By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Euroleague Basketball announced on Tuesday that Valencia‘s Pedro Martinez is the 2025-26 Alexander Gomelskiy Coach of the Year.
Per the press release: “After guiding Valencia Basket to a 25-13 record and a second-place regular-season finish, Pedro Martinez has been chosen as the 2025-26 Alexander Gomelskiy Coach of the Year. In his first full season on the sidelines in the competition, Martinez’s name appeared on the most ballots from his fellow EuroLeague head coaches, who vote for this award.
Coaching in the EuroLeague for the first time since November 2018 with a club returning to the competition after a year away, the 64-year-old Martinez led Valencia to winning basketball throughout the regular season. Valencia not only had the second-most victories, but also led the regular season in scoring (90.9 ppg.), and ranked among the leaders in many other statistical categories.
Pedro Martínez is the 2025–26 Alexander Gomelskiy Coach of the Year 🏆
The @valenciabasket head coach guided his team to an impressive 25–13 record in their first season back in the EuroLeague 👏
The first coach to claim both EuroLeague & EuroCup Coach of the Year honors!… pic.twitter.com/cTdRsJRGnG
— EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) April 21, 2026
Tomas Masiulis of Zalgiris Kaunas was the runner-up in the voting followed by Georgios Bartzokas of Olympiacos Piraeus and the 2024-25 winner, Sarunas Jasikevicius of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul. A total of 13 coaches were named on ballots, a testament to the high regard EuroLeague coaches have for one another.
The Alexander Gomelskiy Coach of the Year Trophy is named after the legendary coach who led ASK Riga to the first EuroLeague title in 1958 and added three more continental crowns between Riga and CSKA Moscow. Gomelskiy also guided the Soviet Union to gold at the 1988 Olympics and remains one of the most decorated figures in basketball history. Euroleague Basketball chose him as one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors in 2008. He is also a member of both the Basketball Hall of Fame and the FIBA Hall of Fame. Gomelskiy passed away in 2005.
This marks the first time a Valencia head coach has won the award. Martinez becomes the fourth Spanish-born head coach to win the award, joining Chus Mateo (2023-24) and Pablo Laso (2014-15 and 2017-18), who won with Real Madrid, and Xavi Pascual (2009-10), who received the honor with FC Barcelona.
Martinez entered the season with only 41 games of EuroLeague head-coaching experience, but after starting the season with significant injury problems, Valencia shook off a 2-3 start and posted its first three-game winning streak, going on to maintain a winning record the rest of the way.
In late November, Valencia started a run of eight victories in nine games that included wins at three of the toughest road venues in all of basketball, at Olympiacos Piraeus, Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens and Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade. Valencia kept beating the odds and used a 4-0 record in April to climb all the way to second place and earn home-court advantage in the playoffs.
Valencia finished tied for second-most wins of more than 10 points (12), and had the best winning percentage (85.7%) in games with such outcomes. The team finished the regular season ranked second in three-pointers made (11.7 per game), rebounding (37.7 rpg.) and blocks (3.2 bpg.); third in assists (21.0 apg.) and offensive rebounding (13.0 orpg.); and fourth in steals (6.9 spg.).
Martinez is the 14th different recipient of the Coach of the Year award. Only Zeljko Obradovic and Georgios Bartzokas have won it three times, while Ettore Messina, Dimitris Itoudis and Laso have each won it twice. Other past winners include last season’s laureate Sarunas Jasikevicius, as well as Pini Gershon, Dusko Vujosevic, Xavi Pascual, Dusan Ivkovic, David Blatt and Ergin Ataman.”