Dan Shamir: We didn’t plan to do another relocation. But Messina wrote me a message

New Olimpia Milano assistant coach Dan Shamir talked about his carreer and his new adventure with Israelian site Walla.

ON ETTORE MESSINA CALL

«At the end of the last season, I decided together with my family that it was time to return to Israel. The club said goodbye to me, and the next morning I woke up and left the phone in the bedroom. A short time later, my wife Sahar brought it to me and said, ‘You have a message from Messina. I think I know what it is about».

ON HIS DECISION

«We didn’t plan to do another relocation, but Sahar is smart enough to know that if an offer comes from Ettore, especially in this timing, it will have a significant factor. The children have also been through so much with me already, that they are just waiting for the twist that always comes in the plot. Each of them reacted in a different way, and we quickly realized that we are now entering another interesting and challenging period».

NB. La famiglia resterà in Israele.

ON HIS ROLE

«I like to be an assistant coach once every few years, certainly of a person and a coach like Ettore. It’s challenging, you’re at a high level, and it’s fun for me. I can learn and be exposed to new things. I have no lack of respect in this section. I’ve been a head coach for 14 seasons, and another eight I worked as an assistant. My ego was not hurt».

ON ETTORE MESSINA

«Not everyone has the opportunity to return from Australia to the top of the Euroleague. The year with Ettore at CSKA was important and influenced me a lot, but I didn’t exhaust the work with him. At the end of that season he went to be an assistant coach in San Antonio, and if I could have continued to work with him, I would have. I hoped that one day I could connect with him again. That’s the first thing I thought about and remembered when he turned and said what he told me».