Raptors’ Darko Rajaković named coach for Team World at NBA All-Star Game

TORONTO — Toronto Raptors head coach Darko Rajaković will be the third coach in this month’s All-Star Game.

Yes, third.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver named Rajaković, in his third year in the job with the Raptors, as head coach of Team World for this year’s All-Star festivities on Feb. 15. San Antonio’s Mitch Johnson and Detroit’s J.B. Bickerstaff will be the other two coaches.

This year, there will be three teams in the All-Star Game — two with American-born players and one featuring players from the rest of the world — playing in a round-robin tournament. Johnson and Bickerstaff qualified traditionally, as their teams have the best records in their respective conferences (in Johnson’s case, Oklahoma City has the best record, but Mark Daigneault coached in the game last year and head coaches cannot make repeat appearances).

Rajaković is one of four coaches from countries other than the United States, and the Raptors have the best record (30-21) of any of those teams. Jordi Fernández (Brooklyn), Tuomas Iisalo (Memphis) and Tiago Splitter (interim coach in Portland, stepping in for the under-investigation Chauncey Billups) are also NBA head coaches. (Houston’s Ime Udoka has both American and Nigerian citizenship.)

Rajaković, 46, is from Cacak, Serbia. He worked for the San Antonio Spurs from 2004-11, as a European scouting consultant and Summer League coach, before joining the Oklahoma City Thunder organization as head coach of the team’s G League affiliate. He eventually joined the Thunder’s coaching staff under both Scott Brooks and Billy Donovan before becoming an assistant in Phoenix and Memphis.

Rajaković has an 85-130 record with the Raptors. Toronto is tied with Cleveland in fourth place in the Eastern Conference.