By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Sarunas Jasikevicius turned heads during the last two seasons on both sides of the Atlantic. The former player who is now sitting on the bench of Zalgiris Kaunas is presumed to be the main candidate for becoming the first European who will coach an NBA team without spending time on the States as an assistant.
And he will be among the speakers in the upcoming EuroLeague Coaches Clinic in Badalona, which will be held between the 4th and the 7th of July. You can register here for a clinic which will be remembered since the EuroLeague Head Coaches Board is just taking its first steps.
As Saras admits: “It’s amazing that we finally have an organization and we can start dealing with certain issues. As the EuroLeague gets better we have fewer issues to address, but still, it’s something that we had to do. It’s a first, it’s a young association, and it will grow and deal with future challenges. We need to protect the coaches and our rights, it’s about our job security and also it’s about us after our career is over. It can be also a system to help young coaches learn. We have to go step by step and hopefully we will expand into something that will help head coaches and younger guys”.
Why should anyone register for the clinic? The answer is pretty clear according to Jasikevicius: “I am also a young coach so I don’t have a big experience in such clinics. I will also learn from the other coaches and I will have to talk for full-court press on defense and offense, something we had used in Zalgiris on some occasions. It’s great to spend some time with the other coaches and I am looking forward to it. Until last year, we had the EuroLeague meeting, which was pretty much just 36 hours we spend together. We had dinner and it was a lot of fun. In this case, things are different. It helps me to get to know the other coaches and it also helps me to improve. It’s the full package. I don’t know if a young coach can learning anything better than from coaches like Messina, Obradovic and Xavi Pascual. Obviously, that clinic is the place to be this summer”.
And on a personal note, having the clinic near Barcelona doesn’t hurt Saras at all: “It’s one of the cities I am more comfortable in. It doesn’t have anything to do with FC Barcelona Lassa. I just go there to visit my friends; I have a camp there that starts a few days after the end of the clinic, so it fits perfectly. Plus for us coaches, the meeting it’s going to be a family event since many of us will also have our wives and kids together and Barcelona is one of the top cities in the worlds. I can’t wait”.