FIBA - Pesic and Gherardini headline Latvia coach's clinic

RIGA (2011 FIBA U19 World Championship for Men) – FIBA and the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship Local Organizing Committee (LOC) will organise a free basketball coaching clinic to be conducted by legendary Serbian coach Svetislav Pesic and an assistant General Manager for the Toronto Raptors Maurizio Gherardini.

The clinic will be held in Riga on Sunday, 10 July. For application, interested parties may contact the LOC sending e-mail to info@loc2011.lv . Application deadline is on Friday, July 1.

Svetislav Pesic

Pesic is one of the most successful and respected coaches in European basketball.

He led a Yugoslavia junior team that featured future international stars Vlade Divac, Sasha Djordjevic, Toni Kukoc and Dino Radja to victory in the 1987 FIBA World Junior Championship (now FIBA U19 World Championship), defeating the USA twice during the tournament.

With the Yugoslavia senior side, Pesic gold at the 2002 FIBA World Championship held in Indianapolis and EuroBasket 2001 in Turkey, and steered Germany to the 1993 EuroBasket title played on German soil.

At club level, Pesic won the treble in 2003 with FC Barcelona. On 16 November, 2010 he was named coach of the Euroleague side Power Electronics Valencia.


Maurizio Gherardini

Maurizio Gherardini started his basketball career as a player for his hometown team of Forlì from 1971 to 1975. He then went on to become an assistant coach for Forlì and was also a director of youth teams for the club.

He held those roles from 1975-1982 before being promoted to general manager in 1983. Forlì was playing in the top league (Serie A) when Gherardini took over as General Manager.

Gherardini was then hired as the general manager of Benetton Treviso in 1992. Under his watchful eye, Benetton soared to four league championships (1997, 2002, 2003 and 2006), three Italian supercups (1997, 2001 and 2002), making four appearances in the Euroleague's final four (1993, 1998, 2002, and 2003), and helped them capture seven Italian Cups (1993–1995, 2000, 2003–2005).

Maurizio Gherardini has developed one of the most sophisticated scouting systems in Europe and set up one of the first ever coaches clinic in Europe. The clinic brought such NBA legends as Detlef Schrempf, Bob McAdoo and Bill Walton to Italy.
 
On June 22, 2006 Maurizio Gherardini was hired by the Toronto Raptors as vice president and assistant general manager.

FIBA