The final result was 76-73 for IMT and Mladjan was yet again the top scorer of the game, only this time with 25 points, making a comeback for his team.

It was the only time in the history of Yugoslav basketball that the cup competition was won by a club not playing in the top-tier First Federal League.

1987–88 season was also successful for both Šakota and the club, as the team finished 7th in the league, earning its place for the playoff, but was eliminated by Cibona in the quarter-finals.

The team improved its results from the previous season under the new coach, reaching the semi-finals of the FIBA Korać Cup, losing both games to Partizan that later won in the finals.

Game 5 is considered as the decisive, as the black and white team had the lead till the last few seconds when Ken Barlow made an in-bound turnover, giving the opportunity to Panagiotis Giannakis to score a long distance buzzer-beater three for the 86-85 win.

In the meantime, circumstances for the Thessaloniki club changed a bit since Šakota's last presence, with PAOK playing FIBA European League in that season.

PAOK also finished 4th in the league and managed to reach the last of 16 group where they won 6 games but didn't succeed in passing through the quarter-finals.

is marked as one of his finest, as he developed players like Milan Gurović and Marko Jarić and had good results in the national league.

During that period, Iraklis had success in the domestic league, qualifying for the 1999-00 FIBA Saporta Cup by finishing 6th after Šakota's first season as a returner.

The results from those 2 seasons were more or less in a shadow because Šakota introduced a new name to the Greek league, point guard Dimitris Diamantidis.

Šakota immediately became an AEK legend, making history as the only coach since 1992 that has won a national title, but not with Olympiacos or Panathinaikos.

After winning the title, AEK management had no choice but to decrease the club's budget 50%, limiting the head coach's chances to repeat the success in the next season.

After eliminating another Šakota's former team PAOK 2-0 in the quarter-finals and Olympiacos 2-1 in the semi-finals, AEK was defeated by the Athens-based Panathinaikos 3-1 in the series.

Although Olympiacos showed improvement with the arrival of the new coach, the club had one of the worst seasons in its modern history, as the team finished 8th in the league with a 13-13 score and was later eliminated by Panathinaikos in the playoff quarter-finals.

He instantly brought some of his former players: Milan Gurović, Pero Antić from AEK, Miroslav Raičević with whom he cooperated in Aris and Igor Milošević.

In that season's ULEB Cup Crvena Zvezda played extremely well, advancing through the quarter-finals where they lost to the eventual champion Dynamo Moscow.

Unfortunately, injuries and bad form prevented Zvezda from doing more, as they reached the Goodyear League semi-finals after being 2nd in the regular season with a 19-7 score and lost to eventual champions FMP after eliminating Bosna in the quarter-finals.

However, before that happened, Šakota had brought back Tadija Dragićević who was sent on loan to Mega Vizura by Zmago Sagadin, and the young power forward showed his potential right away.

The whole team struggled in the Goodyear League and was eliminated by FMP in the national cup semi-finals, failing to defend the trophy.

Despite that, Šakota's team matched the success they had in the previous season of the ULEB Cup, reaching the quarter-finals again and losing to a new champion Real Madrid, that they had won prior in the first phase of the competition 100-81, making that one of the club's greatest wins of the decade and even wider.

Šakota resigned in the beginning of March after a 88-82 loss to Olimpija Ljubljana and a 12-11 score in the Adriatic League, losing every chance to qualify for the following season's ULEB Cup, resulting critics and anger from red and white fans, he was replaced by his assistant coach Stevan Karadžić.

[7] On November 16, 2011, Šakota became the new head coach of the Turkish Super League club Antalya Büyükşehir Belediyesi, replacing Serdar Apaydın, but after a few months he was fired again.