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May 22, 2013

The head coach: Jonas Kazlauskas

When chasing a Turkish Airlines Euroleague title, experience can make all the difference. That philosophy guided CSKA Moscow when it hired Jonas Kazlauskas, one of the most widely travelled and successful coaches in the world.

Kazlauskas knows what it takes to win in the Euroleague. He gave basketball-mad Lithuania its only Euroleague champion by coaching Zalgiris Kaunas to the 1999 title. His team played attractive, attacking basketball and posted the highest title-game scoring, 82 points, in more than a decade.

Kazlauskas followed up his six seasons at Zalgiris, which also included a Saporta Cup crown in 1998, with four at Lietuvos Rytas, Lithuania's other major club. His next stop was one of this season's other Final Four teams, Olympiacos. In 2006, Kazlauskas and the Reds lost their third and final playoff game in the closing seconds on the road against two-time champion Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Kazlauskas next turned his attention to national team coaching, which he had already done with success, winning a bronze medal for Lithuania at the 2000 Olympic Games. Now, he took the Chinese national team to two Asian gold medals on the way to the quarterfinals of the 2008 games in Beijing. In 2009, he led Greece to bronze in the European Championships.

Kazlauskas joined CSKA midway through last season and soon won the Russian League title, the 10th national or regional club trophy of his career. Now, he has sent CSKA back to the Final Four with an 18-2 record.

Although his prior Euroleague title dates to last century, there is no doubt that Jonas Kazlauskas is ready, willing and able to seize another trophy for CSKA Moscow in Istanbul.

Euroleague.net