Pini Gershon

Pinhas "Pini" Gershon ( _he. פנחס "פיני" גרשון, born 13 November 1951), is an Israeli basketball coach currently employed by the Bulgarian national team.

Biography

Personal details

He grew up and studied in the city Tel Aviv. He experienced a rough childhood, as his biological father abandoned the family at the age of one year and left him with his mother, on poverty conditions.

As a basketball player

In his youth he was a basketball player. He played for the team "Maccabi south Tel Aviv", which was a sister team of Maccabi Tel Aviv, and was one of the stars in the cadets team. He played a number of years also in the adult group of Maccabi south Tel Aviv, but his career as a basketball player ended at the age of 24 as a result of an injury.

As a coach

After the short career as a basketball player, he began to coach in different Israeli teams, among them, Maccabi Rishon LeZion, Hapoel Galil Elyon, Hapoel Gan Shmuel-Menashe, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem, as well as the assistant coach for the Israel national basketball team.

In 1993 he led Hapoel Galil Elyon to the Israeli championship, the first time in 36 years that it had not been won by Maccabi Tel Aviv. In 1996 he won the Israeli national cup as the coach of Hapoel Jerusalem, after beating Maccabi in the final.

In the different interviews he expressed himself poignantly against Maccabi Tel Aviv and against the club's dominance of Israeli basketball. Therefore it was quite a surprise when he become Maccabi Tel Aviv's coach at the end of 1998. In that time Maccabi Tel Aviv was in a professional crisis after several years of failing to enter the top stages of the European basketball tournament, a status which it has enjoyed in the past.

Under his, and his assistant David Blatt's lead, Maccabi Tel Aviv surprisingly advanced to the Euroleague finals in 2000, losing to Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos in the final game. A year later Maccabi was crowned European Champions, clincing the Suproleague title. However, this achievement was shadowed by the split between two European basketball unions into two separate leagues, which meant that most top European teams did not compete against Maccabi.

After the 2001 season, Gershon took a break from coaching, mainly for some self-searching and travelling around the world. This temporary retirement lasted two seasons, and in the summer of 2003 Gershon returned to his former position as the head coach of Maccabi, in the purpose of reaching the Euroleague 2003-04 Final Four tournament, which took place in Tel Aviv. That goal was 2 seconds away from failure, when Maccabi, hosting BC Žalgiris in the match for the last spot in the tournament, had to come from behind. A marvelous 3-point buzzer-beater by Derrick Sharp sent that game into overtime, in which Maccabi won and advanced to the Final Four. Maccabi, under Gershon, went on to have an unforgettable tournament, crushingSkipper Bologna 118-74 in the final to become the Euroleague 2003-04 champions for the fourth time.

In 2005 Gershon lead Maccabi Tel Aviv to another Euroleague championship season . Having been league favorites all season long, Maccabi Tel Aviv advanced to the Euroleague 2003-04 in Moscow. The expected final was to be between Maccabi and host CSKA Moscow. However, CSKA surprisingly lost its semifinal game to TAU Vitoria. In the final, Maccabi easily beat TAU by a score of 90-78. Gershon was named Coach of the Year.

During the 2006-2006, Gershon hinted that this would be his last season with Maccabi. That year he again led the team to the Euroleague 2005-06Euroleague Final Four. This time, however, luck has run out, as Maccabil lost the final game to CSKA Moscow 73-69. Gershon left Maccabi at the end of the season, and signed with Greek Olympiacos BC.

In his first season as head coach of Olympiacos, Gershon led the team to the national finals against Panathinaikos and in the final 8 of the Euroleague, where the team was eliminated by TAU Ceramica. Again, accusations of racism were raised, mainly by Olympiacos fans, concerning the lack of playing time for team star and crowd favorite Sofoklis Schortsianitis.

Pinhas Gershon is the only Israeli basketball coach to ever have won three times the European cup. Today, he is considered to be one of the greatest coaches in Europe.

In september 2008 he led the National team of Bulgaria to the European Championship in Poland which will begin in year 2009.

Controversial remarks

Gershon which is well known for his "big mouth", and every so often something he says creates an outrage.

He often eagerly voices his belief in the part divine guidance has had in his career. His close ties with the Chabad movement are also publicly known.

Gershon aroused a lot of anger on race issues. Following the historic European triumph, in November 2001, Gershon was caught on camera making controversial (and extremely ill-advised) remarks regarding some of his Afro-American players at a talk in front of some senior IDF army officers. Gershon was taped saying that "even among blacks there are different colors. There is dark black, and there is mocha. The mocha type are more clever, and the darker color usually come from the street. The ones whom are a bit more mixed in race, like Andrew Kennedy for example, you can see his status, his personality. The other black ones are truly idiots". After that affair became public, Gershon was coerced to resign from his job as the coach of Maccabi.

Gershon is also known for his fervent temper, and as head coach of Maccabi was often caught in heckling wars against fans of opposing teams, particularly supporters of his former team Hapoel Jerusalem B.C..

Titles

*European Champions Cup: 3 (with Maccabi Tel-Aviv: 2001-Suproleague, 2004, 2005-Euroleague)
*Domestic Championship: 7 (6 with Maccabi Tel-Aviv, 1 with Hapoel Galil Elyon)
*Domestic Cup: 7 (6 with Maccabi Tel-Aviv, 1 with Hapoel Jerusalem)

External links

* [http://www.basketpedya.com/Acc002InfEnt.php?idjug=1698&idioma=3 Career]