FC Barcelona, coach Bartzokas part ways

FC Barcelona Lassa has announced that former Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champion Georgios Bartzokas is no longer its head coach. Bartzokas joined Barcelona last summer and despite a string of injuries to players guided the team to a 12-18 record in the EuroLeague. That was good only for 11th place, however, and Barcelona missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2004-05 season. Bartzokas led Barcelona to a sixth-place regular season finish in the Spanish League with a 22-10 record before the team was eliminated by Valencia Basket in the playoffs. Barcelona missed the Spanish League semifinals for the first time since 2005. Bartzokas also helped Barcelona reach the Copa del Rey semifinals. He had joined Barcelona from Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar after having coached that club to its most successful season ever with an appearance in the 2016 Final Four in Berlin. He coached two other teams of his native Greece in the EuroLeague – Maroussi BC in 2009-10 and then Olympiacos Piraeus, with whom he became the first Greek coach ever to win the EuroLeague title in 2013 in London. That season he also won the Aleksandar Gomelskiy Coach of the Year award and rounded out a great year with the Intercontinental Cup title for Olympiacos.