 Gershon in 2005. | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1951-11-13)November 13, 1951 (age 74) |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Career information | |
| Playing career | 1970–1974 |
| Coaching career | 1974–2015 |
| Career history | |
Playing | |
| 1970–1974 | Maccabi South Tel Aviv |
Coaching | |
| 1974–1976 | Beitar Tel Aviv (youth) |
| 1976–1977 | Beitar Tel Aviv |
| 1977–1979 | Hapoel Holon |
| 1980–1981 | Hapoel Gan Shmuel |
| 1981–1983 | Hapoel Galil Elyon |
| 1983–1985 | Maccabi Haifa |
| 1985–1986 | Hapoel Tel Aviv |
| 1986–1987 | Maccabi Haifa |
| 1987–1988 | Beitar Tel Aviv |
| 1988–1989 | Maccabi Haifa |
| 1989–1990 | Hapoel Haifa |
| 1990–1992 | Ironi Ramat Gan |
| 1992–1993 | Hapoel Galil Elyon |
| 1993–1994 | Maccabi Rishon Lezion |
| 1994–1995 | Hapoel Galil Elyon |
| 1995–1997 | Hapoel Jerusalem |
| 1997–1998 | Maccabi Rishon Lezion |
| 1998–2001 | Maccabi Tel Aviv |
| 2003–2006 | Maccabi Tel Aviv |
| 2006–2008 | Olympiacos |
| 2007–2008 | Bulgaria |
| 2008–2010 | Maccabi Tel Aviv |
| 2011–2013 | Hapoel Holon (manager) |
| 2014–2015 | Maccabi Tel Aviv (assistant) |
| 2015–present | Israel (manager) |
| Career highlights | |
As head coach:
| |
Pinhas Yair Gershon[1] (Hebrew:פנחס "פיני" גרשון; born 13 November 1951), is an Israeli former professionalbasketball player andcoach. He won three top-level European-wideclub championships as thehead coach ofMaccabi Tel Aviv. He won theFIBA SuproLeague championship in2001, and theEuroLeague championship in2004 and2005. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest coaches in Israeli and European history.
He was named theEuroLeague Coach of the Year in 2005. In 2008, he was named one of the50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors, as a coach. He was also the head coach of the seniorBulgarian national team.
Gershon grew up and studied in the city ofTel Aviv. His mother was aMoroccan Jew and his father was aBulgarian Jew.[2] He experienced a rough childhood, as his biological father abandoned the family when he was one year old and left him with his mother, in poverty conditions and moved toEngland; his step-father was abusive towards him, his sister and their mother.
In his youth, Gershon was a basketball player. He played for the "Maccabi South Tel Aviv"club, which was a sister team ofMaccabi Tel Aviv, and he was one of the stars in its cadets team. He played for a number of years, including in the senior men's team of Maccabi South Tel Aviv, but his career as a basketball player ended at the age of 24, as the result of an injury.
After a short career as a basketball player, Gershon began to coach in different Israeli teams, among them,Maccabi Rishon LeZion,Hapoel Galil Elyon, Hapoel Gan Shmuel-Menashe,Hapoel Tel Aviv andHapoel Jerusalem.
In 1993, he ledHapoel Galil Elyon to theIsraeli League championship, which was the first time in 36 years that it had not been won byMaccabi Tel Aviv. In 1996, Gershon won theIsraeli State Cup, while he was the head coach of Hapoel Jerusalem, after beating Maccabi in the final.
In different interviews, he expressed himself poignantly against Maccabi Tel Aviv, and against the club's dominance of Israeli basketball. Therefore, it was quite a surprise[editorializing] when he became Maccabi Tel Aviv's head coach at the end of 1998. At that time, Maccabi Tel Aviv was in a professional crisis, after several years of failing to enter the top stages of theEuroLeague, a status which it had enjoyed in the past.
Under his, and his assistantDavid Blatt's lead, Maccabi Tel Aviv surprisingly advanced to the2000 EuroLeague Finals, where they lost to theGreek Basket League powerhousePanathinaikos, in the final game. A year later, Maccabi won the2001 FIBA SuproLeague championship. However, this achievement was overshadowed by the split between the two major European basketball unions at that time, into two separate leagues, which meant that most of the top European teams did not compete against Maccabi, but were instead inthat season's EuroLeague competition.
After the 2000–01 season, Gershon took a break from coaching, mainly to do some self-searching and to travel around the world. This temporary retirement lasted for two seasons, and in the summer of 2003, Gershon returned to his former position as the head coach of Maccabi. He had the goal of reaching the2004 EuroLeague Final Four, which took place inTel Aviv. That goal was two seconds away from failure, when Maccabi, who was hostingŽalgiris in the game for the last spot in theEuroLeague Final Four, had to come from behind. A marvelous three-point buzzer-beater byDerrick Sharp sent that game into overtime, in which Maccabi won and advanced to the Final Four. Maccabi, under Gershon, went on to have an unforgettable Final Four, crushingSkipper Bologna 118–74 in the final, to become the EuroLeague champions for the fourth time (including the2001 FIBA SuproLeague title).
In 2005, Gershon led Maccabi Tel Aviv to another EuroLeague championship. Having been the league favorites all season long, Maccabi Tel Aviv advanced to the2005 EuroLeague Final Four, inMoscow. The expected final was supposed to be between Maccabi and the hostsCSKA Moscow. However, CSKA surprisingly lost its semifinal game toTAU Vitoria. In the final, Maccabi easily beat TAU, by a score of 90–78. Gershon was later named theEuroLeague Coach of the Year. During the 2005–06 season, Gershon hinted that it would be his last season with Maccabi. He led the team to the2006 EuroLeague Final Four. That time, however, Maccabi lost in the title game toCSKA Moscow, by a score of 73–69. Gershon left Maccabi at the end of the season, and signed with the Greek clubOlympiacos.
In his first season as head coach ofOlympiacos, Gershon led the team to theGreek Basket League finals againstPanathinaikos, and to the last 8 of theEuroLeague season, where the team was eliminated byTAU Cerámica. Accusations of racism were raised, mainly by Olympiacos fans, concerning the lack of playing time for team star and crowd favorite,Sofoklis Schortsanitis.
On November 24, 2008, he signed on asMaccabi Tel Aviv's head coach, after the dismissal ofEffi Birnbaum from the position. In October 2009, he was ejected from anexhibition game against theNew York Knicks. Gershon took close to 6 minutes to exit the court, asNBA rules (administered by replacement on-court officials) differ from international rules, regarding technical fouls, which cause coaches to be automatically ejected. In 2010, Gershon parted ways with Maccabi, after their loss toHapoel Gilboa Galil, in the Israeli League national finals. In August 2014, he signed a one-season contract to beGuy Goodes' assistant coach with Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Gershon worked as an assistant coach for the seniorIsraeli national basketball team. In September 2008, Gershon led the seniorBulgarian national basketball team to qualify for theEuroBasket 2009, in Poland, after a surprising finish ahead of the strongly favoredItalian national basketball team in the preliminary round. In 2010, he parted ways with the Bulgarian national team, due to a dispute with theBulgarian Basketball Federation.[3]
Gershon often eagerly voices his belief in the part that divine guidance has had in his career. He has close ties with theChabad movement.
In the year 2001, Gershon was accused ofracism, after reporters found a video showing Gershon lecturing before a group ofIDF officers. In this lecture, Gershon made some controversial remarks aboutAfrican American people,[4]“The mocha-colored guys are smarter, but the dark colored ones are just guys off the street,” he said. “They’re dumb like slaves, they do whatever you tell them.” Gershon claimed that those remarks were only made as a joke, and that they were not reflective of his real opinions.[5]
Gershon was once a major shareholder of EZTD Inc., a firm in the controversialbinary options industry. EZTD Inc. owned the EZTrader.com and GlobalOption.com websites, and settled a 2016 USSecurities and Exchange Commission finding, by paying $1.7 million in fines and compensation to victims. EZTD Inc. was accused of illegally soliciting and taking money from 4,000 US investors.[6][7]