Kārlis Muižnieks (born March 17, 1964, in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

Latvian SSR The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Also known as the Latvian SSR, or Latvia) was a Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republic of the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1941, and then from 1944 until 1990. The Soviet occupation of the Bal ...

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

) is a Latvian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

coach and former player. He was most recently the head coach of Prometey Kamianske of the Ukrainian SuperLeague.

Coaching career

Muižnieks had solid career as player, which is followed by prolific coaching career. As head coach Muižnieks has led his teams to multiple championships, winning titles in domestic and international competitions. So far he has been most successful in Latvia, where he has guided his teams to six Latvian League titles (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008). First success in European club tournaments Muižnieks had with BK Ventspils, where in 2002/2003 his squad he finished third in FIBA Europe Champions Cup, where in bronze medal game they upset KK Hemofarm and their up-and-coming star Darko Milicic. Later, in 2004/2005, Muižnieks led Ventspils to

ULEB Cup EuroCup Basketball, commonly known as the EuroCup and currently called BKT EuroCup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual professional basketball club competition organized by Euroleague Basketball. The league is regarded as Euroleague Basketbal ...

quarterfinals in 2004/2005. Few years later in 2007/2008, his Barons/LMT won FIBA EuroCup title. In 2011/2012, as coach of Polish side

Trefl Sopot Trefl Sopot is a Polish professional basketball team, based in Sopot, Poland. The team plays in the Polish Basketball League and EuroCup Basketball, EuroCup. The club was founded as the replacement of Asseco Gdynia, Prokom Asseco Sopot that left ...

, he was named as the Coach of the Year in Poland. Under coach Muižnieks Trefl Sopot won Polish Cup and for the first time made league finals, where they lost only in Game 7 to Asseco Prokom. Success under Muižnieks in Polish league clinched EuroCup berth for Trefl Sopot. In summer 2012, Muižnieks moved to Ukraine and joined BC Khimik. Muižnieks' squad had a strong season as Khimik made Eurocup quarterfinals for the first time in club history and reached finals of Ukrainian League. On May 6, 2015, Muižnieks finished season with Ukrainian championship and perfect record for Khimik, 36–0. Muižnieks was also Latvian National Team head coach from 2004 to 2008.

Personal

He is the nephew of Latvian basketball legend

Valdis Muižnieks Valdis Muižnieks (February 22, 1935 – November 29, 2013) was a Latvian basketball player. Muižnieks was born in Riga. He played for Rīgas ASK and won 3 Euroleague titles (1958, 1959, 1960) and 4 Soviet national championships (1955, 1956, ...

References

1964 births Living people BK VEF Rīga players BK Ventspils players Latvian men's basketball players Basketball players from Riga Latvian basketball coaches Maccabi Haifa B.C. players Latvian sports coaches SC Prometey coaches {{Latvia-basketball-bio-stub