The Japan Times will be featuring periodic interviews with personalities in the bj-league, which begins its sixth season in October. Coach Zeljko Pavlicevic of the expansion Shimane Susanoo Magic is the subject of this week's profile.
Career background: Pavlicevic, 59, has been called one of the top 20 coaches in European basketball history. He guided Cibona, a Croatian club, to the 1986 Euroleague title.
He repeated the feat in 1991, coaching Split, also from the former Yugoslavia, to a Euroleague title. He has also coached Ferrol and Vitoria, a pair of Spanish League teams, and served as the bench boss for Panathinaikos Athens, for which he earned a Greek Cup crown in '93.