Pini Gershon came back to Maccabi Tel Aviv

Gershon is the coach of Maccabi (Euroleague.net)

25-11-2008 01:59

Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv announced on Tuesday that legendary head coach Pini Gershon will return to the club's bench for a third time in the last decade. The man who revived the club's legend with three continental titles between 2001 and 2005 is wearing yellow again, and will be through the end of the 2010-11 season, according to Maccabi's announcement.

Gershon will be on the bench as soon as Thursday for Maccabi's home game in Group A against Unicaja Malaga. His hiring ends the brief tenure of Efy Birenboim, who had a 2-2 record in Euroleague play and lost his last game on the road by 19 points to Olympiacos, althoug a subsequent domestic defeat to Hapoel Migdal Jerusalem led to Tuesday's move.

Gershon became an icon in Tel Aviv and beyond by reaching the continental title game in every one of the five full seasons he coached Maccabi - and taking the trophy three times. He first joined Maccabi midway through the 1998-99 season. It was only the following year that he made his mark by leading Maccabi to the 2000 Euroleague final, although the team lost to Panathinaikos. The following season, playing in the Suproleague, Gershon brought a European trophy to Tel Aviv for the first time in 20 years by defeating Panathinaikos in a title-game rematch.

Following that historic achivement Gershon retired, but after two years off the courts he wrote a spectacular comeback. With Tel Aviv due to host the 2004 Euroleague Final Four, Maccabi called Gershon out of retirement to take charge again. The expectations were off the boards in Israel, but the charismatic coach delivered by winning another title in record-breaking fashion, with the most one-sided victories in the history of elite championship games, a 118-74 defeat of Fortitudo Bologna before an adoring all-yellow crowd in Tel Aviv. The next season, Gershon and Maccabi outdid themselves, becoming the first back-to-back European champions in 15 years when they downed Tau Ceramica in the title game of the 2005 Final Four in Moscow. Gershon stayed for a third season, in hope to keep the streak going, and making Maccabi just the third club in history to win three trophies in a row, but the 2006 final in Prague saw CSKA defeat Maccabi and marked the end of Gershon's era with the club.

Gershon's next stop was Olympiacos Piraeus, where he coached for one season and a half, before being dismissed at the end of the 2007-08 regular season. Since his departure from Maccabi, Gershon didn't take part in another Euroleague Final Four, but now he's back in his home-ship in hope to lead Maccabi back on the road of success together.

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