Basketball-Panathinaikos fire Djordjevic after Euroleague defeat

ATHENS, April 19 (Reuters) - Greek basketball giants Panathinaikos fired Serbian coach Aleksandar Djordjevic after an 84-75 home defeat by Spaniards Laboral Kutxa Vitoria sent them crashing out of the Euroleague on Tuesday. "Panathinaikos BC announces the termination of its contract with Aleksandar Djordjevic," the club said on their official website (www.paobc.gr) after the outcome gave Laboral a 3-0 win in their best-of-five quarter-final series. Djordjevic, who won a haul of medals in major events for his country and clinched the 1992 Euroleague with Partizan Belgrade as a player, broke into the spotlight as a coach after steering Serbia to the 2014 World Cup silver medal. He also had a brief spell with NBA outfit Portland Trail Blazers in 1996 and took over at Panathinaikos last June after finishing fourth with Serbia in the 2015 European championship. (Writing by Zoran Milosavljevic in Belgrade; Editing by Alan Baldwin)