Finnur Freyr Stefánsson (born 29 October 1983) is an Icelandic 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. With KR, he won the Icelandic championship five years in a row from 2014 to 2018 and the

Icelandic Men's Basketball Cup The Icelandic Men's Basketball Cup (Icelandic: Bikarkeppni KKÍ), also known as VÍS bikarinn for sponsorship reasons, is an annual professional basketball competition between clubs in Iceland. It is Iceland's first-tier cup competition, and is n ...

in 2016 and 2017. He has served as an assistant coach to the Icelandic men's national basketball team from 2014, helping the team to

EuroBasket 2015 EuroBasket 2015 was the 39th edition of the EuroBasket championship that was organized by FIBA Europe. It was co-hosted by Croatia, France, Germany, and Latvia, making it the first EuroBasket held in more than one country. It started on 5 Sept ...

and

EuroBasket 2017 EuroBasket 2017 was the 40th edition of the EuroBasket championship that was organized by FIBA Europe and held between 31 August and 17 September 2017. Beginning from 2017, the continental championships take place every four years with a similar ...

Coaching career

Club career

Finnur started his coaching career as an assistant to Herbert Arnarson on KR men's team in 2004 and served there until 2008. He was the head coach of the KR women's team during the 2012-2013 season and in 2013, he was hired as the head coach of the KR men's team. On 30 April 2017 he won the Icelandic championship with KR for the fourth consecutive season, earning him the nickname ''"Finnur sem allt vinnur"'' (English: ''"Finn(ur) that everything Wins"''). Finnur was named

coach of the year Many sports leagues, sportswriting associations, and other organizations confer "Coach of the Year" awards. In some sports — including baseball and association football — the award is called the "Manager of the Year" award. Some of the ...

in the Úrvalsdeild karla in 2014 and 2016. On 28 April 2018, Finnur won his fifth straight Icelandic championship after KR defeated Tindastóll in the Úrvalsdeild finals. After the season he was named the Úrvalsdeild Karla Coach of the Year for the third time in his career. On 5 June 2018, KR announced that Finnur had decided to step down as head coach. In August 2018, Finnur was hired as a junior team coach with Valur. On 14 April 2019, Finnur guided the Valur women's team in game four of its semi-finals playoffs series against KR in the absence of head coach Darri Freyr Atlason, who was serving a one game suspension. Valur won the game and advanced to the Úrvalsdeild finals. In June 2019, Finnur was hired as the head coach of Horsens IC of the Danish

Basketligaen The Basketligaen (English: The Basketball League) is the highest professional basketball league in Denmark. The men’s first division was originally founded in 1957. Over the years, the league has undergone several name changes due to sponsorsh ...

. He guided the team to the

Danish Cup The Danish Cup (; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "single-elimination tournament, knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will ...

finals where it lost to the Bakken Bears in February 2020. He left the club in May 2020 after the season had been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic in Denmark. On 4 May 2020, Finnur Freyr was hired as the head coach of Valur men's team with a two-year contract. On 18 May 2022 he won his sixth national championship after Valur defeated Tindastóll in the Úrvalsdeild finals. On 2 October 2022, he won the Icelandic Super Cup with Valur. On 14 January 2023, he guided Valur to its first Icelandic Cup win in 40 years, after the team defeated

Stjarnan Ungmennafélagið Stjarnan (, ), commonly known as Stjarnan (), is an Icelandic multi-sports club specialising in handball, football, basketball, volleyball and gymnastics located in Garðabær. Basketball Men's basketball As of the 2017–2 ...

in the Cup final. He led Valur to a Úrvalsdeild finals rematch against Tindastóll but this time the Tindastóll came out on top, winning the series 3–2. On 24 September 2023, he won the Icelandic Super Cup again after Valur defeated Tindastóll 80–72. On 22 March 2025, he won the Icelandic Cup after Valur defeated KR in the Cup finals, 96–78.

National basketball team

In 2014, Finnur was hired as an assistant coach to

Craig Pedersen Craig Pedersen (born June 13, 1965) is a Canadian basketball coach and the head coach of the Iceland men's national basketball team, Iceland national team, who he has led to EuroBasket three times, in EuroBasket 2015, 2015, EuroBasket 2017, 2017 a ...

for the Icelandic men's national basketball team, and as the head coach of the Icelandic men's national under-20 basketball team. Finnur served as head coach of the men's national team during the 2017 Games of the Small States of Europe. He stepped down as the head coach of the U-20 team on 28 July 2017, after leading them to an 8th-place finish at the

2017 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship The 2017 FIBA U20 European Championship was the 20th edition of the FIBA U20 European Championship. The competition took place in three Greece, Greek cities, Chania, Rethymno and Heraklion, on the island of Crete, from 15 to 23 July 2017. Venues ...

. In February 2018 Finnur came under heavy criticism after five

Haukar Knattspyrnufélagið Haukar (, ) is an Icelandic multi-sport club from Hafnarfjörður with divisions in Association football, Football, Haukar Handball, Handball, Basketball, Haukar RC, Rugby union, Karate, Skiing & Chess. Club history The clu ...

players were selected to a short 20-player training camp, the day before Haukar met KR in an important regular season game on February 18. No KR players were selected to the camp which aimed to help the coaching staff select two players for the remaining rosters spots prior to Iceland's games against

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

and the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

in the

2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification The 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification was the first World Cup for which teams had to qualify for under the new qualification system. The process determined 31 out of the 32 teams that participated at the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup. ...

later that month. Iceland's national team head coach,

came to Finnur's defence, stating that himself had the final say in player selections, not Finnur. Due to the criticism and the

Icelandic Basketball Federation The Icelandic Basketball Association (''Icelandic:Körfuknattleikssamband Íslands - KKÍ'') is the national governing body of basketball in Iceland and is a member of the continental association FIBA Europe and the global International Basketbal ...

silence on the matter, Finnur stated that he was contemplating resigning from the national team. On 13 September 2018, Finnur was hired as the manager of Iceland's junior national teams program. In May 2019, he was slated to head the team during its games at the

Games of the Small States of Europe The Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE) is a biennial multi-sport event, launched by the Republic of San Marino, organized by and featuring the National Olympic Committees of nine European small state, small states since 1985. The Games a ...

Honours

Club

* Icelandic men's league champion:

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

¹,

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

: 2016, 2017, 2023, 2025 * Icelandic Men's Supercup: 2007¹, 2014, 2015, 2022, 2023 * Icelandic Men's Company Cup: 2014

Individual

* Úrvalsdeild karla coach of the year:

¹ As assistant coach.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Finnur Freyr Stefansson 1981 births Living people Finnur Freyr Stefánsson Icelandic expatriate basketball people in Denmark Finnur Freyr Stefánsson Finnur Freyr Stefánsson Finnur Freyr Stefánsson Finnur Freyr Stefánsson Finnur Freyr Stefánsson Finnur Freyr Stefánsson