GRE - Gershon committed to cracking Pana stronghold

ATHENS (A1 League) - New Olympiacos coach Pini Gershon has pledged to do everything in his power to knock bitter rivals Panathinaikos off their perch as top guns in Greek basketball.

The hugely-successful Israeli coach, who led Maccabi Tel Aviv to the Suproleague title in 2001 and successive Euroleague titles in 2004 and 2005, reached an agreement to take over at the Pireaus giants on Thursday.

The 55-year-old replaces Lithuanian Jonas Kazlauskas, who turned down a contract extension to focus on his other job as coach of the China national team ahead of the FIBA World Championship and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Olympiacos showed a marked improvement last season to finish second in the regular season before suffering a 3-0 play-off finals whitewash to Zelimir Obradovic's Panathinaikos.

And Gershon is excited about the challenge of wrestling the Greek title away from Obradovic's side, who have won a remarkable eight Greek titles in the last nine seasons.

"We will do everything in order to win the title," said Gershon, who has an astonishing record of 54 wins and only 15 defeats in Euroleague games.

"I am very happy and excited to be here in Piraeus. Olympiacos is a big club and for me a very big challenge.

"The administration have shown me their objectives and their philosophy suits me. Olympiacos is a team which always wants to win and this is what I want.

"I can promise that me and my players we will do our utmost in order to achieve our objectives and these objectives are the championship, the cup and a place in the Euroleague Final Four in Athens next year.

"I had a lot of success in six years at Maccabi and I want to achieve the same success at Olympiacos."

Olympiacos have also signed 31-year-old American forward Ryan Stick, who has traded the port of Salonica with Pireaus following a four-year spell at Aris.

"This was the most difficult decision of my life. I enjoyed four great years at Aris but now I am happy to become a member of the Olympiacos squad," he told www.olympiacos.gr.

"A lot of things persuaded me to join Olympiacos. The roster has lots of talent and the administration has big plans for the future.

"I believe the club is one of the best places in Europe to play basketball and the team made great strides last year. I hope with the new coach and the players we have that we can create the right chemistry for success.

"The team challenged for the championship last year and was only one step away from the Euroleague Final Four. Hopefully next season we can go one step further. I want to win the championship and the Euroleague."

Stick had a points average of 12.2 per game last season for Aris and a 9.9 average in the ULEB Cup.

From Graham Wood
PA Sport, Exclusively for FIBA.com