Israel On Blog

Amazing achievement for David Blatt, the Israeli coach of Russia, who beat the world Champion’s Spain in the final of the EuroBasket yesterday in Madrid!

Yarone Arbel at the official web site of the Eurobasket 2007 wrote today that Any coach can take over a new team and change the X’s and O’s, the style of play, teach a new defense or pick new players.

The big challenge isn’t to be able to change the team tactically, but to change the mentality, the character. When you find a coach who can do that, you know you’ve found something special. David Blatt has led a Russian team to the 2007 EuroBasket finals for the first time since 1993 and in the process has changed the public’s perception of them and their perception of themselves.

It’s a story about a connection in many layers that starts in basketball but goes beyond it.

To read the full article please click here.

From Wikipedia:

David Blatt (born 22 May 1959 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an Israeli-American present day basketball coach and a former basketball point guard. Today he is one of the most successful Israeli and European basketball coaches in European basketball and is the head coach for the Turkish Efes Pilsen Basketball Team.

Blatt played basketball at Princeton University from 1977 to 1981 under coach Pete Carril. He participated in the Maccabiah Games as part of the USA national team that won a gold medal in 1981.

After competing in the Maccabiah Games, Blatt decided to abandon his American career and began to play basketball in Israel.

After retiring from basketball he became assistant manager for Hapoel Galil Elyon, coaching them from 1993/94 season. In the middle of the season the head caoch was sacked and he took his place. Next, he became Pini Gershon’s assistant in the 1994/95 season. In the following year he won the title “Coach of the Year” (1996) and in 1997 he continued coaching at Hapoel Galil Elyon whilst also becoming assistant coach of the Israeli National team.

Blatt returned to coach Galil Elyon and remained assistant manager of the Israeli National team for the next 2 year (1997-1999).

For the 1999/2000 season, he moved to Maccabi Tel Aviv and once again served as assistant manager to Pini Gershon. During this season his team took part in the Israeli League and Cup (won both) and also in the Euroleague where Maccabi finished in 2nd place.

In the years between 2000-2004 he continued as assistant coach under Pini Gershon and actively recruited foreign players such as Anthony Parker (in 2000) and Maceo Baston to the team. During those 4 years, Maccabi won 1 Euroleague title, reached the Euroleague Final Four (2001/2002 season), and reached the final stage of the Adriatic League. Maccabi won the SuproLeague title in 2001, which was held in Paris. Blatt was still working as assistant coach of the Israeli National team in 2002 when he won the title of “Coach of the Year” for the second time, the year he was appointed head coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv .

In 2004 he moved to Russia and signed as head coach with Dynamo St. Petersburg. During this year he won the FIBA EuroCup championship with Dynamo and also the title of “Coach of the Year in Russia” (2004/2005 season).

During the 2005/2006 season he was signed by Pallacanestro Treviso from Italy, and subsequently led them to the Italian Championship through a 3-1 victory in the final series of the Italian playoffs. In the same year he was also appointed head coach of the Russian National team.

Blatt is now the head coach of Istanbul based Turkish team Efes Pilsen, as well as the Russian national basketball team, with which he won Eurobasket 2007 in Madrid.

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