Washington (AFP) – Tuomas Iisalo was named head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday, the NBA club announced, after serving as the interim coach for the club into the NBA playoffs. The 42-year-old from Helsinki becomes the NBA’s first head coach from Finland after going 4-5 to close the regular season and guiding Memphis in an opening-round playoff sweep loss to Western Conference top seed Oklahoma City.
“I have full confidence in Tuomas serving as head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies going forward,” Grizzlies president of basketball operations Zachary Kleiman said. “Tuomas’s teams at every level have been disciplined, tenacious and connected on both ends of the floor, consistently exceeding expectations. We look forward to the same in Memphis.”
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Isalo was hired as an assistant coach by the Grizzlies last July and took over the Grizzlies on March 28 as interim coach when head coach Taylor Jenkins was fired despite the team’s 44-29 record. The Grizzlies lost to Golden State in their play-in opener but defeated Dallas in a showdown for the eighth and final West playoff berth.
Iisalo coached Paris Basketball to the 2023-24 EuroCup championship and took the EuroCup Coach of the Year award in his first season guiding the French squad. He masterminded the top scoring attack in event history as Paris went 20-1 to capture the crown. A Paris 25-game winning streak across competitions remains the longest ever in the French League.
Iisalo, who played 14 pro seasons in Finland and won the 2009 Finnish Cup with Espoon Honka, started his head coaching career with Tapiolan Honka in 2014 and later coached from 2016-21 with Germany’s Crailsheim Merlins. Iisalo won Bundesliga Coach of the Year awards in 2022 and 2023 while guiding Germany’s Telekom Baskets Bonn and was named 2023 Champions League Coach of the Year after sparking Bonn to a 2023 Champions League title.
© 2024 AFP
