Andrej Lemanis

Andrej Lemanis

Brisbane Bullets
Position	Head coach
League	NBL
Personal information
Born	(1969-03-18) 18 March 1969 Melbourne, Victoria
Nationality	Australian / Latvian
Career information
Playing career	1985–1993
Position	Guard
Coaching career	2005–present
Career history
As coach:
2005–2013	New Zealand Breakers
2013–present	Australian NT
2016–present	Brisbane Bullets
Career highlights and awards
As player: NBL champion (1992) As head coach: 2× NBL Coach of the Year (2012, 2013) 3× NBL champion (2011–2013)

Andrej Lemanis (born 18 March 1969)^[1] is a Latvian Australian professional basketball coach.^[2] He is currently the head coach of the Brisbane Bullets and Australian men's national basketball team. Previously the head coach of the New Zealand Breakers, Lemanis coached the Breakers for eight consecutive seasons, taking them to three consecutive championship titles in 2011, 2012 and 2013. He was awarded the NBL Coach of the Year award in 2012 and 2013.^[2]

Playing career

As a player Lemanis played for several Victorian clubs including the South East Melbourne Magic and the St Kilda Saints, winning an NBL championship with the Magic in 1992.^[3][4]

Coaching career

Prior to becoming the head coach of the New Zealand Breakers, Lemanis was an assistant coach with the Townsville Crocodiles, serving in the early 2000s.^[5]

On 28 February 2013, Lemanis coached his 250th NBL game.^[6][7] On 12 April 2013, the Breakers recorded their third NBL championship, sweeping the Perth Wildcats 2–0 in the grand final series, thus winning his third title.

Prior to his appointment as the head coach of the Australian men's national basketball team, Lemanis served as an assistant coach of the Australian men's national basketball team.^[8]

On 20 October 2015, Lemanis signed with Brisbane Bullets.^[9]

National team coaching career

On 24 April 2013, he was announced as the new head coach of the Australian men's national basketball team.^[10][11][12]

2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup

By virtue of winning the 2013 FIBA Oceania Championship, Australia qualified for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain. Australia was drawn into Group D, alongside Lithuania, Slovenia, Angola, Mexico and South Korea. After suffering an opening round 90-80 loss to Slovenia, Australia bounced back, stringing together three consecutive wins over South Korea, Lithuania and Mexico, the first time in 16 years that Australia had won 3 consecutive matches at the FIBA World Cup.^[13][14] However, in their next match Australia suffered a shock 91-83 loss to Angola, which came despite leading by 15 points in the middle of the third quarter. This result, combined with Lithuania's 67-64 win over Slovenia meant that Australia finished third in their group, qualifying for the knockout stage of the tournament.

Because Australia would finish third by losing, and that finishing third would benefit Australia more than finishing second, combined with the absences of fit key players Aron Baynes and Joe Ingles led to allegations that Australia deliberately lost their game against Angola in order to finish third in their group, and as a result, avoiding the United States until the semi-finals, with Slovenian basketballer Goran Dragić posting "Basketball is a beautiful sport, there is no room for fixing the game like today Australia vs Angola!! @FIBA should do something about that!" on Twitter. However, these claims were denied by Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis.^{[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]}

Australia met World No. 7 Turkey in the knockout stage of the tournament. Australia suffered a 65-64 loss to Turkey, ending their World Cup campaign, meaning that for the 11th World Cup, Australia would return home empty handed.

References

External links

• Profile at Eurobasket.com
• THE LEMANIS ERA