Rumours have circulated for weeks within basketball circles that the New Zealand Breakers had decided to part ways with head coach Kevin Braswell after the team missed the playoffs last season.
Although no announcements have been made as yet, it seems Dan Shamir, the current coach of Hapoel Holon in the Israel Super League will be named as Braswell’s replacement.
Hapoel Holon recently won their game three quarterfinals match-up against Maccabi Rishon 100-79 closing the gap on the series which currently sits at 1-2. It’s believed the Breakers will announce Shamir as coach as soon as the Isreali playoffs are completed.
The 44-year-old is also the reigning Israeli League Coach of the Year has coached in Israel for close to 20 years, winning three Israeli Cups.
Braswell agreed to a three-year deal in 2017 to coach the Breakers but it seemed ending the season with a 12-16 record meant the new Breakers ownership were happy to pay out his contract for next season (his third year won’t be paid out it was a team option) and move in a different direction.
With a strong New Zealand core with Corey Webster, Thomas Abercrombie, Shea Ili, and Finn Delany all returning, dwindling crowds in need of a successful season and exciting new players like RJ Hampton set to draw a lot more scrutiny to the team in 2019-20 a coach with the experience of Shamir is what the team felt they needed be successful in 2020.
Shamir started his coaching career at 24 years of age, spending two years as an assistant to Rick Pitino at the University of Kentucky. In 2001 he chose to return his home country for opportunity to be an assistant coach of Hapoel Jerusalem under head coaches Yoram Harush and Erez Edelstein.
In 2003 he had the opportunity to coach at Maccabi Tel Aviv under head coach Pini Gershon, where he won two EuroLeague titles (2004-05) and was a part of developing the games of international superstars like Nikola Vujcic and Sarūnas Jasikevičius.
He continued to quickly ascend the coaching ranks, being named head coach of Hapoel Jerusalem in 2006 and leading Jerusalem to back to back Israeli State Cup titles in 2007 and 2008.
In 2008, Shamir became the assistant coach of Dynamo Moscow in the Russian Super League, were he honed his coaching techniques under renowned European coach David Blatt.
With Blatt’s departure from Dynamo Moscow, Shamir returned to the Isreal in 2009 becoming the head coach of Bnei Hasharon, he then coached rival team Hapoel Holon from 2011-13 and spent the 2013-14 as an assistant coach with CSKA Moscow under head coach Ettore Messina.
Shamir was a part of the CSKA Moscow team which won both the VTB United League title and reached the Euroleague Final Four in 2014.
It was there he worked with NBA players like Nenad Krstic, Milos Teodosic, Sasha Kaun, Viktor Khryapa, Jeremy Pargo and Sonny Weems.
He was named the new head coach of Hapoel Eilat, signing a two-year deal before returning to Hapoel Holon for a second stint in 2015 where he has remained since.
Last year in addition to winning Isreali coach of the year he coached the team to the 2018 Israeli State Cup, winning the championship.