Nacho Rodríguez’s Impact on FC Barcelona’s Basketball Section: An Inside Look

Barça’s tumultuous years ended with the arrival of Nacho Rodríguez to the offices. It was on March 27, 2017 when Josep María Bartomeu, president of the entity, hired his services to be in charge of the club’s basketball section. A former player with many years of experience, he was part of the squad that won the 2003 Euroleague and spent six seasons on the team (from 1998 to 2004). As a player, the last shirt he defended was that of Valladolid, before retiring in 2008. Before that, he was international 125 times and played with the National Team just before the arrival of the golden generation that won so many titles. Of course, he had time to win two medals in two European medals: the silver in 1999 in France and the bronze in 2001 in Turkey, where he already coincided with an emerging star like Pau Gasol, who made the leap to the NBA shortly after said success.

At club level, Nacho Rodríguez’s resume is also extensive and prolific. The aforementioned victory in the highest continental competition was his greatest achievement, but not the only one. He also won the Korak Cup in 1999, the Copa del Rey in 2001 and 2003 and four domestic championships in the ACB: 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2004, achieving a year before his farewell to the Blaugranas the treble of a historic team, commanded by a young Juan Carlos Navarro and an established star like Sarunas Jasikevicius. Rodríguez has spoken about the now coach, among many other topics, in an extensive interview in Jot Down Magazinewho left the organization suddenly in April 2021, with the arrival of Joan Laporta to the presidency, after Bartomeu left.

The former player, known for his strong personality on the court and his extensive tactical knowledge when he was a professional, has reviewed his sporting career, but has dedicated a good part of the interview to reviewing his stay in the Barça offices. And he tells, for example, a detail about Mirotic’s signing for Barça, about which he says something interesting: “I know that Niko’s first option was to go to Real Madrid and that was where his representative offered him, but they didn’t want him,” he says. , in addition to saying that he arrived at Barça after not accepting a succulent offer from the Jazz (45 million in three seasons) and that he considers the Spanish-Montenegrin’s time at the culé team as positive.

Rodríguez also focuses on the controversy that arose when Thomas Heurtel stayed in Istanbul. “I’m going to tell it as it was and it’s the first time I’m going to do it,” he tells Javier Ortiz, the journalist in charge of the interview. “I spoke with his agent, Misko Raznatovic, and we negotiated because the player wanted to leave and the coach did not count on him. We came to an agreement. And the Sunday before playing the Euroleague game in Istanbul, Misko tells me that Thomas wants to travel with the team. We were going to sign Léo Westermann, who was at Fenerbahce, so there would be a gap in his position. Everyone told me that he was going there. That is, an exchange of players. Obviously, when you reach an agreement you don’t ask where the player is going to go. It is not usually asked. We are going to Istanbul. The boy doesn’t train and I thought he was going to pass the medical examination with Fenerbahce,” he begins by saying.

“On Tuesday morning it began to reach me that he was going to sign for Madrid. We had reached an agreement to pay him practically 90% of the outstanding amount. I call the agent, with the termination still to sign, and ask him about this. He tells me that he doesn’t know. I made it clear to him that the document was not going to be signed and I also explained it to the player,” says the former player, who was not amused that he wanted to go to the biggest rival. But Sarunas Jasikevicius even less so. As revealed in the interview, it was the Lithuanian coach who had the initiative to leave him on the ground, something to which the then manager flatly refused, also taking into account the context that the coronavirus pandemic represented at the time. The nine people present at said meeting (physical trainers, coaching staff…) agreed with Saras. In the end, the player stayed and public opinion lashed out at Rodríguez, who uttered the mea culpa for what happened then: “Sorry? No, the following. If it happens to me again, let the nine of them stay there if they want, but you can’t do that to a player on your team. It was a very serious mistake to leave Heurtel in Istanbul. It is very serious to leave a player like that,” he says.

Navarro’s retreat

Another of the topics discussed was Barça’s management of the retirement of Juan Carlos Navarro, a club legend who precisely occupied his position as head of the basketball section when his departure became official. “With Navarro we had different ways of seeing his retirement. He should one day explain how he retires. From a sporting point of view, both the coach (Pesic) and those responsible for the sports area understood that he could no longer contribute more on the court and so we transferred it to the board of directors. He went to talk to President Bartomeu and they decided several issues between them,” he says.

Rodríguez assures that “I will never speak badly of Navarro.” “I have great respect for him as a player. I have helped him a lot because I proposed him as youth academy director and we proposed the ten-year contract that he signs with the club. It is true that he helps in the first year by lowering his salary, but he defers. In his last year as a player, which was my first year leading the section, he thought that he had to play more and he didn’t handle it well. And there we don’t communicate well. It was a communication error. Madrid managed Felipe Reyes much better. In his last year, Felipe wasn’t up to par either, but the club managed it much better than we did. “We didn’t know how to do it well.”

The former player has stayed away from Barça after his departure, but he values ​​his stay at the Barça club as positive. He assures that the team was greatly improved, that he promoted several signings and that he went from falling in the ACB quarterfinals to fighting for the Euroleague, reaching the Final Four on three consecutive occasions. The conclusions drawn by the man who was the entity’s director for four seasons are good and he thinks his work is as well. And, some time after his departure, he has taken it upon himself to recount everything that happened then in detail and to give details, many of them unknown until now. A few tumultuous years in which several decisions were made. Some of them difficult, of course.

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2024-01-21 07:57:07
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