In the first step toward getting ready for the 2011-12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague season, Armani Jeans Milano announced the signing of Sergio Scariolo as new head coach.
Scariolo, 50, returns to Italy for the first time since 1997. Scariolo started last season with BC Khimki Moscow Region of Russia, with which he managed to make the Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular season via the Qualifying Rounds, but he left the team in December.
Scariolo is also the head coach of the Spanish national team, with whom he won Eurobasket 2009 in Poland. Scariolo started his career as head coach at the top level, after many years as assistant coach, in 1989 with Scavolini Pesaro, with whom he won the Italian League title at only 29 years old and also took the team to the Korac Cup final.
In 1993 he moved to Bologna to coach Fortitudo for four seasons. In 1997, he left Italy and moved to Spain to become the new boss at Tau Ceramica and in 1999 he switched teams and moved to Real Madrid. After four seasons there he was signed by Unicaja Malaga, where he had his longest stint as head coach to date – five years.
In 2008, Scariolo announced he was moving to Russia to join Khimki and he proceeded to take the team to the Eurocup Final that very same season.
Among his biggest accomplishments have been leading Unicaja to the 2007 Euroleague Final Four, its first Spanish League championship in 2006, the King’s Cup crown the year before. He also won the Spanish League with Real Madrid in 2000 and another King’s Cup with Tau in 1999.
Source: Euroleague.net
