MIES (Switzerland) - The play-off bound Memphis Grizzlies' promotion of Tuomas Iisalo as interim head coach is the latest chapter in the fascinating basketball journey of the Finn.
The Helsinki native, 42, was given the top job last week when the team parted ways with head coach Taylor Jenkins.
The Grizz, after defeats to the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics since the change, are 44-31 and in fifth place in the Western Conference.
Iisalo was a proven winner as a coach in Europe. His appointment is further evidence that the game has become global.
After nearly a decade and a half as a player in Finland, from 2000 to 2014, Iisalo started his coaching career in his homeland but it wasn't long before he was in Germany, first at Crailsheim and then at Telekom Baskets Bonn. Then, after one season (2023-24) in France with Paris Basket Racing, he joined the Memphis coaching staff.
Basketball players, fans and media in Europe have known for several seasons that Iisalo can coach!
When he moved to Germany to coach Bundesliga strugglers Crailsheim in March of 2016, he couldn't keep the team in the top flight. Iisalo remained with the team, though, and in his second full season in charge, in 2017-18, he led Crailsheim back to the Bundesliga.
Telekom Baskets Bonn, following a 13th place finish in 2019-2020, hired him.
He was a huge hit.
The club went from 12-22 to 26-8 and second place in his first regular season in charge, yet it lost in the playoff semi-finals to FC Bayern, 3-2.
The following year, not only did Bonn win 32 of their 34 games in the BBL regular season to take the top seed for the domestic playoffs, they won the BCL Final Four in Malaga, Spain.
He was named BCL Coach of the Year.
Bonn first defeated hosts and favorites Unicaja Malaga in the Semi-Finals, 69-67, and then beat Hapoel Jerusalem in a thrilling Final. Bonn fell in the Bundesliga Finals to Rationpharm Ulm, but that didn't stop Paris Basketball from luring him to the French capital.
Taking virtually his entire Bonn team with him to Paris, he immediately won. Iisalo guided the team to the French league Leaders' Cup trophy, and a EuroCup title with that competition naming him their Coach of the Year.
When Memphis pried him loose from Paris, they viewed Iisalo as a coach that could help them improve their offense.
Now he's the first person from his country to lead an NBA team, and one of a select group that has coached in Europe now at the helm of a team in the world's top league.
In November, Iisalo did take the reins for a game when then head coach Taylor Jenkins had to miss a game against the Los Angeles Lakers following a death in his family. Iisalo steered the team to a win.
"I have experience in that but in this context, " he said. "I feel a lot more prepared than I did back then and it was also a very different role that I was stepping into because I was replacing coach Jenkins for one game, and we kept everything the same and I was just a placeholder in that situation so it's a little bit different circumstance."
Asked if he thought the Grizzlies would eventually remove the interim tag and make him head coach, Iisalo responded: "My and my whole team's timeline is one day at a time, so there is no need to go into the future."
Iisalo is the fourth European coach to take on a head coach role in an NBA franchise and only the seventh non-U.S. citizen to achieve that status.
Non-U.S. NBA coach (Nationality) | NBA Franchise |
|---|---|
Jay Triano (Canada) | Toronto Raptors, Phoenix Suns |
Igor Kokoskov (Serbia) | Phoenix Suns |
Steve Nash (Canada) | Brooklyn Nets |
Darko Rajakovic (Serbia) | Toronto Raptors |
Jordi Fernandez (Spain) | Brooklyn Nets |
Tuomas Iisalo (Finland) | Memphis Grizzlies |
Canada national team legend Jay Triano, born in Tillsonburg, Ontario, joined Toronto as an assistant coach in 2002. In 2008, the Raptors made him head coach, a position he held until 2011. Triano was also the head coach of Phoenix in 2017-18 and now is an associate head coach in Sacramento.
Serbia's Igor Kokoskov, who hails from Belgrade, coached Georgia's national team at the FIBA EuroBasket in 2011, 2013 and 2015, then took the helm of Slovenia and coached them to the EuroBasket title in 2017. An assistant coach in the NBA during that span, Kokoskov was hired as head coach of the Phoenix Suns in 2018-19 season. He is now an assistant with Atlanta.
Canada's FIBA Hall of Fame and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame point guard Steve Nash coached the Brooklyn Nets from 2020-22. Nash's regular season record with the Nets was 94-67 while in the playoffs, they were 7-9.
Darko Rajakovic of Serbia is in his second season as Toronto Raptors coach. He has worked as an assistant coach on Serbia's national team.
Canada's head coach at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 and the 2024 Olympics, Jordi Fernandez, hails from Badalona, Spain. A former assistant NBA coach and associate head coach, he is in his first season as Brooklyn Nets coach.
Now the Grizz have Finland's Iisalo, a former national team player who had a lot of success coaching in Germany and France.
FIBA