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Photo: Imago Images – Scanpix
Last week Nevėžis-Optibet, Kėdainiai, who was intensively looking for a new head coach, found a specialist. The team’s new strategist was David Gale, a 36-year-old American, according to a press release.
Points are earned this season
“I am very satisfied with this opportunity and I look forward to working with the team,” said David Gale, the team’s head coach. – It is true, it can be said that we have already started working. With the Zoom program, I actively interact with team assistants, who are already communicating my ideas to the team during training. I am well aware that Lithuania is a basketball country, that people here love and understand basketball. I look forward to seeing this more closely and working with the men to achieve victories. “
The coach started this season without a club and was waiting for offers, and spent the last two seasons as assistant head coach of the German top league team MHP Riessen in Ludwigsburg.
With this team, the American became runner-up for Germany last season. In addition, he was also the head coach of the substitute and youth U-19 teams of this organization.
Before moving to Europe, Gale spent more than a decade in the United States, where he spent most of his time on the coaching staff of NBA teams in the Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Clippers.
During all that time, the American has worked with many basketball stars such as DeMar Derozan, Blake Griffin, Kyle Lowry or DeAndre Jordan. The turns in the coach’s career united him with the Lithuanians, and he was the one who had to face the most Jonas Valančiūnas, when the latter played for the Canadian national team.
“We analyzed the search for the coach with great responsibility, we had several candidates and we had to communicate with each of them more than once during the last week,” said the team’s sporting director, Virginijus Bulotas. – We decided to choose David because he is a young, ambitious coach and has experience both in America and here in Europe. We only heard the best comments about him, we also had to communicate with Jonas Valančiūnas, who mentioned the coach only as good and expressed great support.
Being behind the Atlantic, the strategist also learned basketball from the best coaches. He had to help former Toronto Raptors coach Dwayne Casey and current team head coach, NBA champion Nick Nurse.
During the last three seasons in America, before coming to Europe, the coach worked for G League teams. As the assistant head coach of the Missisoga Raptors 905 team, the stuntman became the G-league champion in the 2016-2017 season, and Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet, who later became NBA champions, also played there. team.
Currently the coach is on his way to Lithuania and should arrive in Kėdainiai tonight and join the team soon.
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