It will be called Alana, it is planned to be born in August and will be the first daughter of Usman Garuba. The Pivot of Real Madrid, 23, expects paternity impatient in a summer in which these personal and other physical circumstances have joined for the Eurobasket to play with the Spanish team. A stress fracture in the left warm has reduced its performance after its return from the NBA. Now he wants to recover before an upcoming season in which he will be directed again by Sergio Scariolo, substitute for Chus Mateo. Garuba reflects on his game and the change on the Madrid bench after participating in an activity with children from Eduardo Rojo School, in Vallecas, as ambassador of Kellogg’s social programs.
Ask. Do you need rest this summer?
Answer. I don’t like the word. I would say that recovering one hundred percent, nothing to be halfway. Next season I don’t want it to be of excuses, I want to be stopped from the first moment. It is a decision that I had already taken a lot because I have dragged the injury and did not want to be excusing me another year. I want to give everything for Madrid and it is the best for me after so many summers with the selection.
P. What balance does its season in Madrid?
R. It has been an inconsistent year. I knew I wasn’t going to start from 0 to 100 but I’m not satisfied with my season. For what I can give, I could have done better. There are years like that. I take it as learning, it is the only way to improve, be critical of oneself.
P. Did it cost you to adapt again from the NBA to Europe?
R. Yes, the game is different, the mentality is different. If you come from the NBA, you bring that way of thinking and that does not work here. In the United States everyone thinks about yours. In Madrid the mentality is to win. Win or do not serve. It is so. It cost me a little for that reason to adapt but I have improved throughout the season and I finished well. Although I am not even close to what I could give. That’s why I stop this summer.
P. Does the pivot game change from one place to another?
R. In Europe the five classic is still being used and in the NBA it is being used again because the most corpulent five was lost. Sometimes he played there with a small five. My game is about to mix the two things, play four and five, not have a fixed position. I don’t like calling myself like four or five, I am both, whatever the team needs. It is true that in the NBA I played more than five because the four are almost eager, more open, and that is also happening in Europe. It is what I’m going to work this summer, mixing my game to the maximum to be more versatile, playing five, four and even trying to play three. I want to be as versatile as possible to be more minutes on the track.
P. What did you learn from Chus Matthew?
R. It helped me a lot in reading the game. I arrived from the United States, it cost me to enter and I had several meetings with him because I was not comfortable with my situation. Chus did a great job with me and I wish him the best.
P. Do you understand that it was fired a week after winning the League and after six titles in three years?
R. In Madrid it is only worth winning everything or almost everything. In other clubs, losing nothing a year. Here if you do a temporal one but you lose a final, it is a failure. That is why Real Madrid, the most demanding club in the world. The goodbye of Chus is a decision of the club. To make you understand the maximum demand, which is to win or fail, there is no middle ground. Not everyone is prepared for that. As a player it is difficult to understand that it is to win or nothing.
P. And Scariolo?
R. I have a lot of cane. People do not imagine the cane that has put me many summers, even before the tournament, with calls getting cane. He has always demanded the maximum, I am happy to come to Madrid. I want to see how it is on a day -to -day basis. It will benefit me, it will help me. If it gives me cane, it is because I believe in me and know that I can give much more.
P. How was it playing with Tavares?
R. I have learned a lot from him. He is not selfish. You do not need 20 points to be the best in the game. It can be the most decisive in another way and with fewer points. In the statistics everything that intimidates rivals does not come out. It is an example to follow. It is our leader, to which we must all follow. It sets without speaking, you don’t need to say anything.
