Darko Rajakovic Ran A Play Designed By Dejan Milojevic To Open Raptors-Heat

Many around the NBA played and coached with a heavy heart on Wednesday night after the death of Golden State Warriors assistant coach Dejan Milojevic, who suffered a heart attack at a team dinner in Utah on Tuesday night.

Milojevic was a highly regarded figure in the NBA and international basketball communities and coached a number of future NBA players while the head coach of Mega Basket in Serbia, including Nikola Jokic, prior to joining Steve Kerr’s staff in 2021. While the Warriors game against the Jazz was postponed to allow the team to grieve — Golden State’s game Friday against the Mavs was likewise postponed — the rest of the league played on with many doing so in honor of Milojevic.

Among those closest to Milojevic in the NBA is Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic, and after Toronto’s win over the Heat on Wednesday night, he dedicated the win to Milojevic and said the first play the Raptors ran in the game was one he stole from Dejan.

That play has Scottie Barnes dart up the floor into the post on the empty side, before two Raptors on the other side run simultaneous cuts with the guys in the corner and the wing lifting to the wing and top of the key, respectively. Barnes passes to Jontay Porter on one of the cuts, who pivots and finds Gary Trent Jr. for a three on the wing to open the game with a bucket.

After the game in the locker room, the Raptors gave Rajakovic the chain and he simply told his guys he loved them, before getting some embraces from his players on what had to have been an emotional and difficult night.