The Benas Podcast

"Will": Will Weaver is a long-time Basketball coach who's journey has taken him from the Texas Longhorns program through Sam Houston State all the way to the NBA. Along the road he has coached as a Head Coach in the GLeague and as well as in the Australian NBL leading the the Sydney Kings. Our common path has crossed several times during our "summer jobs", him being with Australia's National Team...

DONATE TO UKRAINE: Lithuania: https://www.panrs.lt/krasto-apsaugos-ministerijos-rekomendacijos-del-paramos-ukrainai/ Germany: https://helferschwein.de International: https://www.blue-yellow.lt/en/ "Boki": Boštjan is an accomplished player on various levels, from Europe to NBA, he has seen it all. After starting off as a prospect in Italy and being drafted #15 by the Houston Rockets he spent 6 year...

DONATE TO UKRAINE: Lithuania: https://www.panrs.lt/krasto-apsaugos-ministerijos-rekomendacijos-del-paramos-ukrainai/ Germany: https://helferschwein.de/ International: https://www.blue-yellow.lt/en/ #25 Martyna: Martyna Motum is the wife of Brock Motum but certainly she has her own identity and is building her own career in the background. Martyna has finished her High School studies in Denmark, Un...

DONATE TO UKRAINE: Lithuania: https://www.panrs.lt/krasto-apsaugos-ministerijos-rekomendacijos-del-paramos-ukrainai/ Germany: https://helferschwein.de/ International: https://www.blue-yellow.lt/en/ #24 Simon: Simon Iden is of German heritage but currently resides in the US and has experience of working with a variety of athletes, from Tennis stars like Angelique Kerber whom Simon won the Australia...

Matteo and me first met during his time as an agent while working for the “ProTalent” Agency under the helm of Maurizio Balducci, who served as a mentor for Matteo. Before he was an agent, he took his first steps at the Stellazzurra Basketball Academy in Rome. Meanwhile, Matteo is serving as the Chief of International Relations and Marketing at the NBPA office in New York, working to provide a bet...

DONATE TO UKRAINE: Lithuania: https://www.panrs.lt/krasto-apsaugos-ministerijos-rekomendacijos-del-paramos-ukrainai/ Germany: https://helferschwein.de/ International: https://www.blue-yellow.lt/en/ #22 Thorsten: Thorsten Leibenath is currently the Sports Director at Ratiopharm Ulm, which is currently a German BBL as well as Eurocup team. Before he became a Sports Director in 2019 he was the Head C...

#21 Freddie: Fredrick Kleemichen grew up in Bremerhaven as the son of an American father and German mother, signed his first pro-contract in 2002 with Frankfurt (Opel) Skyliners at the age of 15 and moved to a new city with new hope and big dreams. “Freddie” as we all call him, is not a household name in the world of basketball right now but he definitely used to be! He had a roller-coaster journe...

#20 Šaras: Šarunas Jasikevičius is a successful Head Coach at Barcelona and his career is basically just getting started now but he already brought home domestic titles in Lithuania as well as Spain. As a player he has a rich experience between a variety of cultures, starting from the time when he left Lithuania at the age of 17 to live in the US, going from High School to later on joining the Uni...

#19 Claudio:    Claudio Coldebella is a former Italian basketball player, GM of the Italian 2nd Division and currently a successful Sports Director at Unics Kazan. Claudio started his playing career in Mestre in 1986 before moving to Desio and Virtus Bologna later on. Claudio also has the experience of playing abroad, he spent 6 years of his career in Greece playing for AEK and PAOK befo...

#18 Noel: Noel Mikaelian is an Armenian-German Cruiserweight Division Boxer who is currently on his quest to becoming World Champion and is without a doubt the #1 contender. He held the WBO youth world & WBO International cruiserweight title in 2014 & 2016. After being born in Yerevan, Armenia he moved to Germany at a young age and started to box early on by watching his step-father Khoren...

#17 Daniele Daniele Baiesi is currently a successful Sports Director at FC Bayern Munich. After leading Brose Bamberg to multiple domestic titles in Germany he continued his successful run at FC Bayern Munich in 2017 and has lead the team to multiple titles since his arrival as well. Daniele started his basketball career at Pallacanestro Biella in 2003 in the Italian league where he spent 6 years....

Stefan Weissenboeck is a player development coach at Brose Bamberg since 2010/11 season and has worked under the coaches Chris Fleming & Andrea Trinchieri most notably with whom he won multiple domestic titles during this period. He picked up basketball through his father and was committed early on as a player in Austria as well as one year at Hawaii-Pacific. After injuries derailed his playin...

#15 Giannis: Giannis Sfairopoulos has been a successful Head Coach since taking over Kolossos Rhodos in 2008 after being a top Assistant for 11years in Greece. After a brief stint as the Assistant Coach at CSKA Moscow under Jonas Kazlauskas during the 2011-12 season, he turned Head Coach once again and continued his upward journey until now, becoming the Head Coach of Olympiacos in 2014 and in Mac...

#14 Andrea: Firstly, I apologize for the slight delay in our conversation. The audio and video was not synced perfectly but is still very much useful…the wifi was playing jokes on us, we’ll make sure to tell the ‘Internet Gods’ to take care of that next time! Andrea Trinchieri is as good as they come and today he took me for a ride around his world. I got to see a glimpse of his past and mindset a...

Nicola is a dedicated Sports Director at SIG Strasbourg and to me the most underrated at his profession. Nicola worked predominantly in Italy before leaving the country and joining Strasbourg in 2020. He is a native of Forli, Italy just as Maurizio Gherardini is and went from picking up valuable lessons from his mentor, to later becoming a General Manager and Sports Director himself. After taking...

#12 “Bogues”: Andrew Bogut doesn’t need much introduction for all sports fans. He grew up in Melbourne, went on to play for the AIS before signing a letter of intent for the University of Utah and becoming the #1 pick in 2005’s NBA Draft after his sophomore year. Andrew had a phenomenal career not only in the NBA where he became a NBA champ in 2015 with the Golden State Warriors but also with the...

Nikos finished his glorious career this summer after playing 21 years professionally. He started off at AEK as a young, up & coming prospect playing for “Duda” Ivkovic before moving abroad early on. Nikos played in 5 different countries outside of Greece…First one being Italy before moving to Russia to play for CSKA, his university as he called it. He also played for the top clubs like Siena,...

Martynas Pocius - Life After Retirement (NBA Front Office) Martynas Pocius, one of the most electric and fun players to watch in Lithuanian basketball history, joined my "Pod" today. His story is a ‘one of one’, after smashing two fingers and losing one completely in an accident in school he managed not only to recover but elevate his game and mentality as well as work ethic to the next level. Aft...

Antanas’ story is a unique one, grindin’ his way up from a small team in Lithuania, through Barton County Community College in the US, finding his way to Texas A&M and coming back to Europe to eventually start his professional career. Antanas started his career in 2007 in Greece before he went on his way to play in Italy, Latvia & Spain. Finally he found his way back to play in Lithuania,...

Sammy Mejia, my good friend whom I met during our time in Moscow and happened to stay in touch throughout the last decade has had a unique career that started at DePaul University and took him to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants (D-League at the time). He decided early to take on a new career in Europe and signed a contract in Italy his first year. After he finished the 2008 season in Italy, he signed a on...

JR Holden - Life After Retirement (Part 1) JR’s career is unique, not only because of how it all ended but mostly because of how it all started. From a ‘try out application’ to go and play in Latvia to winning multiple Euroleague Championships with CSKA Moscow (2006 & 2008) as well as becoming European Champion with the Russian National Team in 2007. On top of all that, JR became an Olympian i...

Ales Pospisil - “European Coffee Trip” Everybody who knows me, knows that I’m a dedicated coffee lover. This is the first of many “Coffee Savant” episodes and it’s only fitting to do it with the person who ignited my passion for ‘The Bean’, Ales Pospisil and the coffee platform: European Coffee Trip. My name gets often auto-corrected to ‘Beans’ anyway, so I suppose it’s my destiny anyways :) In th...

Firstly, I have to apologise for my audio, which gives up on my 20mins or so into the podcast, my quality goes down but Coach Itoudis’ works well and that’s the person you need to listen to the most anyway, so please enjoy! Head Coach Dimitris Itoudis’ path to coaching is an unusual one. After leaving his junior soccer team because his long hair was not in line with the coach’s rules he decided to...

Andreas Pistiolis is the long time Ast. Coach at CSKA Moscow under the guidance of Coach Dimitris Itoudis. Andreas realized early (age 14) how much he loved coaching & teaching players and found his way into the youth program of Panathinaikos. Soon enough he received an invite by the senior team to join the coaching staff and help Coach Dimitris Itoudis to prepare scouting reports and break do...

Kostas Chatzichristos has been the Strengths&Conditioning Coach of CSKA Moscow's basketball team the last 7years and was part of the two Euroleague title runs in 2016 & 2019. Kostas studied at the University of Texas before interning at EXOS and going on to take his first job at the University of Georgia. He later returned to Greece to continue his career at Olympiacos B.C. and later at Pa...