Angry Tanjevic calls NBA coaches ‘stupid’

SASSARI, Italy

The Turkish national men’s basketball team coach Bogdan Tanjevic lashes out at NBA coaches, especially Utah Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin, saying they are ‘stupid.’

Coach of the Turkish national men’s baskeball team Bogdan Tanjevic has lashed out at his American counterparts, saying most of the NBA coaches are “stupid.”

The Montenegrin coach was quoted by La Gazzetta dello Sport, where his team was to face Italy in a European Basketball Championship qualifying game yesterday.

Tanjevic returned to coaching after a one and a half year hiatus spurred when he left the post after the 2010 World Championships due to an illness. He returned to the post earlier this summer and has been assigned the task of leading Turkey to the 2013 EuroBasket.

Tanjevic is heading a younger team in the qualifiers, but without the help of Utah Jazz player Enes Kanter, who chose to spend the summer preparing for the new National Basketball Association season.

“[Kanter] is a huge talent and we miss him a lot. He decided not to join us but honestly, he needs us more than we need him,” Tanjevic said to La Gazzetta, according to the European basketball website Sportando.net.

Tanjevic said he was not surprised by the 20-year-old’s decision and did not want to contact the Jazz coach to ask for permission.

“I am not surprised at all that [Kanter] refused to join us,” Tanjevic said. “America is the right place to lose your brain. First, because of the coaches who don’t understand anything; in the NBA there are just three or four good coaches who in the last 100 years, gain billions and win trophies. The other ones are stupid, Tyrone Corbin included. I didn’t want to call him. I should have told him and that I was going to do him a favor teaching basketball to one of his guys and he would have gained money on that. But I really can’t talk to guys who don’t know what they are doing.”

Tanjevic said Kanter had lost some of his abilities while playing in the United States.

“Kanter forgot how to play basketball,” he said, adding that it was a mistake to use the player in the center position. “He is 2.10m but he is the best shooter in the Turkish team, guards included. And in the NBA he never takes a shot.”