By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
After getting the wild card, the next big issue for the Greek national team is the coach who will replace Andrea Trinchieri. As this point the favorites seems to be Fotis Katsikaris and Giannis Sfairopoulos, while the name of Panagiotis Giannakis once again appeared on the forefront. However at this point the chances of Greece hiring him are slim, since he is still typically the coach of the Chinese national team, he has a contract until 2016 and in order to protect it he can’t start negotiating with an other national team.
Greek federation president George Vasilakopoulos will not hurry to take his final decision. First of all there’s also a contract for this year with Andrea Trinchieri. So Vasilakopoulos will have to resolve this situation first and then decide what to do with the new coach.
The Greek president already knows the views and the demands of both Katsikaris and Sfairopoulos, which he has contacted. At this point the name of any non Greek coach doesn’t seem to be taken into consideration, despite the fact that in the past coaches like Joan Plaza and David Blatt were among the Greek federation’s targets. The most possible scenario is for the next national team coach to be Greek and during February the final decision is expected to be taken.