Pini Gershon: "Each coach must make his own philosophy"

Pini Gershon is a well-known name in the basketball world. Former Maccabi Tel-Aviv coach, also former head-coach of the Bulgarian national team and 3-time Euroleague winner. Mr. Gershon also has 7 titles in Israel and 7 national cups. During his visit to the 2010 EUROHOLD Balkan League opening game, he was kind to answer to a couple of our questions.
 
Q: This is the third year of the BIBL, do you think the league is going in the right way?
 
Pini Gershon: As long as every year is better than the previous one, the league is on the right path.
 
Q: The two teams in the opening game have only local players on their rosters, do you think this is the best way for the Balkan basketball to move forward, relying on local youngsters?
 
PG: Profesionally, I see some Serbian teams making lots of money from buy-outs of young players contracts. Its good for the teams from a financial point of view. But if you want to be the best you have to collect all the best players, in order to get to the top level, you have to bring in the best players from everywhere.
 
Q: You are currently not working, are you thinking of going back into coaching?
 
PG: At this time no, as far as now, my plan is to get at least one year rest and after that I will think about it more.
 
Q: Most of the teams in the EUROHOLD BIBL are coached by young coaches, who are certainly looking up to the big names like you, what is your advice to them in order to get better on and off the court?
 
PG: Learn something from every coach you work with, make your philosophy, write your own book of basketball and collect experience from practice to practice and from game to game. Knowledge is always not enough, you can always learn more.
 
by Alexander Sotirov.