Deservedly - Pedro Martinez is the best coach of the Euroleague

Valencia basketball coach Pedro Martinez was named the best coach of the season in the EuroLeague, winning the "Aleksandar Gomelsky" award after leading Valencia to second place in the regular season, the EuroLeague reported.

Martinez went 25/13 in his first full season in the Euroleague with Valencia, with the league's most efficient offense averaging 90,9 points per game. The award was voted for by Euroleague coaches, with the Spanish expert receiving the most votes.

Second place in the selection was taken by Tomas Masiulis from Žalgiris, third was Jorgos Barcokas from Olympiacos, while last season's laureate Šarunas Jasikevičius from Fenerbahçe finished fourth.

The award is named after the legendary coach Alexander Gomelsky, who won the first European championship title with Riga in 1958, and later recorded successes with CSKA Moscow, as well as with the Soviet Union national team.

This is the first time a Valencia coach has won this award, and Martinez became the fourth Spanish coach to do so, after Cus Mateo, Pablo Las and Xavi Pascal.

Although he started the season with injury problems and a 2/3 record, his team soon found form and achieved a streak of eight wins in nine games, including triumphs in difficult away games against Olympiacos and Panathinaikos.

Valencia finished the season as one of the most successful teams in several statistical categories, second in the number of three-pointers made, rebounds and blocks, third in assists and offensive rebounds, and fourth in the number of steals.

Martinez thus became the 14th different recipient of this award. The record holders are Željko Obradović and Barcokas with three awards each, while Ettore Messina, Dimitris Itudis and Laso won two each.