Joan Plaza · Biography

In the summer of 2006 Real Madrid dismissed Božidar Maljković and handed the bench to his assistant, Joan Plaza Durán (Barcelona, 26 December 1963), who had never been a head coach in the Liga ACB. Ten months later the club had won the ULEB Cup and the Spanish league. That promotion opened a coaching career of two decades across Spain, Lithuania, Russia, Greece and Andorra.

Grounding in Catalan grassroots basketball

Plaza learned the trade far from the elite. He started at C.B. Alisos and, together with his brother, founded the Betsaida basketball school in Badalona. He also coached the women's team of Santísima Trinitat, C.B. Sant Adrià and Club Bàsquet Tarragona. In 2000 he joined the staff of Joventut Badalona as an assistant, a role he held for five seasons. In 2005 he moved to Real Madrid, again as an assistant.

Real Madrid: ULEB Cup and league title in year one

His first season as head coach, 2006-07, brought the most silverware of his career. On 10 April 2007 Real Madrid won the ULEB Cup final against Lietuvos Rytas 87-75 at the Spiroudome in Charleroi, the club's first European trophy in a decade. The league followed in June: second in the regular season with a 25-9 record, Madrid reached the final and beat FC Barcelona 3-1. Game 4, played in Barcelona on 24 June, sealed the club's 30th Spanish league title. Plaza was named ULEB Cup Coach of the Year and Spanish Coach of the Year for 2007 by the AEEB, and the ACB gave him its Best Coach award in 2008. On 19 June 2009 he left the club by mutual agreement.

Cajasol Sevilla and a Lithuanian title with Žalgiris

In 2009 he signed for Cajasol Sevilla and won the Andalusian Cup that same year. In 2011 he took the Seville side to the Eurocup final, which they lost. After three seasons he did not renew in June 2012 and moved to Lithuania to coach Žalgiris Kaunas. In his only season in Kaunas he won the 2012 Lithuanian Supercup and the 2013 Lithuanian league (LKL) title, and was named the league's Coach of the Year.

Five seasons at Unicaja

In 2013 he took charge of Unicaja Málaga, and for 2013-14 the magazine Gigantes del Basket named him Coach of the Year. His biggest success in Málaga came in the spring of 2017. In the Eurocup final against Valencia Basket, Unicaja lost Game 1 (68-62), won Game 2 at home (79-71) and took Game 3 in Valencia 58-63 on 5 April, coming back from 13 points down in the fourth quarter. It was the club's first European final, and the title sent Unicaja back to the EuroLeague. Plaza became the third coach to win that competition twice. When he left in 2018 he had coached 325 games for Unicaja, more than any other coach in the club's records.

Zenit, Betis and AEK

In December 2018 he replaced Vasily Karasev at Zenit Saint Petersburg, initially until the end of that season. He stayed on for 2019-20, with the Russian club by then in the EuroLeague, and in February 2020 club and coach agreed to end the contract. On 30 November 2020 he returned to the Liga Endesa with Coosur Real Betis, where he remained until 22 November 2021. In June 2023 he signed a two-year deal with AEK Athens, but on 25 January 2024 he parted ways with the Greek club.

Andorra and Zaragoza

In January 2025 he returned to the ACB to coach MoraBanc Andorra, staying until 26 January 2026. Three weeks later, on 17 February 2026, Casademont Zaragoza hired him until the end of the season, with an option for one more year; his debut came against Andorra in a relegation battle. The Aragonese club let him go on 17 May 2026, after a defeat to BAXI Manresa with two rounds of the regular season still to play.