Aito Garcia Reneses | Basketball coach “From Germany I would copy education”

Everyone stands up when hearing the name of Aíto García Reneses (Madrid, 1946), an eminence in basketball who returns to teach his chair in the ACB League after signing for Girona.

–Are you or the ACB in congratulations on your return?

-We are going to hope that everything goes well for all of us: the ACB, Girona and me.

-He is a coastal technician again after passing through Berlin.

-Yes, Barcelona, ​​Badalona, ​​Malaga, Gran Canaria…

-And Seville has a great river, I don’t know about the one in Berlin.

–Also big and with several channels. Seville has two and this one four or five.

– Refute the cliché that the Germans do everything well.

– Not everything, but many things are worth copying; for example, education: of the players, of the coaches, of the directives, of the referees and of the public. If the team fights, win or lose, the public always cheers, it’s fantastic.

–Would the Aíto player have started with the Aíto coach?

“Perhaps I would have taught him to do a few things.” Headline? It depends on how he would have learned them.

–He goes for 76 tacos and is very vital. The secret is…?

–Find yourself quite well and have enthusiasm for what you do.

–Pellegrini turns 69 on September 15. Any veteran tips?

-None, surely he already knows what he has to do.

–Coach, has coaching gotten out of hand?

-Some do it for the gallery and others do help people to focus, settle down and face what they have to do.

– Is there a lack of mentors in sport and in life?

–No, many people like to sponsor others and it is good because the subject in question feels good.

–Marc Gasol, from the Lakers to preside over and play for Girona. Is it in his right mind?

–He had a successful career in the ACB, at Girona, where he made a great leap forward. In the NBA he had very good performances and in recent years, because of his role and the type of team, he was less motivated. He has returned, he has risen with the team and hopefully he feels motivated to return to the best Marc.

–Does basketball without an inside game lose grace?

-A lot. In the NBA, most teams walk up, make a pass or two or none, someone goes one-on-one and shoots a 3-pointer or goes in and throws or takes the ball out for a shot. Very few teams play indoors. And you have to recover it because basketball is much more complete with the inside game. But it is not easy because the players have the habit of playing outside and of the pick&roll and the pick&pop. This other is not sought. There are many exteriors with quality but they have to learn to move to the interiors.

–Compañero Pepe Izquierdo wants me to ask him about Andrés Jiménez. Let’s see if it’s your fault that he doesn’t play inside by putting him three or four open…

-I put it, but it’s different because he was capable of playing in interior positions as well as three or four open. He unbalanced much more than three than five, which is how he started.

– He directed the final of Beijing 2008, the most exciting match in the history of Olympic basketball since the USA played with professionals. Another notch…

-It was to feel happy. We played a good final against a team that was very good, not like the one in the last tournament they won, which was far from the level of Beijing.

–With which colleague did you have unforgettable talks: Gomelski, Ivkovic, Popovich…?

-With little Gomelski, he did not speak English or any language that I knew, but once he offered me to train in Moscow. With Popovich I was in San Antonio watching the Spurs train, we talked a lot and I was very well received. Ivkovic, at first, did not want me to give a clinic in Serbia, but he saw my career and was delighted, I went to his house and everything.

– Would you have liked to train in the NBA?

-Nope. To go to the NBA you have to integrate and be a college or university coach first, then an assistant on a team and then make the leap. It takes many years and I enjoyed what I did here.

– How many matches has he played?

I haven’t counted them. Some only add ACB, but I trained for 10 years at Cotonificio in First Division, national teams, mini-basketball… Many.

– What do you envy football?

-Not much. It has its influence and great popular acceptance, as basketball has had and now we have to recover that because after the pandemic people have also gotten out of the habit of seeing it. Our sport only has to be treated well by the media, especially by television.

–Encourage players to read the game and choose the best option. Do you want to train politicians?

-No, I want to train players and it’s not that easy. It is one thing to talk about it and another to recognize it on the pitch. For that, the players have to have fundamentals and also a head, be intellectually trained to read the game, be better people, get along better with their teammates, with their rivals, with their coaches, with the referees. And that work is often forgotten, to be good not only technically, but also mentally.

–In the photo he comes out with a Priorat wine. Will those from Ribera and Rioja get angry?

-No, I have the others.

–Did it cost you to leave the Viuda de Solano candies? I would say they are addictive.

–My mouth is dry and I need to drink a lot of water or eat candy: Viuda de Solano before, Halls now…

–Someone who studied Telecommunications Engineering, although he did not finish it, will be delighted with the possibilities offered by technologies.

-I was. I was a pioneer in things like a computer program that I brought from the US to record matches. I liked it, but now I dedicate myself more to basketball.

– “My children are all the players I’ve ever had. Hundreds.” They will inflate it to gifts in Kings, right?

–No, no, they inflate me because of the good memories they have of me, even those who grumbled for playing little, and I of them; That is fantastic.

–Because of his cameo in The Family and one more 57 years ago, perhaps they would propose him to appear in Father there is only one of Santiago Segura.

–They will have to make me up as if I were much balder, like him…