Gareth Murray is enjoying life in Slovakia after being fired from Caledonia Gladiators, and says things have worked out well.
Murray, 40, is head coach of Prievidza in the Slovak Basketball League and made the switch in December, just weeks after leaving Gladiators.
While severing an 18-year tie with East Kibride-based Gladiators wasn’t easy, Murray says he would have wanted the challenge of an overseas coaching job at some point anyway.
Murray, from Cambuslang, said: “I got fired in November, so that’s obviously not great. The team wanted to go in a different direction, it happens, that’s the business.
“They offered me the job to stay at the academy, but then this opportunity arose, which was the perfect chance for me to go somewhere else and see if I can coach abroad.
“It worked out well. It’s not ideal, to get fired from a club that I had been at for 18 years as a player and a coach, but these things happen.
“Maybe I’ll end up back there one day. My family still live in Cambuslang, so it’s not unheard of, and we’ll see what happens.
“Matt Haufer, who did scouting with me at Gladiators, he started working with this team in Slovakia at the end of last year.
“They were changing their coach at the end of November, saw I was available, so I came in.”
Murray says life and basketball in Slovakia isn’t radically different to Scotland.
He said: “The team played in the FIBA Euro Cup, similar to the Gladiators this year, and it’s a similar league to the UK.
“There are 10 teams, five imports per team, and we aim to be one of the top teams in the league this year.
“We play 36 league games, and then the play-offs, cup competitions throughout the season, so it’s a very similar league, and a very similar level of talent as well.
“Prievidza is a big basketball city. It’s a big tradition, the number one sport in a city of about 45,000 people, but everybody comes to the basketball.
“It is a good move. If I didn’t get fired then who knows what would have happened. Maybe this is a move I would have made afterwards, but right now it’s honestly the perfect situation.
“I’m here for the rest of this year and I’ve got a contract for next year as well, so I will be able to build my own team.
“My family was over during Christmas time, but my wife works for Glasgow Life so she’s not moving from there, and my daughter is in school in Cambuslang, so she’s not moving here.
“They’ll come over and visit when they can, I’ll go home when I can, and make it work.”