Some of the top players in the NBA today all hail from overseas, from Luka Doncic to Giannis Antetokounmpo, to Nikola Jokic, it’s arguable that the top echelon of players in the league are all foreign-born. Even Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, although he went to college in the United States, is from Canada. It’s led to a popular debate regarding the level of basketball overseas and stateside, and current EuroLeague coach Sarunas Jasikevicius believes NBA coaching is not in a very good place.
During a recent segment via Eurohoops, Sarunas Jasikevicius gave his opinion that coaching in the NBA is all the same style, a far cry from what he says was plenty of variety among coaches back when he played in the league.
“For me the craziest thing now is when you talk about the NBA coaches, I don’t mean it in a bad way, but I used to say back when I was in the NBA. . .they all play the same,” Jasikevicius said. “There used to be these huge names in the coaching of the NBA, and they all had their own thing. Pat Riley was one thing. You learn from the triangle of Phil Jackson. Then came Mike D’Antoni with his running, spacing and a little bit smaller ball. And it was so nice. [Gregg] Popovich was playing everything through another playmaker in Tim Duncan.”
“It was the styles of the clashes always. And it was really interesting of who is going to beat who, what is the right basketball way,” Jasikevicius continued. “Now it’s just one way in the NBA, and this is for me, crazy. It cannot just be one way. We need to come up with a new Shaq or [Arvydas] Sabonis, or somebody like this because that part is also dying.”
Jasikevicius is currently the head coach of Fenerbahce in Turkey. But back during his playing days, he played two seasons in the NBA and even went to college in the United States at Maryland where he played all four years of eligibility.
He had stints with the Indiana Pacers and Golden State Warriors, competing against the NBA coaches he named. He has expressed interest before in potentially coaching in the NBA one day.
