The Argentine basketball team has an important challenge this Saturday in Santiago del Estero: it will face Chile in the semifinal of the Americas Olympic Prequalifier. The team led by Pablo Prigioni needs a victory that deposits it in the final against the Bahamas or Uruguay -the other two rivals that are fighting for the key- to maintain chances of a ticket to the Pre-Olympic for Paris 2024.
Patricio Garino, a benchmark for the current albiceleste squad, a forward trained in Unión de Mar del Plata, with a past in the NCAA, the ACB (Spanish league) and the NBA, from the cradle of folklore, spoke with Página 12, prior to the match with the trans-Andean team that is going to be played at the Ciudad stadium. “Being in the national team is something that I enjoy a lot and more so at this moment that I feel very well physically. I’m trying to do my bit for the team. Being on the pitch is more than enough,” he remarked.
And he maintained: “My dream as a child was always to play in the National Team, beyond playing in a specific club or league. I was able to fulfill it and it is the place that I feel most comfortable. The group that was put together is very good. We are family, we vacation together, we are constantly trying to get together when we are out of season. It is something that goes beyond being on the pitch and that is the comfort that is generated and is reflected in the results”.
Garino is currently without a team. Until the beginning of July he was in the Spanish ACB league and wore the Básquet Girona jersey. There he played 28 games, which is equivalent to 406 minutes and had 31% in doubles, 17% in triples, 42% in free throws and 19 assists in attack. Currently, his head is focused on the competition with the National Team and his future now is to win the games that lie ahead. “I’m focused on this tournament,” he admits. In addition, he highlights the good coexistence of the team and the strengthening that the group carried out to overcome the harsh shock of being left out of a World Cup. Something that according to statistics occurs for the fifth time in the history of the National Team. It happened before in the 1954, 1970, 1978 and 1982 editions.
“Yesterday we celebrated 30 days in a row together and before the World Cup in China we were almost two months and at no time did we have any anger or fatigue,” says Garino, runner-up in the world in China 2019. “We know what personality each one has, what moments each one requires in different situations and that is something that is totally seen on the pitch. There is also no selfishness. If in a game one has to score 20 points we are all happy. We are all looking for the same common goal and more by leading us in this way ”, he sums up.
Another of the key factors that he describes about this team led by Prigioni is that egos do not get in the way. He acknowledges that Facundo Campazzo is the guide and to whom they respond in moments of greatest pressure due to his way of behaving and working. “He is the engine and the head of this group. The one we will always follow. But it is also in his being, in his personality, to get rid of that stardom. There are games where another stands out and we are all happy for that person – he explains- We all try to include ourselves in any way. In my situation, maybe it’s making some defensive play and they celebrate it in the same way as if we see (Nicolás) Brussino hitting five triples, Luca (Vildoza) giving assists or Tortu (Gabriel Deck) running the field.” .
– How do you analyze what has been done so far in the Olympic Prequalifier?
– We play all the games with the same intensity, regardless of the opponent in front of us. We have encountered two different realities. The first game in the Bahamas, with a strong team, monopolized by three main figures. The day before yesterday it was a different situation against Cuba. There we feel looser, respecting the philosophy that we have been working on all this time. We are in a very good situation. We had ups and downs. We knew it was not going to be easy. This is not a line that always goes up. You have good and bad moments. I think we are at the right time to adjust these last details to be in the best shape in the final stretch.
– Do you live with extra pressure this tournament?
– Pressure there is all the parties. We already learned to live with it. We try to carry it in the best way. We are going to go out to win every game, beyond the extra condiments that may be there.
2023-08-19 19:53:38
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