Head coach Vassilis Spanoulis: what's behind this rare choice? / News - Basketnews.com

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The EuroLeague icon Vassilis Spanoulis conquered the European basketball as a player and now starts a new campaign as a head coach.

Vassilis Spanoulis

Position:SG, PGAge:39Height:193 cmWeight:96 kgBirth place:Larissa, GreeceProfileNewsStatistics

A 39-year-old Greek coach (it will take time to get used to this title) agreed to take the helm of Peristeri Athens for two years.

BasketNews explains the rare choice of Vassilis Spanoulis and the anticipated challenges he'll be facing on his road to success.

Rare club of superstar coaches

A European star turning to head coaching is rare in today's basketball.

Among the top 100 all-time EuroLeague scorers, only three former players currently are active head coaches.

It's Sarunas Jasikevicius (FC Barcelona), Jaka Lakovic (Gran Canaria), and Henry Domercant (Windy City Bulls).

A few work as assistants and a couple of others move to the general manager positions, but most spend time with their families.

Stars are usually set for life when they retire. So instead of seeking a further career in basketball, retired players tend to finally enjoy being husbands and dads, full-time skiers, hunters, or fishers.

The head coaching path is not only about understanding the game. It's also about huge sacrifices. These countless hours in the head coach's schedule include practices, games, scouting, studying, analyzing, looking for new players, road trips, sleepless nights after bad games, etc.

That requires an extra drive for basketball and people around who can support that passion. But it's hard to find a bigger basketball addict than Spanoulis.

Spanoulis, a father of six, had a clear desire to balance his two biggest passions. He wanted to work somewhere close to his home to stay in the game.

There weren't many options on the table, though.

Good and bad examples

Joining Olympiacos Piraeus as an assistant coach seemed like a logical destination for the transition from playing to coaching. But that option wasn't considered due to some personal experiences between him and coach Georgios Bartzokas.

There's no need to get much into detail about why the other EuroLeague team from Athens wasn't an alternative either.

Entering the coaching staff of lower-level teams didn't make much sense. Especially when you're Spanoulis. He left Panathinaikos for Olympiacos to be the alpha guy.

He's born to be a leader, not a follower.

A glorious playing career doesn't necessarily translate into coaching success, especially when you jump into the fire without firefighter equipment, such as assistant coach experience.

If you try to make a list of EuroLeague stars hopping straight into head coaching recently, it's even shorter.

The great Argentinian point guard Pablo Prigioni retired in 2017 and immediately moved to the sidelines of Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz. His rookie head coaching experience ended in two months after Baskonia started the season with three losses in the EuroLeague and a 2-3 record in the Spanish league.

Sasa Djordjevic retired with Olimpia Milan jerseys in 2005 and a few months later became its head coach. Milan didn't win a single title, and Djordjevic left after the 2006-07 season.

It took eight years to achieve his first award with the national team (silver in the 2014 FIBA World Cup with Serbia) and more than ten years to get recognition on the club's level.

But there are few other good examples. For instance, Sasa Obradovic wasn't playing on the Spanoulis level, but straight after his retirement, he took over RheinEnergie Cologne and won the German league in his second season (2006).

Velimir Perasovic started his coaching path in Split in 2003 and won the Copa del Rey with Baskonia three years later.

Eight former players are at the helm of EuroLeague teams (Sarunas Jasikevicius, Pablo Laso, Oded Kattash, Sasa Obradovic, Joan Penarroya, Dejan Radonjic, TJ Parker, Georgios Bartzokas). Six, who played on a higher level, made the winningest EuroLeague coaches list.

In this job, it's very early to say if Spanoulis will be on that list one day. But he has some qualities that might help him make history books.

Spanoulis style

"I like the move. If anyone can skip steps in the coaching process, it's a legend like Spanoulis," Errick McCollum told on the URBONUS podcast.

"This is not just a guy who's good at basketball. This is the guy who eats, sleeps, and breathes the game. He watches the basketball non-stop. He knows Xs and Os. He had some of the best coaches. Maybe he wasn't a coach at the time, but as a player, you see how the coach prepares, runs the practice, and demands certain things from certain players," McCollum explained.

"So I think coming in from that player's perspective, he's going to know how to reach, motivate, and talk to the guys," he concluded.

No player in the EuroLeague scored more points or played more minutes than Spanoulis.

He also tops the all-time record lists in made free throws, free-throw attempts, turnovers, and fouls drawn.

Only two players - Sarunas Jasikevicius and Kyle Hines - won the modern EuroLeague more times (4) than him (3).

Spanoulis was the closest European version to Kobe Bryant and his mamba mentality. It combined the highest-level performance on the court and also the demand for perfection from others around.

And he's not going to change as the coach.

"Details, perfection, discipline, respect, and work are very important things in basketball. Like I was a player - dedicated and disciplined, respectful to everybody, with a hard work ethic - I'm going to be the same as a coach," Spanoulis said in an interview with Varese academy.

"I know I can be really good because I have basketball in my blood. I was coaching all my life. Even when I was playing, I talked to coaches and teammates and always had ideas I shared with coaches. For me, it's coming very naturally," Spanoulis explained.

"My job is to inspire players and let them understand how important it is to work hard and to listen, to be concentrated, and always put the team above themselves," he continued.

"Some coaches maybe work 20 years in the EuroLeague and never earn respect from some players. Some others go immediately and have this respect. It's about each personality and how to approach players and their hearts.

All players have different characters, so you must approach every player differently. Someone needs yelling, and someone needs a glass of wine. We need to reach these hearts and let players understand we're honest and want the best for them."

Vassilis Spanoulis presented at Peristeri: 'The team will be the star, not me'

The biggest challenges

Knowing Spanoulis and his style, at least a couple of significant challenges will appear on Spanoulis' coaching path.

"I think the struggles will come from the lack of control," McCollum analyzed the adjustments that stand ahead of Spanoulis.

"As a player, he could go out there, hit the shot, make the pass, and do certain things," McCollum continued. "When you play at that level and that quality, and you're on the team, a solid team as an up-and-coming like Peristeri, you'll have guys who maybe can't necessarily make those plays that you can make. And you are going to expect them to do it. You going to expect that type of scoring or decision-making."

"That's going to be an adjustment for him seeing guys who are maybe not at EuroLeague level yet or who aren't ready to take the full responsibility," McCollum added. "He will have to learn to be patient, to groom and grow with them. I think that's a tough part of the coaching. Not just winning now but trying to develop guys and finding that balance."

Also, it's unclear how the new generation of basketball players will accept this demand and discipline from the sidelines.

Today hard-nosed coaches are fighting the trend of players' coaches who are trying to find the right balance between managing personalities and being not too harsh with them.

When such a legendary player like Vassilis Spanoulis starts coaching, he raises the expectations to an enormous level. That's there Peristeri organization also will have to step up to help their new coach to be successful.

Sarunas Jasikevicius is the most recent example of a superstar player transition into head coaching.

Before making the EuroLeague Final Four with one of the lowest budget teams Zalgiris Kaunas in 2018 and winning the Spanish league (2021) or Copa del Rey twice (2021, 2022, Saras began his EuroLeague rookie experience with a 2-10 record and his first full losing season (14-16) the following year failing to make the playoffs.

But Zalgiris GM Paulius Motiejunas never questioned his coach and trusted the project that Jasikevicius steadily tried to build in Kaunas.

Peristeri will be tested as soon as the first crisis appears. And it's inevitable in a coach's job.

The support of his coaching staff, which includes experienced coaches Sasvvas Kamberidis and Kostas Charalampidis, will also be necessary.

"He'll have his ups and downs. We see it with all coaches, even the best ones. He will be criticized because he's coaching in Greece. And with the Greek media, it's tough. If you do well, they let you know. If you struggle, they let you know as well," McCollum smiled.

"But I'm glad that he is starting on the team on a mid-level tier area, where he can groom himself and come up. You know that when he gets that experience and becomes the household name the coaching wise, you know the Reds are going to come calling him for."

Competitive son of a...

Spanoulis will operate around a €1.5M Peristeri budget for players' salaries, sources tell BasketNews.

By Peristeri standards, it's a nice budget. Compared to the Reds, it's still peanuts. Olympiacos runs a budget that is around seven times higher than that.

That should be enough to build a competitive team for the Basketball Champions League.

But knowing Spanoulis, it's hard to imagine that being only competitive will please him.

"Billy is one of the most competitive and hardest working people. Now everybody says they work hard, but no, you don't understand what the hard work is," Jasikevicius once told on Joe Arlauckas' podcast.

"If you're doing shooting drills or individual work, everything is 100%. But really 100%. Game speed. That's a big difference. Everybody is talking about playing hard and working hard.

But not many people really understand what it means. It means 100% every single day. I'm sure it's very difficult to get to that 100% level, but he's (Spanoulis) about as close as you could get," Jasikevicius spoke about Spanoulis.

"He's so competitive. He's the son of a... He competes every time. He will literally cut your throat to get that win."

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