Rimas Kurtinaitis - BC Khimki Champ Eurocup 2011-12 - Finals Khimki 2012_38312
Eurocup champion and Turkish Airlines Euroleague bound BC Khimki Moscow Region announced Monday that it has agreed to terms with head coach Rimas Kurtinaitis on a two-year contract extension. Kurtinaitis led Khimki to the Eurocup title in their first full season together earlier this month. In doing so he became the first coach to win the Eurocup twice. He previously led Lietuvos Rytas to the 2009 Eurocup. Kurtinaitis, 51, has tasted greatness as a player and coach. A world-renowned shooter, Kurtinaitis won World, European and Olympic Championships as a player for the Soviet Union in the 1980s and celebrated three domestic titles with Zalgiris Kaunas. During his 18-year playing career, he also won the Spanish League title with Real Madrid in 1994. All told, Kurtinaitis played for nine teams in six countries between 1981 and 1999. Following his playing days, which ended at Rytas in 1999, Kurtinaitis was appointed Lithuania's minister of sport, a post in which he worked for more than four years. He has since built his coaching career with club stops at Baku Gala of Azerbaijan, Sakalai and Rytas of Lithuania, Ural Great in Russia, Slask Wroclaw of Poland and VEF Riga of Latvia. He also served as national team coach of Azerbaijan and as assistant national team coach for Lithuania at two Olympics. The 2012-13 season will mark Kurtinaitis’s debut as a head coach in the Euroleague.
David Blatt - Maccabi Electra - Final Four Barcelona 2011
Feb 28, 2012
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv announced Tuesday that head coach David Blatt agreed to terms on a multi-year extension to remain at the helm of the club. The deal is for two more seasons after this one with an option for a third year. Blatt, 52, is in his second reign as Maccabi coach. Thus far in his four seasons with Maccabi he has reached the Euroleague Final Four twice – including the title game last season – and won three Israeli League titles and four Israeli Cups.
Mamadou Samb - Gescrap BB
Feb 07, 2012
Gescrap BB boosted its frontcourt by signing big man Mamadou Samb for the remainder of the season with an option for the 2012-13 season. Samb (2.08 meters, 22 years old) actually signed in late January, but has only been eligible to play in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague starting with this week’s contest against Real Madrid...
J.R. Bremer - Krasnye Krylia
Jan 26, 2012
EA7 Emporio Armani head coach Sergio Scariolo has called upon one of his former players to add punch to the team’s backcourt by signing J.R. Bremer through the remainder of the season. Bremer (1.87 meters, 31 years old) started for Scariolo at Unicaja during the 2004-05 season in the Euroleague and helped the team win the Spanish King’s Cup that season. He averaged 12.1 points and 2.5 assists in 14 Euroleague games that year, which until now has been Bremer’s only in Europe’s premier competition. He arrives from Russian club Nizhniy Novgorod, for whom Bremer has posted 13.4 points and 3.5 assists in the Russian League this season and 15 points and 5 assists in the Eurochallenge. As per Turkish Airlines Euroleague regulations, EA7 Emporio Armani cannot register Bremer until the transfer window opens between Games 3 and 4 of the Top 16.