Playing career In his youth, Gershon was a basketball player. He played for the "Maccabi South Tel Aviv"
club, which was a sister team of
Maccabi Tel Aviv, and he was one of the stars in its cadets team. He played for a number of years, including in the senior men's team of Maccabi South Tel Aviv, but his career as a basketball player ended at the age of 24, as the result of an injury.
Club coaching career After a short career as a basketball player, Gershon began to coach in different Israeli teams, among them,
Maccabi Rishon LeZion,
Hapoel Galil Elyon, Hapoel Gan Shmuel-Menashe,
Hapoel Tel Aviv and
Hapoel Jerusalem. In 1993, he led
Hapoel Galil Elyon to the
Israeli League championship, which was the first time in 36 years that it had not been won by
Maccabi Tel Aviv. In 1996, Gershon won the
Israeli State Cup, while he was the head coach of Hapoel Jerusalem, after beating Maccabi in the final. In different interviews, he expressed himself poignantly against Maccabi Tel Aviv, and against the club's dominance of Israeli basketball. Therefore, it was quite a surprise when he became Maccabi Tel Aviv's head coach at the end of 1998. At that time, Maccabi Tel Aviv was in a professional crisis, after several years of failing to enter the top stages of the
EuroLeague, a status which it had enjoyed in the past. Under his, and his assistant
David Blatt's lead, Maccabi Tel Aviv surprisingly advanced to the
2000 EuroLeague Finals, where they lost to the
Greek Basket League powerhouse
Panathinaikos, in the final game. A year later, Maccabi won the
2001 FIBA SuproLeague championship. However, this achievement was overshadowed by the split between the two major European basketball unions at that time, into two separate leagues, which meant that most of the top European teams did not compete against Maccabi, but were instead in
that season's EuroLeague competition. After the 2000–01 season, Gershon took a break from coaching, mainly to do some self-searching and to travel around the world. This temporary retirement lasted for two seasons, and in the summer of 2003, Gershon returned to his former position as the head coach of Maccabi. He had the goal of reaching the
2004 EuroLeague Final Four, which took place in
Tel Aviv. That goal was two seconds away from failure, when Maccabi, who was hosting
Žalgiris in the game for the last spot in the
EuroLeague Final Four, had to come from behind. A marvelous three-point buzzer-beater by
Derrick Sharp sent that game into overtime, in which Maccabi won and advanced to the Final Four. Maccabi, under Gershon, went on to have an unforgettable Final Four, crushing
Skipper Bologna 118–74 in the final, to become the EuroLeague champions for the fourth time (including the
2001 FIBA SuproLeague title). In 2005, Gershon led Maccabi Tel Aviv to another EuroLeague championship. Having been the league favorites all season long, Maccabi Tel Aviv advanced to the
2005 EuroLeague Final Four, in
Moscow. The expected final was supposed to be between Maccabi and the hosts
CSKA Moscow. However, CSKA surprisingly lost its semifinal game to
TAU Vitoria. In the final, Maccabi easily beat TAU, by a score of 90–78. Gershon was later named the
EuroLeague Coach of the Year. During the 2005–06 season, Gershon hinted that it would be his last season with Maccabi. He led the team to the
2006 EuroLeague Final Four. That time, however, Maccabi lost in the title game to
CSKA Moscow, by a score of 73–69. Gershon left Maccabi at the end of the season, and signed with the Greek club
Olympiacos. In his first season as head coach of
Olympiacos, Gershon led the team to the
Greek Basket League finals against
Panathinaikos, and to the last 8 of the
EuroLeague season, where the team was eliminated by
TAU Cerámica. Accusations of racism were raised, mainly by Olympiacos fans, concerning the lack of playing time for team star and crowd favorite,
Sofoklis Schortsanitis. On November 24, 2008, he signed on as
Maccabi Tel Aviv's head coach, after the dismissal of
Effi Birnbaum from the position. In October 2009, he was ejected from an
exhibition game against the
New York Knicks. Gershon took close to 6 minutes to exit the court, as
NBA rules (administered by replacement on-court officials) differ from international rules, regarding technical fouls, which cause coaches to be automatically ejected. In 2010, Gershon parted ways with Maccabi, after their loss to
Hapoel Gilboa Galil, in the Israeli League national finals. In August 2014, he signed a one-season contract to be
Guy Goodes' assistant coach with Maccabi Tel Aviv.
National team coaching career Gershon worked as an assistant coach for the senior
Israeli national basketball team. In September 2008, Gershon led the senior
Bulgarian national basketball team to qualify for the
EuroBasket 2009, in Poland, after a surprising finish ahead of the strongly favored
Italian national basketball team in the preliminary round. In 2010, he parted ways with the Bulgarian national team, due to a dispute with the
Bulgarian Basketball Federation. ==Personal life==