The Grizzlies have named assistant coach Tuomas Iisalo as the team's interim coach following the firing of Taylor Jenkins.
Iisalo, who was born in Helsinki, Finland, became the first NBA coach from the country after signing with the Grizzlies ahead of this season. He was appointed the first assistant coach role, responsible for the team's offense.
Before coaching, Iisalo played professional basketball overseas for 14 years, going pro at 18-years-old in 2000. He won the Finnish Cup in 2009 as player, and played for the Finnish National Team before retiring after the 2013-14 season.
From 2014 through 2024, Iisalo coached multiple teams overseas in different leagues with a repeated trend of success within those teams. In 2018, he coached the Pro-A German League Crailsheim Merlins from relegation back to the Bundesliga, the highest league in German basketball.
From there, Iisalo signed on with Telekom Baskets Bonn in 2021, another Bundesliga team. He was named the Bundesliga Coach of the Year after his first season with the team, and yet again the season after. In the 2022-23 season, Iisalo coached the Bonn club to a 32-2 record, won the FIBA Champions league, and finished runner-up in the Bundesliga Finals.
After that historic season, he went on to coach Paris Basketball for their 2023-24 season where Iisalo won yet another coach of the year in his first season with the team after going a record-tying 20-1 during the season. Paris went on to win the LNB Pro A Leaders Cup and the entire EuroCup Finals that season; the EuroCup is a tournament sponsored by Euroleague Basketball where only the best teams from Europe participate.
At the conclusion of the LNB Pro A Finals, Iisalo was confirmed to have been signed to the Grizzlies coaching staff in July of 2024.
His resume overseas includes: EuroCup Champion (2024), French League Cup winner (2024), Champions League champion (2023), EuroCup Coach of the Year (2024). Finnish Coach of the Year (2024), LNB Pro A Coach of the Year (2024), and two Bundesliga Coach of the Year awards (2022, 2023).
Before his promotion to interim head coach, he already holds a 1-0 record as a coach in the NBA after stepping in for Taylor Jenkins in a Nov. 6 game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
The experience is evident, and the Grizzlies are in need of a spark with less than a month to go before the Play-In Tournament.
