Basketball | “We had a very unusual childhood” – Tuomas Iisalo's life has taken him from Germany to Finland and from there to the sharpest peak in Europe

Years in the pressure cooker of basketball in Germany, they learned from the 41-year-old Tuomas from Iisalo success coach. At the end of last season, he was chosen as the best head coach of the men's Champions League and for the second time in a row, the Bundesliga, Germany's highest league level.

In January, Iisalo is one of the candidates to be awarded coach of the year at the Sports Gala.

Iisalo, who has coached in Germany since 2016, signed a three-year contract with Paris Basketball of the French premier league in the summer, and under his tutelage the club has played a great early season.

The Parisian club is second in the men's Eurocup after Gran Canaria, and in the French Pro A the team is second behind AS Monaco, who play in the Euroleague.

“The performance level has been relatively stable. Of course, that says a lot about our players,” Iisalo said in an interview with STT in November in Riga, Latvia.

Second in the highest Euroleague of basketball, the Eurocup does not have the same amount of money as in the Euroleague, but Iisalo sees the second level as an important league as well.

“The long-term goal of our club is to make money and business as well. Playing in the Eurocup is an investment in the fact that we can build credibility. The winner of the Eurocup is guaranteed a place in the Euroleague, if only the financial resources are sufficient to accept a place. Winning the Eurocup is the only direct gateway to the Euroleague,” Iisalo reminded.

Paris Basketball aims purposefully forward, but not only with money.

“In general, the club certainly has big ambitions. The club strives to be as big as possible specifically through sporting success.”

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“The language of basketball is traditionally English, and at this pace of the game it has been challenging to focus on learning French.”

In the French main league Pro A, Iisalo is not empty handed as the head coach either, even though the league is new to him.

“The French main series is a very challenging series. Basketball is played differently in France than, for example, in Germany. The level of French domestic players is very high. The lineup has a lot of athletic and tall young players who are technically gifted. Many teams have their own styles of play, things like that are rarely found in other parts of Europe,” explained Iisalo.

According to Iisalo, Paris Basketball has an average 50 percent bigger budget than German teams.

“Monaco and Lyon-Villeurbanne have even bigger budgets than this group of challengers,” Iisalo said.

Iisalo coached Bonn to the final in the German Bundesliga last season. When the country changed, Iisalo got his credit man from Germany to Paris.

“We had six players and three coaches from Bonn come here. Of course, it facilitates the integration process. It's also about the way of playing and the daily operating culture. There has been less of the friction that always exists in a new team.”

According to Iisalo, those playing under him for the first time have also adapted well.

“The new guys have also been very receptive. The club has also given a lot of autonomy. I'm really satisfied with the fact that the players and the organization want to improve all the time. This club is only five years old. There are still many things that can be done better,” Iisalo said.

“Success has come quickly, so the situation is balanced in that sense. We constantly strive to improve both game performances and the operating environment. One big thing is when the new hall, which will also be built for the Olympics, will be completed in North Paris in February,” Iisalo said.

Iisalon in any case, I think Paris Basketball has been successful in its direct procurement.

“There are different players who have suited this well. However, Eurokent must have even more scope. We now have 12–13 players in the lineup, but in the future we need to have 15 players, all of whom are of high quality. However, I'm just doing my own thing as well as I can, and I'm not thinking about the timeframe in which the Euroleague spot would materialize. However, the purpose of the club is to grow as quickly as possible but in a healthy way,” Iisalo said.

In Paris Basketball, Iisalo knows how to enjoy the fact that his players also include the Finnish national team Mikael Jantunen.

“Mikke is a top guy and an excellent coach. Citizenship in itself has no more meaning here than the fact that Mikke is in the Bosman quota and not in the foreigner quota. Of course, it was also an advantage that I already had a lot of information about him. I had already coached him once in Finland in the 16-year-old championship series”, Iisalo said.

Iisalon the wife knows French, but the coach himself only learns so-called basketball French.

“The language of basketball is traditionally English, and it has been challenging to focus on learning French at this game pace. I already know phrases, but my firm intention is to sharpen my French skills”, said Iisalo.

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“There are a lot of games, so sometimes it's too busy, and I'm bad at making connections. All the extra time is mostly spent with my family in Paris.”

Iisalo's three children attend a German-language school in Paris.

“When things are going well with my family, my own activities are also easier. However, at the moment there is little time to be at home. Most of the time is spent in the training hall and games and traveling to games.”

In his youth, Iisalo lived in Berlin because of his father's work, so when he moved from Honga to Germany, he already had some contact with German culture and language. Still, Iisalo had to start from the starting square.

“Of course, I already knew some German, but learning the language better only happened later. And living in Berlin in my youth was quite a different story than being in conservative southern Germany. Everything had to be learned the hard way in Germany as well, and it was challenging with high expectations.”

“The pressure cooker made me the coach I am now. There is a rule in the world that you should always win regardless of the resources,” Iisalo explained.

One something that has been surprisingly little public about Iisalo is that the writer Meri Valkama is his older sister.

“Meri's breakthrough book was fictional, even though it happened in Berlin. A great work as a debut novel, of course. We as a whole family have been very proud of Meri. We had a very unusual childhood, and we lived in many places, so me, my younger brother Joonas and Meri were very close. We are happy that we have all found our place in this life,” Tuomas Iisalo said.

Kid brother Joonas Iisalo still works in the German Bundesliga as Heidelberg's head coach, so contact with his brother is close, but at the same time rare.

“There are a lot of games, so sometimes it's too busy, and I'm bad at making connections. Any extra time is mostly spent with my family in Paris. Life is often watching videos and planning exercises. Car trips in Paris have the most free time, even though there is no more space than time in traffic in Paris,” Iisalo said.

Paris Basketball continues the Euro games on Wednesday against Hamburg and already on Boxing Day against the London Lions. In the French league, the team has matches around Christmas on December 23 and December 28.