# Tuomas Iisalo

Tuomas Iisalo (born 29 July 1982) is a Finnish basketball coach and former player. He is currently an assistant coach of the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA.
Standing at 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in), Iisalo played as a shooting guard during his playing career. He also played for the Finland national team.
He was voted the Coach of the Year in Finland in 2024 by the Finnish sports journalists.

## Playing career

Iisalo grew up in Loviisa and played in a youth team of local club Hokki Basket. He started his senior playing career in 2000 with Kouvot in Korisliiga. As a player, Iisalo also represented Korisliiga clubs Espoon Honka and Torpan Pojat. He won the Finnish Cup with Kouvot in 2009.
In his early career, he played for various Finnish youth national teams, and later played 58 games with the Finland senior national team.
Iisalo retired after the 2013–2014 season.

## Coaching career

After the end of his playing career he was appointed as head coach of Tapiolan Honka and was an assistant with Finland U15.

### Crailsheim Merlins

In March 2016, he moved to Germany and signed with Crailsheim Merlins in the Basketball Bundesliga. The team had stuck in the bottom of the table and eventually he couldn't save the team for the relegation, but extended his deal with Merlins for the upcoming 2016–17 season in ProA. A fellow Finnish coach Vesa Vertio was named his assistant.
At the end of the 2017–18 ProA season, Crailsheim were promoted back to Bundesliga as the runners-up. In the early 2019, his brother Joonas Iisalo accompanied him as an associate coach of the team. In the following seasons they managed to establish the club in the Bundesliga, and in 2020–21 they guided the Merlins to their first ever Bundesliga playoff berth, with one of the lowest budgets in the league.

### Telekom Baskets Bonn

In May 2021, Iisalo inked a two-year deal with fellow Bundesliga side Telekom Baskets Bonn. In 2022, he was named the Bundesliga Coach of the Year, after finishing 3rd in the regular season with Bonn. Iisalo repeated as the Bundesliga Coach of the Year in the 2022–23 campaign, after leading Bonn to a regular season record of 32 wins and two losses. In May 2023, he won the FIBA Champions League with Bonn and was presented with the Basketball Champions League Best Coach honours. He helped the Bonn team to a trip to the 2023 Bundesliga finals, where they eventually fell short to Ulm. Iisalo parted company with the Bonn club at the end of the 2022–23 season.

### Paris Basketball

On June 29, 2023, Paris Basketball of the French LNB Pro A and the EuroCup announced the appointment of Iisalo as head coach on a three-year deal.
In December 2023, Iisalo was named the head coach of the Team World (Team Monde) in the LNB All-Star Game. On 18 February 2024, Iisalo and Paris won the 2024 LNB Pro A Leaders Cup title, by beating Nanterre 90–85 in the final.
On 6 April 2024, Iisalo was voted the EuroCup Coach of the Year, leading Paris to the 2024 EuroCup Finals with a record-tying 20 wins and only one loss, with the highest team average (98.4 points per game) in the EuroCup history. On 12 April 2024, Iisalo led Paris Basketball to win the 2023–24 EuroCup title, beating JL Bourg-en-Bresse with 2–0 wins in the finals, and earning a place for the next season in the EuroLeague. On 13 May 2024, Iisalo was named the Coach of the Year in LNB Pro A, after leading Paris to the record streak of 25 consecutive games unbeaten. He also led Paris to the LNB Pro A Finals in June 2024.

### Memphis Grizzlies (assistant)

On 8 July 2024, the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association (NBA) confirmed the appointment of Iisalo to the first assistant coach position, responsible for the team's offense, making him the first Finnish-born coach in the NBA. On 7 November, he debuted as a head coach due to absence of Taylor Jenkins, leading the Grizzlies to a 131–114 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.

## Coaching style

According to reports, the Iisalo style has been based on pace, many three-point shots and strong offensive rebounding.
In late June 2024, Iisalo was one of the coach lecturers in the Dusan Ivkovic Basketball Coaching Clinic in Belgrade, Serbia, teaching offense through variable big men and speaking about the evolution of his pick and roll defense.

## Personal life

Iisalo's father worked as a foreign correspondent in East Berlin in the 1980s.
His younger brother Joonas is also a professional basketball coach. Their older sister Meri Valkama [fi] became a journalist who won the 2021 Helsingin Sanomat literature prize for the best debut novel in Finland with her book "Sinun, Margot", where she tells the story of a family in East Berlin. Their grandfather Aulis Iisalo fought in the Winter War and in the Continuation War, and was a candidate to receive a Mannerheim Cross.
Tuomas Iisalo is married and a father of three.

## Coaching honours

* Paris Basketball
** EuroCup: 2023–24
** French League Cup: 2024
** LNB Pro A runner-up: 2023–24
* Telekom Baskets Bonn
** Champions League: 2022–23
** Bundesliga runner-up: 2022–23
* Crailsheim Merlins
** ProA runner-up: 2016–17, 2017–18