Pini Gershon official guest of the Final Four

The Final Four of the Eurohold Balkan League in Bulgarian town Samokov will welcome another prominent VIP guest - legendary Israeli coach Pini Gershon. He has accepted the invitation from the management of the BIBL and its Sports Director - Gershon`s compatriot Shay Shtriks.
 
Pini Gershon, who earlier this season returned to Israel to coach the club he had won 3 European Cups with - Maccabi Tel Aviv, will thus next week make another visit to the country, where he is the current coach of the National team. In his very first experience as a National team coach last summer Gershon was able to miraculously and dramatically see Bulgaria through to this year`s Men EuroBasket in Poland. That happened despite the Bulgarians having been considered the underdogs in a tough Qualifying Round group, featuring Serbia, Italy, Finland and Hungary.
 
In late November 2008 he acceped an offer to come back to Maccabi and save the floundering Israeli team. He has done so by guiding it to an unlikely Euroleague Top 16 qualification, but he has had lots of issues to deal with there and thus hasn`t been able to visit Bulgaria, even when he was supposed to attend the "90 Years of Basketball in Bulgaria" celebrations last month. So his visit as a VIP guest of the BIBL Final Four in Samokov will be Pini`s first return in those last four months to the country where he now even has his second citizenship.
 
Besides Pini Gershon, as already reported, quite a few other VIP guests will be present in Samokov. Those include FIBA Europe Sports Director Kosta Iliev, ULEB referees boss Costas Rigas, as well as some representatives from the Adriatic League, Israel, Romania, Turkey, Montenegro and Serbia.