By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
All these years, one and half decade, in the Euroleague there are many players with a bunch of titles but there are only four who have played under four coaches who won a Euroleague title. The new entry on the list is Nikos Zisis!
Nikos Zisis is the fourth player of an extremely private club which includes the players who were coached by four different coaches with a Euroleague title.
Fenerbahce is the sixth different Euroleague team of the Greek guard who started playing in the top competition of our continent as a kid with AEK under Ivkovic, Katsikaris and Sakota and then he moved to Benneton under Blatt, CSKA under Messina, Siena under Pianigiani and Unics under Pedoulakis. Ηe spent also two seasons in the Eurocup with Bilbao under Katsikaris and Unics under Trinchieri. So, after Ivkovic, Blatt and Messina, now Zisis will play also for Obradovic, the most decorated coach in Euroleague history.
Sarunas Jasikevicius played also under four coaches with a Euroleague title. He did it twice with Barcelona (Pesic and Pascual), with Panathinaikos under Zoc and of course with Maccabi under Pini Gherson.
In this list we can include also Ramunas Siskauskas or Giorgos Printezis even though Jonas Kazlauskas won his own Euroleague title (1999) before the start of the modern era of the competition. All the other three coaches of them (Blatt, Messina, Obradovic for Siska and Bartzokas, Ivkovic and Gherson for Printezis) were in the last fifteen years of the Euroleague, so they can be in this list.
Saras made this summer the big step, suited up and became a coach. We believe that Zisis who will play for at least 3-4 more years, should follow his steps. He spent their years as players under the elite of the European coaches, so it’s more than expected to watch them being coaches some day.