Georgios Bartzokas is our COACH OF THE YEAR after he brought Olympiacos to the second place in Euroleague Basketball.
Georgios Bartzokas had clear ideas since the start of the 2021/22 season: bringing back Oly to the european top level was the mission.
Now we can say “mission accomplished” and that’s one of the main reason for us to select him as COACH OF THE YEAR in Turkish Airlines Euroleague.
Great D, team organisation, balance in all part of the game and continuity along a stressing season were the trademarks of the winning season by the “reds”.
19 wins and juts 9 losses in a campaign closed with a statement game against leader Fc Barcelona and now a strong look at the postseason where he will clash with the second and only other Coach that our staff writers considered as possible COY, Sasa Obradovic.
Bartzokas got 11 selections by our staff writers out of 19 possible votes, while Monaco’s Coach got the other 8.
Born in Athens in 1965, started his coaching career as an assistant with Maroussi in 2005, before being charged of the first duties as Head Coach with Larissa the following year. After 3 season he went back to Maroussi for another season, then with Panionios from 2010 to 2012.
The magic year was exactly 2012, when he got the call from the “reds”. A great campaign ended with the EL title in spring ’13 as well as an Intercontinental Cup won later the same year.
2015/16 was another splendid path with Lokomotiv Kuban, that he brought against all odds to the Final 4 in Berlin.
Barcelona, the club he defeated on the road to berlin, called him on the bench but the season was disappointing.
Then a return to Russia, with Khimki until January 2019, when he got another call from home and he signed with Olympiacos again.
Consistency on both end of the court is a kind of trademark of his Olympiacos team. Modern basketball based on strong D, high use of pick and roll sets and a complete defense systems where rotations prevail on the simple switching options.
In 199 Euroleague games coached during 6 seasons, he won 82 times with a winning percentage of 58,8% (117W – 82L)
As for now Nicolò Melli is our “defender of the year”, Sasha Vezenkov the “most improved player”, Devon Hall the “rookie of the year” while now we have COY too with Bartzokas. Within shortly we will reveal our MVP and the Euroleague Starting 5.