It looks like this is a (Prokom Trefl’s fan) dream come true. Eugeniusz Kijewski, head coach of Prokom, quit his job two days after the home loss against Italian team Montepaschi Siena. The loss put Prokom down 1-5 in group A – which is heavily loaded with good teams like CSKA Moscow, Olympiacos Piraeus, Tau Ceramia and Siena.You might want to think – wow – you get fired here after you just lost 5 games? Well this only counts for the Euroleague – Prokom is 6-1 in the Polish league. Kijewski also led Prokom to four Polish titles in his 5 years as head coach of the team.
But after investing so much money into the team this year, the club wanted to be one of the best teams in Europe. With an estimated budget of $10 million (the highest estimated budget goes to Panathinaikos with about $30 million) it is just not acceptable to be at the bottom of group A – even with so many good clubs. It puts Prokom Trefl in the same position as Armani Jeans Milano, Chorale Roanne, Brose Baskets Bamberg and Lottomatica Roma – you really don’t want to be compared to those clubs when your budget is that high.
So it looks like we got our own little New York Knicks story here in Europe? No not really. First of all the coach stepped down and there aren’t any legal problem like in New York – we also got no “drama” here in Poland – at least as far as I know.
So what will happen now in Prokom? Euroleague.net reports that assistant coach Tomas Pacesas was due to coach Prokom in its weekend Polish League game against ULEB Cup representative Turow Zgorzelec. It was not clear whether Pacesas will continue to coach the team on an interim or permanent basis.
On Wednesday Prokom will play in Ljubljana against Union Olimpija who are 2-4 with a win against CSKA Moscow. It seems not to get much easier for Prokom. We will keep you updated.
