By Alex Madrid/ info@eurohoops.net
The Head Coaches Board was founded and was officially introduced on Wednesday in Madrid. Eurohoops was invited to the press conference and Goran Sasic, Zeljko Obradovic, Pablo Laso, Xavi Pascual were among the members of the association that discussed how they believe the Head Coaches Board will fit in European basketball and help on the growth of the sport.
President Zeljko Obradovic touched on the number of EuroLeague head coaches removed this season saying: “This year eight coaches were fired from their position. The first thing we want to do is protect ourselves, to protect the EuroLeague, to understand the situation, to feel safe, to feel good and feel this kind of trust. We want to respect each other. This is very important step for the future of basketball in Europe”.
Pablo Laso, vice-president, mentioned: “First of all we’re coaches. We have to think about the future. We discussed a lot about our future, our job. We have a players association, a referees association, we are all part of basketball. We thought we needed to create a unanimous voice together. We thought it was important we had an association that has only one voice and that would help us grow. We’re very happy and very pleased to have these people on the table. It is very important for us”.
Xavi Pascual was also present at the press conference and explained: “We’re happy to be a part of this association. I was exciting from the beginning we started talking about this. I feel we need to make this step a coaches, because it’s very important to have one voice to talk with other associations, with media, with EuroLeague. One of the topics is to help retired coaches”.
Neven Spahija added: “During my career I had so many situations. The separation with Maccabi happened in the highest possible level, as a good example. In this case, I had an amazing example of how the club separated with me as a person and as a coach”.
Besides the above, members of the Board are Ahmet Caki, David Blatt, Dejan Radonjic, Dimitris Itoudis, Ergin Ataman, Giorgos Bartzokas, Giannis Sfairopoulos, Jasmin Repesa, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Selcuk Ernak, Simone Pianigiani and Velimir Perasovic.