Maccabi Tel Aviv BC appointed Ioannis Sfairopoulos as the club’s new Head Coach replacing Neven Spahija after a 1-6 start in Euroleague action this season.

Sfairopoulos arrives at Maccabi after spending the last four seasons with Olympiacos in Greece. The 51-year old coach took the Piraeus based club to a pair of Euroleague Final Four appearances in 2015 where they defeated CSKA Moscow in the semifinals by succumbed to Real Madrid in the finals and in 2017 where again Sfairopoulos defeated CSKA Moscow in the semis but fell to Fenerbahce in the one game final.

The Thessaloniki born boss won the Greek League championship in 2015 and 2016 and was an assistant coach with the Houston Rockets of the NBA in 2012. Between 2012-2014 Sfairopoulos was the head coach at the Athens based Panionios club and also has an Israeli connection serving as Zvika Sherf’s assistant with PAOK Thessaloniki in 1998/99 as well as under Pini Gershon at Olympiacos a decade ago.

The yellow-and-blue’s new Head Coach said upon his appointment, “I’m very proud to now be a part of such a big club with a great tradition like Maccabi Tel Aviv. I want to tell the fans that I will do everything in my power to succeed and now’s the time to work hard together with the players in order to change the situation that the club is in. We will fight together and they have to be ready to give 100%, each and every one of them.”