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Definatelly a great choice for Greece. He's one of the best coaches in Europe. In my opinion he fits Greek style of basketball as Messina is very strict in defense. Also he knows some of the Greek players very well.

Messina himslef wants to work with Italian national team but Italians want a coach who works in Italy.

Looks like he declined the offer.

So we can guess that Messina's move to Barca next season is likely to go ahead next summer.

Greece will have to choose between Katsikaris and Trifunovic now unless they have more names on the list.

Trifunovic is a good coach for them I think. His style would work very well with them.

So apparently Jonas Kazlauskas will be the new head coach of Greece NT. He is probably the best choice out of those available. It gives me an ambigious feeling. On one hand I am happy for Kazlauskas and his career. He is definatelly the best Lithuanian coach at the moment. Many people want him for our NT, including me. But until Garastas runs Lithuanian basketball there's no chance for that

On the other hand it would be very difficult to watch Greece defeat Lithuania with Kazlauskas in charge. So I hope these two teams will only meet in Acropolis tournament and not in Eurobasket.

Leaving sentiments behind. It is really interesting what would the changes in Greek playing style be when Kazlauskas starts working.

(Jan 25, 2009, 9:45 pm)Vilius Wrote: [ -> ]Many people want him for our NT, including me. But until Garastas runs Lithuanian basketball there's no chance for that

So is he also on Garastas's black list? I mean, he has conflicts with half of the world so to speak, wouldn't it be more sensible to work towards improving Lith basketball (and Garastas himself was very important years ago) than insisting on these stupid quarrels?

I know how that must suck for Lithuanian fans.

(Jan 25, 2009, 11:16 pm)rikhardur Wrote: [ -> ]So is he also on Garastas's black list? I mean, he has conflicts with half of the world so to speak, wouldn't it be more sensible to work towards improving Lith basketball (and Garastas himself was very important years ago) than insisting on these stupid quarrels?

Yes, he is. The latest event when Garastas was angry at Kazlauskas was Beijing Olympics. After the quarter-final game China - Lithuania Kazlauskas said that referees let our players play rugby. So in the semi-final against Spain referees were much more strict and made some contraversal calls. Garastas accused Kazlauskas of being a traitor and causing us a loss in the semi-final.

Garastas's ego is above everything. He is the only one who knows how to manage Lithuanian basketball. Others are just idiots. He's hated by the fans and people working in basketball but he's not even thinking about resigning. Despite often making such comments in the media that any self respecting federation president would be ashamed of and would immediatelly resign. But instead he drops an apology letter and that's all.

A couple of years ago Šarūnas Marčiulionis was a candidate to become a president of FIBA Europe. And he had good chances. Guess why he wasn't ellected. That's right Garastas couldn't accept that so his people convinced the voters not to vote for Marčiulionis. Eventually Marčiulionis put himself out of ellections before the voting.

And the list goes on. For example Ramūnas Butautas will stay in NT as long as Garastas wants. And it seems that it could be a long period.

Quote:Kazlauskas Considers Chance To Coach Greece

China's Olympic boss Jonas Kazlauskas is understood to be mulling over an offer to replace Panagiotis Yannakis as Greece's national team coach.

Yannakis' deal with the Greek national team expired after the Beijing Games, just as Kazlauskas' contract ended with the Chinese.

George Vassilakopoulos, FIBA Europe President and the President Emeritus of the Hellenic Basketball Federation, discussed the job opening with Kazlauskas over the weekend in Lithuania and the coach is discussing the offer with his family before making a decision.

Kazlauskas is well known in European basketball circles after leading Lithuania's national team, and coaching various clubs - including Greek giants Olympiacos.

After serving as an assistant to Del Harris on the China team at the Athens Games in 2004, he was confirmed as head coach of the Chinese national side in 2005 although he also continued to coach Olympiacos through the 2005-06 campaign.

Kazlauskas has requested that his former colleague at Olympiacos, Yannis Sfairopoulos, be allowed to work as his assistant with the national team.

Sfairopoulos has already served as an assistant coach with Greece's national team.

Should he agree to take the reins, Kazlauskas would take on one of the giants in the European game and around the world.

Under Yannakis, Greece captured a gold medal at EuroBasket 2005 in Belgrade and silver at the 2006 FIBA World Championship.

At the EuroBasket in Spain in 2007, Greece finished fourth and last year, they reached the quarter-finals of the Beijing Games before suffering an 80-78 defeat to eventual bronze-medalists Argentina.

Yannakis, a legendary player in Greece who was the point guard on their 1987 team that captured the European title, began his second stint as coach of the Greeks shortly before the start of the 2004 Olympics.

He would be a tough act for any coach to follow but the appointment of the 54-year-old Kazlauskas would appear to bring some continuity since he worked with some Greek players like center Sofoklis Schortsanitis while the coach of Olympiacos.

Kazlauskas coached Zalgiris Kaunas from 1994-2000 and led them to numerous honors, including a FIBA EuroLeague title in 1999. He first worked in the Lithuania national team set-up in 1995 when coaching the juniors.

He served as head coach of Lithuania from 1997-2001 and during his spell, the country narrowly upset the heavily-favored United States in the semi-finals of the Sydney Olympics in 2000 before settling for a bronze medal.

If Kazlauskas does agree to take the Greek job, he will lead them at this summer's EuroBasket in Poland where the national team will compete in Poznan in Group A against the Croatia, FYROM and Israel.

An announcement on the Kazlauskas appointment could come as early as this week.

http://www.fibaeurope.com/coid_RxfEInOSHfw..._frontpage.html

Messina signed last week with Real Madrid

(Jan 25, 2009, 9:45 pm)Vilius Wrote: [ -> ]So apparently Jonas Kazlauskas will be the new head coach of Greece NT. He is probably the best choice out of those available. It gives me an ambigious feeling. On one hand I am happy for Kazlauskas and his career. He is definatelly the best Lithuanian coach at the moment. Many people want him for our NT, including me. But until Garastas runs Lithuanian basketball there's no chance for that

On the other hand it would be very difficult to watch Greece defeat Lithuania with Kazlauskas in charge. So I hope these two teams will only meet in Acropolis tournament and not in Eurobasket.

Leaving sentiments behind. It is really interesting what would the changes in Greek playing style be when Kazlauskas starts working.

If anything, I hope he really unfolds the offensive skills our players have. We've been focusing too much on strangulating defense, and our offense has ailed because of this. Blame Yannakis once more, and the usual Greek coach bullshit doctrines.