Banchi guided Efes to the EuroLeague Playoffs in his lone season with the club
Efes parts ways with Coach Luca Banchi
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Anadolu Efes Istanbul announced on Sunday that Luca Banchi would not remain with the club as its head coach. Banchi, 60, joined Efes in January and helped Efes finish the regular season on an 8-0 tear to climb into sixth place. Efes then took Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens the distance in a thrilling five-game playoff series before bowing out. Efes was Banchi's second coaching stop last season after he opened the season with Virtus Segafredo Bologna. He resigned his position there after a 2-10 start.
Banchi has coached five different clubs in the EuroLeague. He debuted with Montepaschi Siena of his native Italy in 2012 and has since spent time with EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, Brose Bamberg and Virtus, which he joined just before the start of the 2023-24 season. Banchi guided Virtus to the Play-In Showdown in his lone full season with the club.
He began his EuroLeague career as an assistant coach with Montepaschi Siena between 2006 and 2012. Banchi helped it reach the Final Four in both 2008 in Madrid and 2011 in Barcelona. He later led Milan to the club's first EuroLeague Playoff appearance this century in 2014. Banchi also coached two seasons in the EuroCup, first with Turin of Italy in 2017-18 and then with Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar of Russia in 2019-20.
His trophy case includes winning the FIBA Intercontinental Cup with Lokomotiv in 2019 and Italian League championships with Milan in 2013 and 2014 as well as the Italian Cup in the first of those seasons. Banchi, who has also coached clubs in Greece and France and spent a season as an assistant coach in the G League. He also coached the Latvian national team, with which he was named the Best Coach of the 2023 Basketball World Cup after leading Latvia to an unexpected fifth-place finish.