Arturo Alvarez (Mieres, 46 years old) attends LA NUEVA ESPAÑA just a few days after sitting down, as the first assistant to the legend Dusko Ivanovic, on the Red Star bench. Before leaving for Belgrade to enjoy his first experience in the Euroleague, the highest elite of European basketball, Álvarez reviews his very extensive career, fraught with praise, learning and experiences, some of them implausible.
–After having trained in Brazil and Paraguay, going to Belgrade will seem like a walk.
Yes, yes (laughs). I don’t care what country it is, I always go after the ball. I adapt easily.
–How was your signing for Red Star forged?
–My representative called me and told me that Dusko wanted a new assistant and that I was a possibility. We met in Barcelona and we spent more than an hour talking, getting to know each other personally. There were more candidates for the position. A few weeks later, I was shocked when he told me that he had selected me.
It will be your right hand.
I’ll try to help as much as I can. I am very happy, I am going to work with one of the best coaches in the world: it is a prize, a joy and a source of pride. Being with him is going to be an advanced master’s degree.
What do you think he saw in you?
–I tried to express my love for basketball and that, like many people, I greatly admire his work. He told me that he always liked having a Spanish coach on the staff, I think that this has also been decisive, although I will ask him more carefully when he has the opportunity in Belgrade (he laughs).
Why this desire to have Spanish helpers?
–He came to Spain young, I suppose he got used to our way of working and felt comfortable, that’s why he always has Spanish assistants. Last year he had Carles Marco, before Aleix Duran, Xavi Pascual at Barça… he told me in the interview, that he liked having a Spanish coach as an assistant.
–What can you contribute to a coach as proven as Ivanovic?
–Apart from work and everything that is asked of me, thanks to my experience of so many years in different leagues I can provide a different vision, in addition to my loyalty and honesty.
–On the bench, Ivanovic does not hide his temperament. How is he in the short distance?
-In my, for the moment, little experience with him I have met a polite and pleasant man, I have nothing but good words. Now, in the field we already know how it is, I have suffered it against many times. He has a lot of character.
–It is your first time on a Euroleague bench.
-I am really hopeful. After so many years, many coaches don’t get this award. It is a huge opportunity, the biggest challenge of my sports career.
–In recent years, Red Star has been close to entering the Euroleague playoff. Are you ready to reach the top 8?
–We have made very good signings this summer, such as Hanga, Tobey and Teodosic: the bar is very high. Last year, in the Adriatic League, they lost the final in the fifth game against Partizan, in the Serbian League the team came out champion and in the Euroleague they finished in tenth position, very close to the goal. We want to go up.
What can be expected from the team in the tactical aspect?
–Being a Dusko team, growing from defense is assured. We want to be a tactically very rich team, with many options, but defense is going to be our hallmark.
–In Belgrade, basketball is lived with special intensity.
–Serbia is the cradle of basketball: in Belgrade, basketball is a religion, the king of sports. People know the players, there is a maximum rivalry with Partizan, everyone is watching. All of this is new to me, it’s going to be very nice.
–Throughout your career, you have alternated the role of head coach with that of assistant. What are the differences between the two functions?
-The job of assistant is very laborious. You have to take care of the total analysis of your team and rivals, making reports, editing videos, giving more information to those players who request it… My mission is to relieve Dusko of all these tasks. I’m a kind of coach’s office, I have to have everything ready so that both Dusko and the squad don’t lack for anything. It is a 25 hour day job. It has nothing to do with the role of head coach, who is the one who makes the decisions.
–I suppose that the fact of working with one or the other coach will be very different.
–Each coach has his philosophy. Some entrust you with specific plots, such as attack or defense; others the technical work with the players, others just the video… I have been very lucky in my career. I was with Pablo Laso in Lobos Cantabria and San Sebastián, where we were promoted to the ACB. Pablo is excellent on a human level, and he also shares and loves basketball. At Red Star we are four assistants, high-level people, from the Serbian national team staff, former Euroleague players…
–Go deeper into your stage with Laso.
-It was a great experience. Pablo is a person who lives basketball all the time, he talks about basketball 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He is always innovating, he knows how to reach the player very well… I learned a lot from him, they were three fantastic years. In his staff, I was in charge of scouting. Even then, in his early days, it was clear that he was going to be a super coach. When he signed for Bayern we exchanged messages, we still keep in touch.
–The Euroleague is suffering more and more to keep the great players, especially the young promises.
It’s hard for them to stay. Aday Mara, for example, went to UCLA this summer. This scenario causes doubts in the big European teams. Fighting against the NBA and the NCAA (the University League) is very difficult due to the difference in economic level.
Are there ways to correct this trend?
–The first question we must ask ourselves is whether we can compete with the player’s illusion of being in the NBA. Emotionally it is very difficult. European teams sign long contracts to promising youngsters, but almost all of them have an NBA exit clause, such as Nnaji (Barcelona center). The clubs do their best so that the players don’t leave, but I don’t think we have the weapons to fight the illusion of the players to go to the NBA, we are surrendered to that desire to want to play in America and be stars.
–Your work has led you to constantly change your place of residence. How does this instability affect his personal life?
–I had this conversation with Dusko. It has very good things, like dedicating yourself to what you like, which is a pleasure that many people do not have, but it implies being away from family, difficulty having a partner and children… I, for example, am still single. On a personal level, it is very difficult to start each year in a new place, with new people and new customs. I try to enrich myself with it and live it as one more experience in my life baggage, even if I leave behind very valuable things. There have been moments in which I have even assessed whether it was worth continuing with this, I have been close to giving it up once.
–Basketball has even led you to live on another continent.
-Yeah. I was training the Paraguayan national team and later in two Brazilian clubs. Life in South America is very different. In Brazil they kidnapped me going to play a game.
–A kidnapping?
–It was when I was training Uberlândia. We were going by bus to São Paulo to catch a plane to Fortaleza, where we played. The ride to the airport was about 5 hours. At one point, I started to hear shots. The bus stopped and five hooded men got on. We were kidnapped for 7 or 8 hours. They took us to an open field, they stole everything from us… those were very hard, very difficult moments.
Did you fear for your life?
-Yeah. She could only think about them leaving. They were walking around the bus with their guns in hand, they hit a player who confronted them. It was the longest 7 hours of my life. After the kidnappers left, some players smashed the moon to pieces and we ran out onto the highway to call for help. After that, I stayed 2 more months and returned to Spain. I had one more year on my contract, but I didn’t want to continue; the pressure of insecurity got the better of me.
2023-08-15 02:15:00
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