"Trimby": Andrew is a retired Irish Rugby Union player who spent 13 of his pro years playing for the same team at "Ulster" as well twelve years for the Irish National Team. He was part of the "Celtic League" championship team in 2006 as well as winning the "Triple Crown" in 2006 & 2007 and "Six Nations" tournament in 2014 with the Irish National Team next to countless individual awards. Andrew has a wealth of experience in this field as well as a unique and very sobering perspective on...

"Highlights": This is a special episode that highlights 5 different episodes with examples of the variety of topics that we go through on this podcast! It starts with problem-solving within an executive group in the NBA Player's Association team and how they approach problems that players have to deal with throughout the season. This was episode #23 with Matteo Zuretti that was recorded in New York at the NBPA headquarters. The next highlight is a clip from my conversation with Coach...

"Erdem": Erdem has a unique journey that started as an Assistant Coach in Ankara and later becoming Head Coach in Olin Edirne as a 30year old. After losing his job he transitioned to becoming a long time Assistant at Fenerbahce Ulker, first under Simone Pianigiani before he earned the trust of Zeljko Obradovic and stayed with him the rest of Zeljko's tenure. Amongst many domestic championships they managed to win the Euroleague together in 2017. Erdem also spent a year at the Utah Jazz as an...

"Maurizio": My guest for this episode was non other than the long time Fenerbahce Istanbul GM, Maurizio Gherardini. Maurizio has a long and very successful career as a basketball executive from which he has countless titles to show for. The most recent international title he celebrated was the Euroleague title with Fenerbahce Istanbul in 2017. His front office career began in the early 1980s in his hometown club of Forli, Italy. The success he had there carried him to Benetton Treviso and...

"David": Today's guest does not need much introduction, David Blatt is one of the most accomplished coaches to ever coach in Europe. One of few coaches to win at every possible level, most notably a Euroleague championship in 2014, Eurocup in 2018, Eurochallenge in 2005, Adriatic League in 2012, European champion at the National Team level in 2007 as well as Bronze in 2011 & Bronze in the London Olympics in 2012. Obviously, he also has countless domestic league and cup titles to...

"Theo": Theo had an illustrious 18year long career in Europe and is well-regarded as one of the best guards of all time in Euroleague. Theo won two Euroleague titles with CSKA ('06 & '08) and has plenty of individual awards to show for, most notably Euroleague MVP in 2007, Final Four MVP in 2006 and many more.  Theo also enjoyed a very successful National Team career with the Greek National Team when he lead his nation to becoming Eurobasket champions in 2005 as well as runner-up in the...

"Roberto": Roberto Iezzi currently is a strength & conditioning coach at Brescia Basket that plays in the Italian league as well as the Eurocup. He also spent three years of his career in Jerusalem working for Hapoel where he trained Amare Stoudamire amongst others. This past summer Roberto also worked with the Italian u20 National Team. He also has two podcasts that he hosts, one is a solely Italian podcast where him and his co-host Andrea interview specialist from their field in Italy...

"The Team Mechanic": Trent Hotton is a former AFL player who founded his own company "Team Effect" after he spent two years in the UK where he also opened a business in 'training and leadership' to help him advance in that field. Overall, he spent 4 years in the AFL and after two rather disappointing seasons with Collingwood he managed to return 4 years later and played two more season with Carlton before finishing his career in the Australian Football League. In today's episode Trent and...

"Ryan": Ryan Pannone is currently the Head Coach of the GLeague team Birmingham Squadron and already has almost 20 years of coaching experience when he started as a young coach in High School. Shortly after he started to work as an Assistant for David Thorpe as a Player Development coach and quickly realized his passion. Throughout his career he had plenty of responsibilities as a young and aspiring Assistant Coach in Foshan, China which lead him to becoming an Assistant in Hanau, Germany...

"Avi": Avi's career at Maccabi started in 2006 when he became Junior Head Coach and Sports Director while coaching the u16 Israeli National Team. In the 2007 he finally was promoted to the Assistant Coach position at Maccabi Tel Aviv! After working as an Assistant for 5 years, the ownership of Maccabi appointed him to lead the front office and scouting department in order to enhance the organization under Coach Blatt as the Head Coach. Not long after the Euroleague Championship was a in...

"Anton": Anton Gavel is a former Slovakian basketball player who became a German National Team player as well as Bundesliga legend. Besides having short stints in the ACB with Murcia as well as in the Greek League with Aris, he spent most of his time winning titles with Brose Bamberg as well as FC Bayern Munich, where he finished his career winning 'The Double' (Cup & League) while being the Team-Captain. Anton is a five-time German League Champion, three-time German Cup winner as well...

“Dre”: Andrej Lemanis, one of the top coaches from Australia joined my podcast today. The Australian coach with Latvian heritage has a rich history of coaching after he stopped playing at a young age. His most notable stop was with the New Zealand Breakers from 2005-2013 where he turned the program around and won 3 NBL championships in a row and took the helm of the Boomers. “Dre” also coached the Brisbane Bullets and currently is coaching Altiri Chiba in Japan. On today’s episode the “Top...

"Will": Will Weaver is a long-time Basketball coach who's journey has taken him from the Texas Longhorns program through Sam Houston State all the way to the NBA. Along the road he has coached as a Head Coach in the GLeague and as well as in the Australian NBL leading the the Sydney Kings. Our common path has crossed several times during our "summer jobs", him being with Australia's National Team and me being with Lithuania's National Team. Today, we talked about our battles with our...

DONATE TO UKRAINE: Lithuania: https://www.panrs.lt/krasto-apsaugos-ministerijos-rekomendacijos-del-paramos-ukrainai/ Germany: https://helferschwein.de International: https://www.blue-yellow.lt/en/ "Boki": Boštjan is an accomplished player on various levels, from Europe to NBA, he has seen it all. After starting off as a prospect in Italy and being drafted #15 by the Houston Rockets he spent 6 years in the NBA. The next stages of his career were centered around playing in Europe, going...

DONATE TO UKRAINE: Lithuania: https://www.panrs.lt/krasto-apsaugos-ministerijos-rekomendacijos-del-paramos-ukrainai/ Germany: https://helferschwein.de/ International: https://www.blue-yellow.lt/en/ #25 Martyna: Martyna Motum is the wife of Brock Motum but certainly she has her own identity and is building her own career in the background. Martyna has finished her High School studies in Denmark, University studies in London and later obtaining a Master's Degree at the Euroleague...

DONATE TO UKRAINE: Lithuania: https://www.panrs.lt/krasto-apsaugos-ministerijos-rekomendacijos-del-paramos-ukrainai/ Germany: https://helferschwein.de/ International: https://www.blue-yellow.lt/en/ #24 Simon: Simon Iden is of German heritage but currently resides in the US and has experience of working with a variety of athletes, from Tennis stars like Angelique Kerber whom Simon won the Australian Open with as well as various German soccer and basketball stars, one of them being Daniel Theis...

Matteo and me first met during his time as an agent while working for the “ProTalent” Agency under the helm of Maurizio Balducci, who served as a mentor for Matteo. Before he was an agent, he took his first steps at the Stellazzurra Basketball Academy in Rome. Meanwhile, Matteo is serving as the Chief of International Relations and Marketing at the NBPA office in New York, working to provide a better perspective and pathways for international players within the NBA. Matteo has a rich...

DONATE TO UKRAINE: Lithuania: https://www.panrs.lt/krasto-apsaugos-ministerijos-rekomendacijos-del-paramos-ukrainai/ Germany: https://helferschwein.de/ International: https://www.blue-yellow.lt/en/ #22 Thorsten: Thorsten Leibenath is currently the Sports Director at Ratiopharm Ulm, which is currently a German BBL as well as Eurocup team. Before he became a Sports Director in 2019 he was the Head Coach at Ulm since 2011 where he was successful and earned “Coach of the Year” honors in 2012...

#21 Freddie: Fredrick Kleemichen grew up in Bremerhaven as the son of an American father and German mother, signed his first pro-contract in 2002 with Frankfurt (Opel) Skyliners at the age of 15 and moved to a new city with new hope and big dreams. “Freddie” as we all call him, is not a household name in the world of basketball right now but he definitely used to be! He had a roller-coaster journey from being one of the highly touted prospects in Germany to moving down the latter and playing...

#20 Šaras: Šarunas Jasikevičius is a successful Head Coach at Barcelona and his career is basically just getting started now but he already brought home domestic titles in Lithuania as well as Spain. As a player he has a rich experience between a variety of cultures, starting from the time when he left Lithuania at the age of 17 to live in the US, going from High School to later on joining the University of Maryland. When he returned to Europe as a player, his success just took off...

#19 Claudio:    Claudio Coldebella is a former Italian basketball player, GM of the Italian 2nd Division and currently a successful Sports Director at Unics Kazan. Claudio started his playing career in Mestre in 1986 before moving to Desio and Virtus Bologna later on. Claudio also has the experience of playing abroad, he spent 6 years of his career in Greece playing for AEK and PAOK before returning to Italy and finishing his career in Milano in 2006. Claudio also spent many summers with the...

#18 Noel: Noel Mikaelian is an Armenian-German Cruiserweight Division Boxer who is currently on his quest to becoming World Champion and is without a doubt the #1 contender. He held the WBO youth world & WBO International cruiserweight title in 2014 & 2016. After being born in Yerevan, Armenia he moved to Germany at a young age and started to box early on by watching his step-father Khoren Gevor, who was a world-class boxer in his own right. Noel is currently 24-2 with 10 wins...

#17 Daniele Daniele Baiesi is currently a successful Sports Director at FC Bayern Munich. After leading Brose Bamberg to multiple domestic titles in Germany he continued his successful run at FC Bayern Munich in 2017 and has lead the team to multiple titles since his arrival as well. Daniele started his basketball career at Pallacanestro Biella in 2003 in the Italian league where he spent 6 years. The Detroit Pistons were his next stage where he worked as their international scout and had...

Stefan Weissenboeck is a player development coach at Brose Bamberg since 2010/11 season and has worked under the coaches Chris Fleming & Andrea Trinchieri most notably with whom he won multiple domestic titles during this period. He picked up basketball through his father and was committed early on as a player in Austria as well as one year at Hawaii-Pacific. After injuries derailed his playing career he turned to being an Assistant Coach before discovering the niche role of a Player...

#15 Giannis: Giannis Sfairopoulos has been a successful Head Coach since taking over Kolossos Rhodos in 2008 after being a top Assistant for 11years in Greece. After a brief stint as the Assistant Coach at CSKA Moscow under Jonas Kazlauskas during the 2011-12 season, he turned Head Coach once again and continued his upward journey until now, becoming the Head Coach of Olympiacos in 2014 and in Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2018. Giannis has captured two Greek League titles in Greece with Olympiacos...