After revisiting the past and present of Unicaja, the club in which he forged his legend on the field and in which he is an indirect part of the club’s success – his brother is the sports director of the cajista entity – it is time to speak with Nacho Rodríguez from the news of Barcelona, the other team of his life along with the National Team. The man from Malaga wore the Barça shirt for six seasons and for four years he governed the club’s sporting destinies from the offices, before passing the baton to Juan Carlos Navarro with whom he shared the locker room.
He also met Roger Grimau in his last season as a Barça player. How are you seeing the team and Roger Grimau in this first season of ups and downs?
I think this is being very unfair to Roger. Grimau is having a very good season. It is not easy in the Euroleague to be in the top four all season. It is true that you have fallen in the fifth game and you have not made it to the Final Four, but I think they are having a good season with good basketball, with basketball very different from that of Saras. In the Copa del Rey they were close to beating Madrid. It is true that in ACB he has had three or four unexpected defeats. But I think they are being unfair to him. For his first year at the professional level he is doing a good job.
And what is the problem?
Roger’s problem is called Saras. Any coach who had come to Barcelona would have compared himself a little to Saras. I signed Saras at Barça, and I have a good relationship, a very good relationship with Saras, and I know what he has meant, and I know the leap in quality that he has given to Barcelona. But Roger, focusing on him, if we contextualize it, I think that in his first year he is doing a great job, he is having a very good season.
The problem is that Saras, with Fenerbahce, signs in December and puts them in the Final Four. And that in recent years he won two leagues, the Copa del Rey and three consecutive Final Four… That is Grimau’s problem, but any other coach who would have come would have had that same problem and that same comparison.
“Any other coach who would have come would have had that same problem and that same comparison”
Roger Grimau
So?
What happens is that here the fact that he is an inexperienced coach is a bit aggravated, but tactically he is doing very well and people don’t see that. I remember a game in January that was a turning point, they came from many lost games in December and a quintet began with Kalinic at 2, Jabari at 3, Oscar Silva at 4 and Vessely at 5 and Satoransky. Tactically very worked.
I think he is doing a very good job, the thing is that Barça is very demanding. At the end of the season we will have to put the grades and we will have to evaluate. Contextualizing it and seeing Barça in general terms and in its first year, I think that for me what it has done so far is a notable achievement.
You who have also been in those management positions, how do you weather storms in a team like Barça? How do you deal with such a complicated environment?
You have to put on a shell. I have never had social networks and then I didn’t have them either and still you got something. You have to be very very tough mentally and also know where you are going. I knew perfectly where I was going.
For me, it was obviously an opportunity and when he calls you to Barça, you can’t say no. In six years he gave me everything as a player. Many titles, the National Team, many recognitions, Barça gave me that as a player and when they called me you feel a little indebted. But you know perfectly well where you are going, you know that if you lose two games, there is a crisis or they are beginning to doubt and if you bet on a coach, as happened to me with Sito Alonso, a young coach for a long project, then if you lose five, six , seven games coming from regular years, they are not going to tell you that financially you are doing well or whatever. There what they ask of you is to win and win.
Well, today professional basketball is very result-driven, but Barça even more so. You have to be very clear about where you are going, you have to know how to withstand pressure and above all put on a shell with your people, with your people within the club and know how to have a plan.
“Professional basketball is very results-oriented, but Barça even more so. You have to be very clear about where you are going, you have to know how to withstand pressure”
Nacho Rodriguez
And you had it?
Since we arrived we had a plan. I remember that I arrived in March 2017 and in May I was presenting a four-year plan that, fortunately, was almost fulfilled. When I left last year, the triplet was almost achieved with the Final Four in Milan, with Mirotic and Higgins.
You have to have a very clear idea and the shell is important when it comes to forgetting, not thinking about what people say and knowing very well where you are going. We were very clear about our project of creating a recognized club that would represent us in the institutions, trying to do it with people from home and with top-level players and, especially for me, with top-level coaches.
Can that shell be thinner when you are Juan Carlos Navarro, a legend on the field and right now in charge of the club?
Don’t know. I coincided with Juan Carlos on the field. In fact, I know that when they asked him about my entry and he said “yes, Nacho is the ideal person.” So imagine. I put him in charge of the quarry. He spent two years there learning. Right now I don’t know, I have no contact with them. Things can come to me from one place or another, but it is very easy to speak from the sidelines and I didn’t know how to tell you the decisions they have made or why they were made. I can’t tell you about Juan Carlos Navarro.
I have great respect for him, he has been a very good friend of mine during our time at Barça and I think that in his training period before becoming general director I helped him. Now I don’t know the decisions that have been made or the internal situation because I am not aware of the day-to-day life that is happening.
“I have great respect for Navarro, he has been a very good friend of mine during our time at Barça and I think that in his training period before becoming general director I helped him”
Nacho Rodriguez
Where is the future of Nacho Rodríguez?
I have been on a six-month project at Alcal, but due to time issues I could not dedicate what a LEB Plata team requires. Now I am commentating on games with the radio on Onda Madrid and also on Movistar and I am in a sports consulting firm that is providing service and assistance to companies in the world of sports.
Of course I am open to basketball projects, but hey, I am based in Madrid and I would like to continue in Madrid, but always with the radar set for possible things that may arise linked to management in the world of sports.
But haven’t you gotten tired of basketball yet?
No no no. I love it. I prepare statistically for the games I play on the radio or on TV. I have a good time. I go to WiZink a lot, I am a member of Estudiantes… I follow the day-to-day news, the players, the signings statistically, I follow the news and, of course, I am open to different options that may arise. But it is true that now I am in another stage with my family. I have been in Barcelona for four years away from my family and now it is a more familiar time with my children and my wife here in Madrid.
As a point guard, who is always said to have the soul of a coach, have you ever been bitten by the bug?
Everyone saw me. He was a more cerebral point guard, more of, now I’m going to play here, now I’m going to play this, now there’s an advantage here, let’s make this move…. Many people saw me as a coach. In fact, when I went to Alicante after leaving Barcelona as a player, Zoran Savic called me trying to convince me to be Dusko Ivanovic’s assistant when he was Barça coach. I told him no, that I wanted to continue playing. Then I retired in 2008 and Pepe Saez, then president of the FEB, called me and told me he would see me. In fact I was in a B team, which included Sergi Llull, with Alfred Julbe and I was there for a few days.
I think the coach has to be very demanding, 24 hours a day, very professional. And in my basketball model he has to be a bit ‘bastard’ and I didn’t see myself in that role. Besides, it was leading a bit of the same life that I had had with the aggravating factor that the coach finishes a game and is already thinking about the next game, the next training session or about the player who hasn’t played or what I should do with this or what This other one has looked at me badly… and since I get very involved in what I do and I think about it all day, I couldn’t quite see myself there. I think there is a lot of merit in being an elite coach, and especially with so many games because in my time you played two games a week. I think that for a coach, the crazy schedule you have today, that every game, whether in an ACB league, they can beat you. And that is mental stress, work stress, which is very worthy.
2024-05-16 04:30:14
#Grimaus #problem #called #Saras #relief
