Former NBA coach Rick Pitino will take over the Greek national team
next May, the country’s basketball federation president said Friday.
“We have moved quietly and we have ensured such a top-level coach.
Since he has obligations in the United States and must return there,
he will be with us in May,” federation president Giorgos
Vasilakopoulos told Thema 104.6 FM radio.
Greek media had reported that Pitino would return to coach
Panathinaikos, having joined the Greek club last December, but
Vasilakopoulos said the coach “has no time for Panathinaikos.”
The 67-year-old former coach of the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks
led Panathinaikos to the Greek league championship last season before
quitting because he said he wanted to return to the US.
Pitino was fired by the University of Louisville in October 2017 after
a pay-for-play recruiting scandal.
He coached the New York Knicks for two seasons from 1987-1989 and then
took over a scandal-hit University of Kentucky programme and delivered
an NCAA crown in 1996.
In 1997, Pitino returned to the NBA with the Celtics as team president
and coach but could only guide the team to one winning season before
resigning and taking over at Louisville in 2001.
The Cardinals won a national championship in 2013, the same year
Pitino was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, but Louisville
later vacated the title due to recruiting violations.
Greece, led by current NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, were eliminated
in the group phase of this year’s Basketball World Cup in China.
