Rodrigo Pastore of the Niners Chemnitz has been voted Coach of the Year in the German Basketball League (BBL). The captains and assistant coaches of the 18 BBL clubs as well as selected media representatives were eligible to vote. Chemnitz won the FIBA Europe Cup with Coach Pastore in April and has now notched up its 25th win of the season in the Bundesliga with an 82:68 victory over Basketball Löwen Braunschweig. The Saxons have thus qualified for the playoff quarter-finals and also have home court.
The Argentinian Pastore has been Head Coach of the Niners since 2015 and his contract runs until 2026. In the nationwide vote, the 51-year-old came out on top with 67 percent of the votes against his Würzburg coaching colleague Sasa Filipovski (26) and ahead of Vechta's Ty Harrelson (7).
Pastore initially missed out on promotion to the Bundesliga with Chemnitz, but then managed it in 2020. In his first season, he promptly managed to stay in the league, then led the club to the playoffs twice and to the semi-finals of the BBL Cup in 2022. In the current season, he established the Saxons in the top flight of the league.
The Saxons can no longer be displaced from one of the top four places in the table after the win against Braunschweig. Ousman Krubally (18 points), DeAndre Lansdowne (14), Jeff Garrett (13) and Wesley van Beck (10) played the biggest part in the success.
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