By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Interviewed by Meridian Sport, the EuroLeague Head Coaches Board executive director Goran Sasic talked about the big number of coaches already fired in the season and the changes that are coming in the competition.
As Sasic explained: “We were founded in a season similar to this one, and this shows that the responsibility is exclusively put on the coaches and firings seen to be the only solutions clubs come up with. This season with seven firings so far and even a new era was marked with a coach being fired before the season even started. But the positive news is that at least the clubs are fulfilling their obligations towards the released coaches. I always say that every job has rights, obligations, and responsibilities and coaches are fully aware are dully fulfilling their obligations and responsibilities but the clubs have to fulfill their part of their obligations and respect the labor rights coaches have. Still, I think there’s something rotten in the kingdom of Denmark”.
Of course, things are moving forward and there are two positive examples that Sasic underlined: “I would like to ask some question to all fans of EuroLeague Basketball: Isn’t the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague the most competitive competition in the world? Do you agree that coaches should be fired so quickly? Now direct question to the EFES fans: have you seen the beauty of coaching from Erdem Can and Chus Matteo and the mutual respect between them after the game? Isn’t that what you would like your clubs to be recognized by?
Also, I have witnessed a very positive thing before a firing was actually done and that is that the Zalgiris players stood behind their former coach Kazys Maksvytis. This is a beautiful state of mind that the players of Zalgiris showed”.
However, things are not perfect.
After Gianmarco Pozzecco’s adventure with ASVEL came to an early end, Tony Parker released an interview with L’Equipe where he vastly criticized the Italian head coach’s attitude.
Sasic talked on the issue: “I have to highlight a very surprising behavior of a former NBA Champion. The statements from Tony Parker after firing Coach Pozzecco are practically reflecting the ASVEL organization and his decision-making. It’s not the first time he did so”, he first said.
Making an exception when talking about somebody who’s not an EHCB member like Gianmarco Pozzecco, he then went on speaking about the French president. “I want to remind the ASVEL fans that similar quotes by Tony Parker were addressed towards former coach Zvezdan Mitrovic. I always say one time one should forgive everyone for anything, but if it happens twice, I consider it a pattern”, he added.
The Serbian executive director then raised a question. “This creates a lot of questions about the direction of ASVEL in the EuroLeague: Who can be the right coach for the club? Maybe Tony Parker himself? And at the same time why there are reports and info about ASVEL’s shares being for sale? I think those are much more important issues right now and it will be more useful for everyone to be addressed, not necessarily in public, but with a much better on-court presence for the sake of both the club and the competition”, he concluded on the French organization.
During the interview with the Serbian outlet, he also addressed the possible introduction of trades for players within the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, considering the vast number of players representing more than one team in the same season. It recently happened with Ante Zizic, moving from Anadolu Efes to Virtus Bologna, or to Shabazz Napier, who joined Milan from Crvena Zvezda, for example.
Touching on this topic, Goran Sasic said that the future could bring something different to the table. “We need to equally distribute the responsibility for results and we will work with Euroleague Basketball and ELPA on a trade mechanism to be implemented starting from the next season so that clubs could exchange players”, he said.
Read all the latest news from the basketball world