Ea mandarin duck. Master trainer Aito Reneses published the picture of the colorful water bird on Instagram on Sunday, the day on which he was to crown his three-year job at Alba Berlin. This does not include the symbolism that a grasping bird of prey, an attentive water buffalo or the nightly Spree under the full moon would have offered – all motifs that the 73-year-old amateur photographer had to offer his more than three thousand subscribers in the past few weeks.
At the end of the three-week quarantine in Munich, which Alba Berlin and her Spanish coach ended on Sunday with their tenth victory in their tenth game and the club’s first championship in twelve years, Aito demonstrated above all with his selection from his archive: his serenity.
In Spain, Aito – actually: Alejandro Garcia Reneses – has achieved almost everything a basketball coach can achieve: nine championships with FC Barcelona, six cup wins with Barcelona and Badalona, winning four different European titles and, as national coach, the Olympic silver medal in the final against the United States’ selection at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games.
But a legend has made him that he recognized the talent of players like Pau Gasol, Rudy Fernandez, Juan Carlos Navarro and Ricky Rubio early on, promoted them and turned them into outstanding professionals who make millions in the North American professional league NBA and the Euroleague. In 2012, he went to San Sebastián to surprise the experts. Today we know that working with a certain Kristaps Porzingis appealed to him. The talent from Latvia was 17 years old at the time; meanwhile, Porzingis, with amazing agility and accuracy at 2.21 meters in length, is a Dallas Mavericks player and a star in the sky of the NBA. To this day, he and Aito send text messages.
One of Aito’s greatest and probably most knowledgeable admirers is Pedro Calles. The coach of the year, who was surprisingly successful with Vechta and now moves to Hamburg, illustrates his plans by showing videos of Alba Berlin to his players. When Aito praised the coaching of his young compatriot as the basketball of the future in an interview, it was the knighthood for the young coach: “The greatest award that I can receive”.
He teaches her to read the game
Aito was seventy years old when he came to Berlin in 2017 after a year of retirement. The youth program of Germany’s largest basketball club, which ranges from the daycare center league in Prenzlauer Berg to the partnership with the second division club Lokomotive Bernau, was supposed to produce so many talents that it made up for the club’s economic deficit with Bayern Munich and the big clubs abroad.
The grassroots movement, when Alba understands its youth program with more than a hundred professional trainers, crowns Aito. From the first season on, he focused on talent. Aito doesn’t dictate moves and systems that its athletes must slavishly follow. He teaches them to read the game and to draw conclusions from it. “He gives us different solutions,” says 20-year-old construction player Mattiseck: “He doesn’t say what we have to do. That is why we play so freely. ”Even established professionals like the Icelandic Martin Hermannsson said that for the first time they felt trust like with this coach. Luke Sikma, one of the strongest players in the league, signed for four years in Berlin – also because of Aito.
At the tournament in Munich, the coach was astonished that he refused to interrupt the flow of the opponent with fouls. He even reluctantly takes time out. “At Aito there are no beliefs,” says manager Marco Baldi: “He enjoys developing and teaching and gaining knowledge. He also learns from his players. ”In the first two years of the Aito era, Alba played in the finals for the championship against Bayern Munich – and lost. The coach was still proud of his players. Just as he combines individuality and team unity, just as he creates an aesthetic of basketball from speed, toughness and ingenuity, the championship can only be the just reward. “He gives something to the sport,” says Baldi, “that makes it shine in the best light.”
Will Aito continue next season? “He knows his place is here as long as he dares to do it,” says Baldi. “He decides that.”
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