MVP OF NOVEMBER: Dalibor Ilić (Igokea)

Dalibor Ilić has proven, throughout the month of November, his dominance at the AdmiralBet ABA League courts wherever he has appeared and besides the fact that he finished the month atop of the statistical category of valuation, he deserved himself the award with his contribution to the team's success – Igokea have won two of their three games during the month of November, which keeps their odds in the Playoffs race looking realistic.

The excellent big man in the ranks of the Laktaši squad averaged 20 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.7 steals and a valuation of 25.3 during the games of Igokea, which puts him in the first place in the rankings in valuation and points scored and on the fifth place in the rankings in rebounding of the month of November.

Dalibor Ilić believes that there are plenty of reasons for his current excellent performances: “There is no secret to my good performances lately. It’s just a that the approach to practice, hard work, individual work besides teamwork, with the proper concentration, are finally becoming evident in the senior basketball. OF courts, beside that there’s an effect of teamwork, in which I have clear role and am I maximally focused to it. For sure there are other teammates that are to “blame” for their contribution to my MVP award.”

It is still too early to be considering the odds of reaching the Playoffs for another time in a row, Ilić believes: “It’s too distant to be talking about that right now. This is a totally different team regarding to the last season’s one and also the AdmiralBet ABA League is stronger than last season. I am happy for the fact that we have finally found our game and started playing the way we want to. I hope that we would continue practicing well and then start to apply our good work in the games as well. In case we manage to do that, I will not have a slightest doubt that we are on a right track to repeat the last season’s success.”

Dalibor does not try to hide his greatfulness towards head coach Dragan Bajić for his contribution to his development: “I believe that there’s not a single player that would not like that kind of a role. For sure it has been a vision of people that are leading this club and I am happy that it’s becoming true lately. Dragan Bajić is a coach that introduced me to professional basketball, the coach who gave me first senior playing minutes. For the majority of my career by now I have been cooperating with him, so it is not necessary to speak of how much he contributed to my development and I am grateful to him for that.”

And how about AdmiralBet ABA League? Many believe that the competition is ideal for the development of youngsters and Dalibor Ilić is the one that should now that very well: “AdmiralBet ABA League has always been a cradle of top-level talent. The league is tough an has plenty of high-quality and experienced players that know basketball and from which you can learn a lot about the game, especially when entering battles with them and feel it on your body. Besides that, the advantage is that there aren’t any weak teams in the AdmiralBet ABA League and therefore you are playing against quality teams each round. All teams are specific in a way, so there are a lot of difficult and tough games, especially in the away courts, regardless of the rosters of the teams. You need to be on 100% of your possibilities in case you wish to win at any time. For young player, that is spending some of his minutes on the court it’s a big advantage, since he always gets to face some high-quality and experienced opponent, which he needs to prevail over. Currently, we are in a coronavirus period, but when everything gets back to normal, there are also many of courts, where the fans make great atmosphere and it’s a great pleasure to be playing in such an environment.”

Check out some fancy plays by Dalibor Ilić from the month of November: