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{{short description|Israeli basketball player and coach}}
{{Infobox basketball biography
| name = Pini Gershon<br>פיני גרשון
| image = Image:Pini104.JPG
| image_size = 
| caption = Gershon in 2005.
| height_ft = 
| height_in = 
| weight_lb = 
| league = 
| team = 
| number = 
| nationality = Israeli
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|mf=yes|1951|11|13}}
| birth_place = [[Tel Aviv, Israel]]
| career_start = 1970
| career_end = 1974
| career_number = 
| career_position = 
| coach_start = 1974
| coach_end = 2015
| years1 = 1970–1974
| team1 = Maccabi South Tel Aviv
| cyears1 = 1974–1976
| cteam1 = Beitar Tel Aviv (youth)
| cyears2 = 1976–1977
| cteam2 = Beitar Tel Aviv
| cyears3 = 1977–1979
| cteam3 = [[Hapoel Holon]]
| cyears4 = 1980–1981
| cteam4 = Hapoel Gan Shmuel
| cyears5 = 1981–1983
| cteam5 = [[Hapoel Galil Elyon]]
| cyears6 = 1983–1985
| cteam6 = [[Maccabi Haifa B.C.|Maccabi Haifa]]
| cyears7 = 1985–1986
| cteam7 = [[Hapoel Tel Aviv B.C.|Hapoel Tel Aviv]]
| cyears8 = 1986–1987
| cteam8 = Maccabi Haifa
| cyears9 = 1987–1988
| cteam9 = Beitar Tel Aviv
| cyears10 = 1988–1989
| cteam10 = Maccabi Haifa
| cyears11 = 1989–1990
| cteam11 = [[Hapoel Haifa B.C.|Hapoel Haifa]]
| cyears12 = 1990–1992
| cteam12 = [[Ironi Ramat Gan]]
| cyears13 = 1992–1993
| cteam13 = Hapoel Galil Elyon
| cyears14 = 1993–1994
| cteam14 = [[Maccabi Rishon LeZion (basketball)|Maccabi Rishon Lezion]]
| cyears15 = 1994–1995
| cteam15 = Hapoel Galil Elyon
| cyears16 = 1995–1997
| cteam16 = [[Hapoel Jerusalem B.C.|Hapoel Jerusalem]]
| cyears17 = 1997–1998
| cteam17 = Maccabi Rishon Lezion
| cyears18 = 1998–2001
| cteam18 = [[Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C.|Maccabi Tel Aviv]]
| cyears19 = 2003–2006
| cteam19 = Maccabi Tel Aviv
| cyears20 = 2006–2008
| cteam20 = [[Olympiacos B.C.|Olympiacos]]
| cyears21 = 2007–2008
| cteam21 = [[Bulgaria national basketball team|Bulgaria]]
| cyears22 = 2008–2010
| cteam22 = Maccabi Tel Aviv
| cyears23 = 2011–2013
| cteam23 = Hapoel Holon (manager)
| cyears24 = 2014–2015
| cteam24 = Maccabi Tel Aviv (assistant)
| cyears25 = 2015–present
| cteam25 = [[Israel national basketball team|Israel]] (manager)
| highlights = '''As head coach:'''
*2× [[EuroLeague]] champion ([[Euroleague 2003-04|2004]], [[Euroleague 2004-05|2005]])
*[[FIBA SuproLeague]] champion ([[FIBA SuproLeague 2000-01|2001]])
*[[EuroLeague Coach of the Year]] ([[Euroleague 2004-05|2005]])
*[[50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors]] (2008)
*8× [[Israeli Basketball Super League|Israeli League]] champion (1993, 1999–2001, 2004–2006, 2009)
*8× [[Israeli Basketball State Cup|Israeli Cup]] winner (1996, 1999–2001, 2004–2006, 2010)
*[[Israeli Basketball Super League Coach of the Year|Israeli League Coach of the Year]] (1993)
| BASKHOF_year = 
| CBBASKHOF_year = 
}}
'''Pinhas "Pini" Gershon''' ({{langx|he|פנחס "פיני" גרשון}}; born 13 November 1951), is an Israeli former professional [[basketball]] player and [[basketball coach|coach]]. He won three top-level European-wide [[sports club|club]] championships as the [[head coach]] of [[Maccabi Tel Aviv (basketball)|Maccabi Tel Aviv]]. He won the [[FIBA SuproLeague]] championship in [[2001 FIBA SuproLeague Final Four|2001]], and the [[EuroLeague]] championship in [[2004 EuroLeague Final Four|2004]] and [[2005 EuroLeague Final Four|2005]]. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest coaches in Israeli and European history.

He was named the [[EuroLeague Coach of the Year]] in 2005. In 2008, he was named one of the [[50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors]], as a coach. He was also the head coach of the senior [[Bulgarian national basketball team|Bulgarian national team]].

==Early life==
Gershon grew up and studied in the city of [[Tel Aviv]]. His mother was a [[Moroccan Jew]] and his father was a [[Bulgarian Jews in Israel|Bulgarian Jew]].<ref>[https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=502361 "Don't Call Me 'Black'" - Pini Gershon responds to his alleged racist comment], Globes, July 2nd, 2001.</ref> He experienced a rough childhood, as his biological father abandoned the family when he was one year old and left him with his mother, in poverty conditions and moved to [[England]]; his step-father was abusive towards him, his sister and their mother.

==Basketball biography==
===Playing career===
In his youth, Gershon was a basketball player. He played for the "Maccabi South Tel Aviv" [[sports club|club]], which was a sister team of [[Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C.|Maccabi Tel Aviv]], and he was one of the stars in its cadets team. He played for a number of years, including in the senior men's team of Maccabi South Tel Aviv, but his career as a basketball player ended at the age of 24, as the result of an injury.

===Club coaching career===
[[Image:Pini132.JPG|thumb|200px|right|Pini Gershon on the court]]
After a short career as a basketball player, Gershon began to coach in different Israeli teams, among them, [[Maccabi Rishon LeZion (basketball)|Maccabi Rishon LeZion]], [[Hapoel Galil Elyon]], Hapoel Gan Shmuel-Menashe, [[Hapoel Tel Aviv B.C.|Hapoel Tel Aviv]] and [[Hapoel Jerusalem B.C.|Hapoel Jerusalem]].

In 1993, he led [[Hapoel Galil Elyon]] to the [[Ligat Winner|Israeli League]] championship, which was the first time in 36 years that it had not been won by [[Maccabi Tel Aviv BC|Maccabi Tel Aviv]]. In 1996, Gershon won the [[Israeli Basketball State Cup|Israeli State Cup]], while he was the head coach of Hapoel Jerusalem, after beating Maccabi in the final.

In different interviews, he expressed himself poignantly against Maccabi Tel Aviv, and against the club's dominance of Israeli basketball. Therefore, it was quite a surprise{{editorializing|date=July 2014}} when he became Maccabi Tel Aviv's head coach at the end of 1998. At that time, Maccabi Tel Aviv was in a professional crisis, after several years of failing to enter the top stages of the [[EuroLeague]], a status which it had enjoyed in the past.

Under his, and his assistant [[David Blatt]]'s lead, Maccabi Tel Aviv surprisingly advanced to the [[2000 EuroLeague Final Four|2000 EuroLeague Finals]], where they lost to the [[Greek Basket League]] powerhouse [[Panathinaikos BC|Panathinaikos]], in the final game. A year later, Maccabi won the [[2001 FIBA SuproLeague Final Four|2001 FIBA SuproLeague championship]]. However, this achievement was overshadowed by the split between the two major European basketball unions at that time, into two separate leagues, which meant that most of the top European teams did not compete against Maccabi, but were instead in [[2000–01 EuroLeague|that season's EuroLeague competition]].

After the 2000–01 season, Gershon took a break from coaching, mainly to do some self-searching and to travel around the world. This temporary retirement lasted for two seasons, and in the summer of 2003, Gershon returned to his former position as the head coach of Maccabi. He had the goal of reaching the [[2004 EuroLeague Final Four]], which took place in [[Tel Aviv]]. That goal was two seconds away from failure, when Maccabi, who was hosting [[BC Žalgiris|Žalgiris]] in the game for the last spot in the [[EuroLeague Final Four]], had to come from behind. A marvelous three-point buzzer-beater by  [[Derrick Sharp]] sent that game into overtime, in which Maccabi won and advanced to the Final Four. Maccabi, under Gershon, went on to have an unforgettable Final Four, crushing [[Fortitudo Bologna|Skipper Bologna]] 118–74 in the final, to become the EuroLeague champions for the fourth time (including the [[2001 FIBA SuproLeague]] title).

In 2005, Gershon led Maccabi Tel Aviv to another EuroLeague championship. Having been the league favorites all season long, Maccabi Tel Aviv advanced to the [[2005 EuroLeague Final Four]], in [[Moscow]]. The expected final was supposed to be between Maccabi and the hosts [[PBC CSKA Moscow|CSKA Moscow]]. However, CSKA surprisingly lost its semifinal game to [[Saski Baskonia|TAU Vitoria]]. In the final, Maccabi easily beat TAU, by a score of 90–78. Gershon was later named the [[EuroLeague Coach of the Year]]. During the 2005–06 season, Gershon hinted that it would be his last season with Maccabi. He led the team to the [[2006 EuroLeague Final Four]]. That time, however, Maccabi lost in the title game to [[PBC CSKA Moscow|CSKA Moscow]], by a score of 73–69. Gershon left Maccabi at the end of the season, and signed with the Greek club [[Olympiacos B.C.|Olympiacos]].

In his first season as head coach of [[Olympiacos B.C.|Olympiacos]], Gershon led the team to the [[Greek Basket League]] finals against [[Panathinaikos BC|Panathinaikos]], and to the last 8 of the [[2006–07 EuroLeague|EuroLeague season]], where the team was eliminated by [[Saski Baskonia|TAU Cerámica]]. Accusations of racism were raised, mainly by Olympiacos fans, concerning the lack of playing time for team star and crowd favorite, [[Sofoklis Schortsanitis]].

On November 24, 2008, he signed on as [[Maccabi Tel Aviv (basketball)|Maccabi Tel Aviv]]'s head coach, after the dismissal of [[Effi Birnbaum]] from the position. In October 2009, he was ejected from an [[exhibition game]] against the [[New York Knicks]]. Gershon took close to 6 minutes to exit the court, as [[NBA]] rules (administered by replacement on-court officials) differ from international rules, regarding technical fouls, which cause coaches to be automatically ejected. In 2010, Gershon parted ways with Maccabi, after their loss to [[Hapoel Gilboa Galil]], in the Israeli League national finals. In August 2014, he signed a one-season contract to be [[Guy Goodes]]' assistant coach with Maccabi Tel Aviv.

===National team coaching career===
Gershon worked as an assistant coach for the senior [[Israeli national basketball team]]. In September 2008, Gershon led the senior [[Bulgarian national basketball team]] to qualify for the [[EuroBasket 2009]], in Poland, after a surprising finish ahead of the strongly favored [[Italian national basketball team]] in the preliminary round. In 2010, he parted ways with the Bulgarian national team, due to a dispute with the [[Bulgarian Basketball Federation]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100113044054/http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/news/lateNews/arti.asp?newsid=38042 Bulgaria say good-bye to Pini]</ref>

==Personal life==
Gershon often eagerly voices his belief in the part that divine guidance has had in his career. He has close ties with the [[Chabad]] movement.

In the year 2001, Gershon was accused of [[racism]], after reporters found a video showing Gershon lecturing before a group of [[Israel Defense Forces|IDF]] officers. In this lecture, Gershon made some controversial remarks about [[African American]] people,<ref>The Jerusalem Post. [https://web.archive.org/web/20121102080351/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-45509384.html "Article: Retire, Pini"]</ref>“The mocha-colored guys are smarter, but the dark colored ones are just guys off the street,” he said. “They’re dumb like slaves, they do whatever you tell them.” Gershon claimed that those remarks were only made as a joke, and that they were not reflective of his real opinions.<ref>The Jerusalem Post. [https://web.archive.org/web/20121102080344/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-45525938.html "Article: Gershon to Knesset: I'm not a racist."]</ref>

Gershon was once a major shareholder of EZTD Inc., a firm in the controversial [[binary options]] industry. EZTD Inc. owned the EZTrader.com and GlobalOption.com websites, and settled a 2016 US [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] finding, by paying $1.7 million in fines and compensation to victims. EZTD Inc. was accused of illegally soliciting and taking money from 4,000 US investors.<ref name="SWTimesofOsrael">{{cite news|last1=Weinglass|first1=Simona|title=Regulator makes ad warning against fraud – starring ex-binary options firm owner|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/regulator-makes-ad-warning-against-fraud-starring-ex-binary-options-firm-owner/|access-date=January 28, 2018|publisher=Times of Israel|date=January 28, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Firm Charged With Misleading Investors About Binary Options Profitability|url=https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2016-236.html|publisher=[[Securities and Exchange Commission]]|access-date=January 28, 2018}}</ref>

==Club titles won as a head coach==
*European Club Championship: '''3'''
**[[EuroLeague]]: '''2''' (with [[Maccabi Tel-Aviv (basketball)|Maccabi Tel-Aviv]]: [[2002 EuroLeague Final Four|2004]], [[2005 EuroLeague Final Four|2005]])
**[[FIBA SuproLeague]]: '''1''' (with Maccabi Tel-Aviv: [[2001 FIBA SuproLeague Final Four|2001]])
*[[Israeli Basketball Super League|Israeli Super League]]: '''8''' (7 with Maccabi Tel-Aviv, 1 with [[Hapoel Galil Elyon]])
*[[Israeli Basketball State Cup|Israeli State Cup]]: '''8''' (7 with Maccabi Tel-Aviv, 1 with [[Hapoel Jerusalem B.C.|Hapoel Jerusalem]])

==See also==
* [[List of EuroLeague-winning head coaches]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.euroleague.net/competition/coaches/showcoach?pcode=caa Euroleague.net Coach Profile]
*[http://www.euroleague.net/features/voices/2015-2016/vladimir-stankovic/i/6nalup4ivqsf3tii/pini-gershon-coach-and-showman Pini Gershon, coach and showman]

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{{Euroleague50}}
{{Euroleague Coach of the Year Award}}
{{Israeli Basketball Super League coach of the season}}
{{Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C.}}
{{Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. 2000–01 FIBA Suproleague champions}}
{{Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. 2003–04 Euroleague champions}}
{{Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. 2004–05 Euroleague champions}}
{{Olympiacos B.C.}}
}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gershon, Pinhas}}
[[Category:1951 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:EuroLeague–winning coaches]]
[[Category:Hapoel Jerusalem B.C. coaches]]
[[Category:Israeli basketball coaches]]
[[Category:Israeli expatriates in Greece]]
[[Category:Jewish Israeli sportspeople]]
[[Category:Israeli men's basketball players]]
[[Category:Israeli people of Moroccan-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Israeli people of Bulgarian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. coaches]]
[[Category:Olympiacos B.C. coaches]]
[[Category:Basketball players from Tel Aviv]]
[[Category:20th-century Israeli sportsmen]]