How will Carles Marco’s Girona Basketball play?
We would like to play the best we can in attack, try to run, try to have a good time, control the spaces … But for that you also need to defend aggressively and, in some way, consolidate some signs of identity that the club has already wanted to apply the last two or three years. Not just the first team, but also the base.
Outside signings like Llorca or Busquets fit this idea of a team that runs and has a physique on the outside.
Yes. And also Gerard (Sevillano) and Dani (Garcia), who is a player who can squeeze. Yes it is sought after, but a template is also like a puzzle where you have to fit the pieces and make as few mistakes as possible in the summer because, from my point of view, part of what you will see during the year has much to do with this work we have been doing now.
The LEB Gold, as well as the LEB Silver, are leagues where the physique ends up being very important.
In recent years it is true that very physical teams have been dominant. For example, this year, Valladolid, which was one of the first, and A Coruña, which was third or fourth, were teams that played very hard.
Is it possible to play differently and have good results?
I obviously adapt to the players I have, but by philosophy I like to play basketball well. I’ll be in charge of helping my players defend more, but if you don’t have points on your hands, not having a good ball is harder. If they don’t put it inside, you can’t make them put it inside. Making the roster, we’ve thought about the physical component of the category, but I’m one of those who thinks talented players are needed.
He has been tagged with “Carles Marco, young players get better”. Do you feel identified with it?
It’s a label that makes me excited. Of course I like to win every game, but that there are players like Jaime Pradilla who came to Palencia and who was signed by Valencia and can ACB and Euroleague makes you feel good. You think that even if it’s just a little bit, you’ve contributed your grain of sand so you can play basketball.
He also had Bassas, now in the Youth, in Oviedo.
Yes, there is the case of Ferran (Bassas) and other players. The other day, Pedro Martínez told me that if this label was given to me in the United States, maybe now I would be training at a university. Here, fortunately, they put me here in Girona and signed me up. I prefer that they put this label on me rather than another that “wins games, but their teams don’t play well.”
Pedro Martínez also knows the city and Marc Gasol. Have you talked about the decision to come here to Girona?
Yes. I talked about it. He is happy for me and also sees that it is a good project to come.
Fontajau is the same, but the club is not the same as Pedro Martínez as coach and Marc Gasol on the court. The fans need to get back on track.
I have very good records of coming to play in Fontajau. I don’t know why, but I always played well here I hope now as a coach it stays the same. In Girona there is a lot of basketball tradition and I think people are getting excited. We have to give reasons for people to come to Fontajau every weekend to support us
A good project with a well-known president. Does this create more pressure on a team that is actually debuting in the category?
Surely we have a little more outside pressure, because our president is playing in the NBA and is a person who knows a lot about basketball and who is also very excited about the project. Surely from the outside, many times you think more than you really are, but you have to go slowly as you have been doing both Marc and the club and so it must continue to be done. The League is very complicated and we are new to the category
The LEB Gold will be played in two groups and dragging results. It is not a system that technicians usually like.
I never played it. I would more like it to be a regular league playing all against all, but I understand that with the current uncertainty of making two groups separating regions in case something needs to be managed and long entry trips avoided. I hope it’s only a year, because for the fans, who aren’t so knowledgeable, it can be hard for them to understand why you went first and suddenly it became fifth. We have to adapt to what is not up to us.
They say the other group is stronger. Valladolid, the Galicians …
If we are based on last year’s classification maybe yes, although there were 10 days left to finish the League, but if we look at the templates that are being made maybe I would not agree so much. On the one hand, Lugo and A Coruña have made good efforts, as has Valladolid, but Palencia, Oviedo and Cáceres still have a long way to go; while on this side Granada is a very good team, Alicante has signed very well, Castellón also …
Five years between Oviedo and Palencia. Is coaching a Catalan team special?
It’s special. When I came to Catalonia to play against I was always “coming home” and now, the fact of being able to train here in Girona, I take it as a special motivation. My family and friends will be able to become members and come every game to see us play, while this in Palencia or Ovieda was very occasional and I was unable to come for a long time. These are aspects that you value more and more.
The coronavirus continues here. You may have to play behind closed doors, the competition may have stops. Do you think so?
We thought about it a lot. We are following what is happening with the second division of football and obviously we have doubts as to how many people there are in the culture sector or in other professions. We are a contact sport, a show where people come to see us, in an enclosed space … We have all the conditions that should not be given, but that can be controlled and that uncertainty does not affect us too much.
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