Pablo Laso names his EuroLeague favorites, details return conditions / News - Basketnews.com

Pablo Laso names Olympiacos Piraeus as the favorites of the EuroLeague. He said he'd want to come back coaching, and a EuroLeague club is not a priority. The coach tells he feels great and sometimes misses going to practices.

Credit: ZUMAPRESS.com-SCANPIX Credit ZUMAPRESS.com-SCANPIX

Ever since he got let go from the head coaching position at Real Madrid last summer, Pablo Laso has been a free agent. The veteran coach wants to come back to coaching but has a certain condition that has to be met.

"This will happen only when it feels right," Laso told Israel Hayom. "I will only join a place that appreciates me and where I could move the team forward. This really doesn't have to be only in the EuroLeague. A coach is a coach. I don't like the approach that pigeonholes someone as just a EuroLeague coach and another one as a EuroCup coach."

"Sometimes I wake up in the morning and wonder why I am not heading out to a practice session. Basketball is my life, it's my love. I miss coaching," Laso said. "What happened to me just comes with being a basketball coach. Someone told me, 'You are not really a basketball coach until you have been fired'."

Later in the interview, Laso detailed the team that he thinks is currently the favorite in the EuroLeague.

"Today Olympiacos is the best and most stable group but it can change. There are quite a few good teams out there, including some that I find hard to assess, just like the Crvena Zvezda Belgrade, which became strong with Facundo Campazzo," Laso said.

Laso's career in Real Madrid was over largely due to medical concerns over his health, at least according to the official statement of the club. The coach now tells that he's feeling great and is ready for new challenges.

"Although a heart attack sounds like some big ordeal, it did not cause such great suffering and I could not imagine that my life would be upended. All the doctor said was that I had to follow some basic rules on nutrition and sports. I have been feeling great ever since, everything is totally normal. I didn't run marathons before the heart attack and I don't plan on starting now," Laso joked.

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