By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Baskonia sporting director Félix Fernández explained the club’s split with Paolo Galbiati during Velimir Perasovic’s presentation on Wednesday, pointing to disagreements over the team’s direction and the treatment of established players.
Perasovic had already coached Baskonia in its previous two games, taking over from the Italian who led the club to last season’s Copa del Rey title.
“Either we are all on the same page and moving in the same direction, or it becomes very difficult. We cannot afford to be throwing the EuroLeague away on October 10,” Fernández said, as reported by local media. “When you resort to excuses and use defeatist language, we cannot afford that.”
Fernández also revealed that Galbiati had expressed an interest in coaching Barcelona, with discussions involving the coach and his agent failing to produce an agreement.
“We wanted Galbiati. He was the one who told us he wanted to coach Barça,” Fernández said. “We told him he had one guaranteed year left on his contract and that there would be time to discuss other things.”
The sporting director said the situation coincided with former technical secretary Xevi Pujol’s move to Barcelona, “where players who were on our lists ended up.” He also questioned Galbiati’s involvement during preparations for the new campaign.
“We noticed a lack of activity from Paolo during the postseason and preseason.”
Differences extended to the roster, with Fernández confirming that captain Tadas Sedekerskis was outside Galbiati’s plans.
“The same happened with two or three other players. We explained to him that they are extremely important pieces because of the project and their history at the club, and that they are loved by our fans.”
Markus Howard also left Baskonia for Zenit St. Petersburg after falling out of the rotation. Fernández described the move as an opportunity for the guard to regain a coach’s trust under Dusko Ivanovic.
“During the last month, when Howard saw that the coach no longer counted on him, left him out of squads, gave him no minutes or made him the player to sit out, he went through a difficult situation,” Fernández said. “He welcomed the opportunity to regain the confidence of a coach like Dusko Ivanovic, because he saw that it was not happening here and that the situation was not going to change.”
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