica Golemac. Slednji bo zamenjal dosedanjega trenerja Slavena Rimca, s katerim je ljubljanski klub po nedeljskem porazu v 17. kolu Lige ABA proti Koper Primorski, ki je bil že četrti zaporedni za Zmaje, sklenil sodelovanje z ljubljanskim klubom.

Jurica Golemac bo Cedevito Olimpijo prvič vodil v soboto, ko bodo Zmaji ob 19.00 gostovali v Beogradu pri FMP-ju.

Trenersko pot je Golemac začel leta 2013 v Ciboni kot pomočnik Slavena Rimca. Že v prvem letu je z zagrebškim klubom osvojil naslov Lige ABA. Trenerske izkušnje je pridobival tudi kot pomočnik Eliasa Zourosa v moški članski reprezentanci Gruzije. Kot glavni trener se je prvič preizkusil v šentjurskem Tajfunu in ekipo, po tem ko jo je prevzel, po ne najboljšem začetku sezone, popeljal do končnega osmega mesta v Ligi Nova KBM. Leta 2017 se je Golemac usedel na klop takratne Sixt Primorske, in Koprčane že v prvi sezoni pripeljal do naslova prvaka Pokala Spar, finala Lige ABA 2 in polfinala slovenskega državnega prvenstva.

Prelomna sezona, v kateri je Golemac pokazal vse razkošje svojega trenerskega talenta, pa je bila sezone 2018/19, ko je s koprskimi 'tigri' osvojil naslov prvaka Lige ABA 2, naslov slovenskega državnega prvaka, ter pokalni in superpokalni naslov. Tudi sezon0 2019/20 je, zdaj Koper Primorska, začela odlično, pod taktirko Golemca osvojila še drugi zaporedni superpokalni naslov, in vse do razpada ekipe veljala za največje presenečenje nove sezone v Ligi ABA. Po finančnih težavah koprskega kluba, je Golemac 20. decembra lani prekinil pogodbo s Koper Primorsko.

Golemac je leta 1997 prišel v Slovenijo, kjer je sprva igral za mlado ekipo Cedevite Olimpije, v svoji karieri pa je na slovenskih tleh branil barve takratne Union Olimpije, Slovana in novomeške Krke. Na mednarodni sceni se je med drugim dokazal v dresih evropskih velikanov, kot so Efes Pilsen, Cibona, Virtus Roma, Panathinaikos in Alba Berlin. Ne gre izpustiti dejstva, da je kot naturalizirani košarkar leta 2009 sodeloval tudi na EuroBasketu na Poljskem in bil s četrtim mestom eden od tvorcev največjega uspeha slovenske članske reprezentančne košarke do leta 2017, ko je Slovenija sedla na evropski košarkarski prestol. Za slovensko izbrano vrsto je zbral 17 uradnih nastopov.

Od profesionalnega igranja košarke se je krilni center poslovil v dresu Krke, kot trener pa se je za zdaj izkazal predvsem s popolno privrženostjo košarki, analitičnostjo, iznajdljivostjo ter trdim in sistematičnem delom, pri katerem čim manj želi prepustiti naključju.

Ob dogovoru o sodelovanju z Ljubljančani je Golemac dejal: “Občutki so mešani. Kot nekdanji igralec ljubljanskega kluba, sem si vedno želel nekega dne tudi postati glavni trener Cedevite Olimpije. Zagotovo za to sedaj ni idealen čas, nenazadnje sem na tem mestu zamenjal prejšnjega trenerja, Slavena Rimca. Toda potrebno je zavihati rokave, začeti delati in popraviti trenutno stanje. To nam zagotovo lahko uspe, saj je ekipa dovolj kakovostna, da igra veliko bolje, kot je igrala do tega trenutka.”