The Rise of Willy Hernangómez: From Real Madrid to Barcelona

Willy Hernangómez celebrates a basket with Barça (acb Photo / S. Gordon)

“He was a boy who played in Las Rozas, still very much to develop, to be formed physically. He arrived at around 1.97 or 98. In other words, he had a lot of room for growth left. Imagine what the body was like: a baby. He started training with us, Real Madrid’s Cadet B, one day. Then I did extra singles with him every week. This was the first season in which he was in some tournaments: he did not play with the team. The following year, he already had a youth record. Since those beginnings that he remembers so well, José Luis Pichel has been a recurring character in the career of Willy Hernangómez. At the same time key. Now that the Madrid center has established himself in basketball stardom, he has not stopped being his coach. He is now only in a personal capacity, in the summers, but it doesn’t matter. It is clear that he knows very well the reality of one of the great names of the summer period in the European basket. Upon embarking on his return from the NBA, he did not return to the Madrid of his love, but to his eternal rival: FC Barcelona.

This Sunday, from 6:30 p.m., the first Clásico will take place that the man who not so long ago was a ‘white blackbird’ (he stopped being a Real Madrid fan at the end of the 2015-2016 season) will play, as a Barça player, in the Spanish capital. During all this time in the best league in the world, Hernangómez has been a regular at the WiZink Center as a spectator, once the American seasons concluded. The Real Madrid fandom that he professes has also been evident on social networks, and is still there. However, his profession has led him to choose the path of Barcelona, ​​falling, as before, in the box of the Old Continent.

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“People know that at Real Madrid, he has given everything. Since he arrived. And I think that people also know that Real Madrid (because there is Tavares or whatever) has not had an interest, as Barça or other teams may have, in him returning. Actually, Willy has not experienced the situations of other players who have been able to choose. He has seen himself more in some footballer: in both clubs he had proposals and he chooses one or the other. In that sense, here we are all adults and, beyond the fact that there is some whistle, which there will be, and so on, I believe that the reception will remain within what is a somewhat sporty atmosphere,” explains Pichel, today the team’s second coach. LEB Oro Clavijo (Spanish second category), in conversation with Infobae Spain.

Vincent Poirier and Willy Hernangómez in the last Super Cup (acb Photo / Mariano Pozo)

In the two games (with his two victories) that he has played in the ACB as a new member of Barça, the MVP of the last Eurobasket has averaged 15.5 points, eight rebounds and a rating of 14.5 in 24 minutes. An importance that does not surprise those who work with him: “If he is good, he will have a very high performance. It is also true that, from what I know him, for him, without a doubt, the most important thing is the team’s performance. So, he will be very focused on them being able to achieve their sporting goals.” Decentering will not be an option for someone who, above all, “really likes” what he does.

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“Even if we have done training at seven thirty in the morning or whatever, his attitude is always to get everyone who is there up,” Pichel points out. A detail from the sessions that he shares with Hernangómez makes very clear the hunger that drives Nikola Mirotic’s replacement at the Palau Blaugrana: “When I try to push the limits a little more, he has doubts that he can reach them, but then reach and stop complaining.”

The current version of the older brother of the saga has nothing to do with that of the 22-year-old kid (29 in our days) who made the Americas. Pichel perfectly x-rays one of his primary pupils: “he is capable of doing and understanding more things. Before he was a player very focused on low post performance. Now, based on the situation of blocks, both direct and indirect, he is at a top level. We have also managed to improve our shooting quite a bit. It’s one of the things I hope to see this year. For him to be able to get open more and take shots. That he can open the field more. Then, that part of intelligence, of making decisions, puts you in a very valuable situation.”

In addition, there are “other very innate things” in Willy’s game: “Talent, the touch to score baskets, those good hands that he has naturally. We work on them a lot, but not so much as to expect improvement, but rather so as not to lose.” Putting this analysis on the table, it is perfectly understandable that Hernangómez’s time in the United States is viewed favorably from one of the sectors around him.

“I think there are many players who are worse than him and who have had a better career. But that has a lot to do with how American basketball works. Where you fall, what is the perception of your team, what contract you have… These are things that are a little special. It has been a great race. There are seven NBA seasons, which is said very quickly, performing whenever he has had minutes. So you also have to see the positive things. You have to see the career he has made. Everything that he has enjoyed, everything that he has learned,” Pichel values.

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In his opinion, the fact that one of Madrid’s prodigal sons has become a possible executioner should not have more impact than is strictly necessary if the background is taken into account. “He is still someone who is going to do his job. In addition, they have signed many players with whom he has coincided. Some, like Darío Brizuela, are even from his generation. They have known each other for 20 years. He has gone to a city where his girlfriend lives and is very close to his family, after spending many years living alone, very far away. In the end, we are all people, and all of that takes on much more relevance than the noise that may be outside. The sports project is very interesting. Barça has made him a proposal where he is very important,” he reasons.

Willy Hernangómez goes to the basket against Madrid (acb Photo / Mariano Pozo)

Having become a franchise player, a role for which he has already proven to be more than qualified in the Spanish team, there is nothing to indicate that Willy Hernangómez will not take full advantage of the Barcelona opportunity. Because he “puts his heart into everything he does,” with the addition that he “is always very careful that no one is left behind.” And it is already known: when someone “makes the environments, the surroundings, very positive”, everything is simplified, and even more so in a collective sport.

2023-10-01 05:57:00
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