Arriving last summer, the Italian Francesco Tabellini is no longer the coach of Paris Basketball

It’s one defeat too many! The setback (85-95), suffered on Sunday evening in his lair at the Adidas Arena against Bourg-en-Bresse in Betclic Élite, the French Basketball Championship, was the last for Parisian coach Francesco Tabellini.

According to information from the newspaper L’Équipe, which we are able to confirm, the coach of Italian origin was dismissed from his duties following this new poor performance. The coach knew he was on borrowed time for several weeks. In December he had already been in the hot seat before saving his place. Paris Basketball confirmed the information this afternoon.

But the series of defeats (four in all competitions, series in progress), the premature eliminations in the Coupe de France and the Leaders Cup and the failed campaign (despite its prestigious successes against Barcelona, ​​Madrid or Panathinaikos) in the Euroleague despite a colossal and unprecedented budget of almost 29 million euros, will have been fatal to it.

This is the first time in its short but already rich history that Paris Basketball has separated from its coach during the season. Even the American Will Weaver (2022-2023) with controversial methods and results had been at the end of the season before leaving the club.

Presented as a “demanding” coach and “a furious worker” by Parisian president David Kahn during his official induction, Tabellini (42) arrived with the label of a coach who offers a flamboyant, offensive and intense game. Unfortunately for him, he never seemed able to impose his way of doing things in Paris.

An internal solution to replace it

In Paris he succeeded two monuments: the Finnish Tuomas Lisalo (2023-2024) with revolutionary methods had allowed Paris to win its first titles (Leaders Cup and Eurocup), and the Brazilian Tiago Splitter (2024-2025) had offered the French Cup and French Championship double while reaching the quarter-finals of the prestigious Euroleague. Two coaches today on a bench in the NBA…

To succeed him, the club decided to focus on the internal solution with Julius Thomas. The latter, only 29 years old, arrived as an assistant in 2023 with Tuomas Iisalo and knows the workings of Paris Basketball perfectly.

His mission will be to stop the bleeding in Betclic Élite. The club, reigning French champion, is in 3rd place in the ranking (behind leader Monaco and Nanterre) with a small margin of one victory over 6th.