Julio César Lamas (born June 9, 1964) is an Argentine professional

basketball coach Basketball coaching is the act of directing and strategizing the behavior of a basketball team or individual basketball player. Basketball coaching typically encompasses the improvement of individual and team offensive and defensive skills, as wel ...

. He was

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

of the Japan men's national team from 2017 to 2021. He has also been the head coach of the Argentina men's national team.

Club coaching career

Argentina

Lamas has won 5 Argentine League championships, in 1997 with

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

, in 2005 with Ben Hur, in 2008 with

Libertad de Sunchales Club Deportivo Libertad (usually called simply Libertad or Libertad de Sunchales) is a sports club from Argentina, with homebase in the Sunchales city of Santa Fe Province. The club is better known for both its association football and basketba ...

, and in 2016 and 2017, with

San Lorenzo de Almagro Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro, commonly known as San Lorenzo de Almagro or simply San Lorenzo (in English: ''Saint Lawrence''), is a sports club of Argentina in the Boedo district of Buenos Aires. It is best known for its football team ...

. He also won the

FIBA South American League The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its na ...

with Ben Hur in 2006.

Spain

Lamas also coached in Spain. He coached in the Spanish League with

Tau Cerámica Club Deportivo Saski-Baskonia, S.A.D., commonly known as Saski Baskonia (), also known as Cazoo Baskonia for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball team that is based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the ...

(1999–2000), and in the Spanish 2nd Division with Lucentum Alicante, with which he won the Spanish 2nd Division league championship, and the Spanish 2nd tier cup competition, the Copa Príncipe, in 2002. He also coached in the Spanish League with

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

(2003–2004).

National team coaching career

Argentina national team

Lamas was the

of the senior men's

Argentina national basketball team The Argentina men's national basketball team (Spanish: ''Selección de baloncesto de Argentina'') represents Argentina in men's international basketball officially nicknamed ''The Argentine Soul'' (Spanish: ''El Alma Argentina''), and it is co ...

at the

1998 FIBA World Cup The 1998 FIBA World Championship was the 13th FIBA World Championship, an international basketball tournament held by the International Basketball Federation and hosted in Greece from 29 July to 9 August 1998. The tournament was contested by 16 n ...

. He was also the assistant coach to Sergio Hernández on the Argentine

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

team that won the bronze medal. On December 16, 2010, his return to the

position of the Argentina national team was officially announced, as he replaced Sergio Hernández. He, as head coach of Argentina, brought home a gold medal from the 2011 FIBA AmeriCup, coached the defenders of Argentina at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, brought home bronze medal from the 2013 FIBA AmeriCup, and coached the defenders of Argentina at the

2014 FIBA World Cup The 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup was the 17th edition of the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the tournament previously known as the FIBA World Championship. Hosted by Spain, it was the last tournament to be held on the then-current four-year cycle ...

Japan national team

Lamas became the head coach of the senior

Japan men's national basketball team The Japan national basketball team is administered by the Japan Basketball Association (JBA), (Japanese: 日本バスケットボール協会, ''Nihon Basukettobōru Kyōkai''). At the 1936 founding member of FIBA Asia, Japan has one of Asi ...

in 2017. In 2019, the team appeared in the 2019 FIBA World Cup, the first time the team had made it to the World Cup in 13 years. On September 21, 2021, he announced that he would be stepping down following a contract expiration.

References

External links

EuroCup Coaching ProfileSpanish League Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lamas, Julio 1964 births Living people Argentine basketball coaches Argentine expatriate basketball people in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Japan Japanese Olympic coaches Japan national basketball team coaches Liga ACB head coaches Real Madrid basketball coaches San Lorenzo de Almagro basketball coaches Saski Baskonia coaches Sportspeople from Buenos Aires