Mauricio Codocea
09/18/2021 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 09/18/2021 6:00 AM
Averaging the previous season, Leandro Bolmaro received a call from the United States in which the Minnesota Timberwolves told him that they expected to have him for the next season.
All that magic that he had felt in the first minutes of last November 19, when he became the Argentinean chosen highest in the NBA draft,
now materialized.
He tried to stay on the sidelines, already with the tranquility of knowing that his arrival at American professionalism would be a matter of time.
"I had in mind that I was going to be in the future, but until the time came
I didn't want to get excited
. Now that I'm here, I'm enjoying myself, glad to have arrived and have this privilege," he tells Clarín at the beginning of the interview, via Zoom, from the hotel he occupies a few meters from the team's stadium.
-During the season you were obviously thinking about your year with FC Barcelona, but presumably the "NBA thought" invaded you at some point. How much did you think about this?
-As you say;
During the year he did not have it very present, he tried to be focused on Barça.
It is true that sometimes I thought, but not to the point of disconnecting myself from my team.
When I finished the season, I already had the decision,
every day I thought a little how it could be
.
I had my doubts, my nerves, the longing for this moment to come, but it was bearable, nothing that would take me out of focus.
I knew how to handle it well.
🌪️ @BolmaroLeandro has been chosen the MOST SPECTACULAR player of this season at @ACBCOM 20-21!
Congratulations, Lean!
pic.twitter.com/PP6cpaOUM4
- Barça Basket (@FCBbasket) May 24, 2021
-In the interview after being chosen in the draft you said that you had not yet fallen. At what point are you now regarding it?
-I still don't fall.
I don't think about it because I
still don't know where I am.
I prefer to enjoy and let this go little by little, and only then stop and understand that I am here.
Because if I think it's worse, I think (laughs).
I do not think as much as at the time of the draft, just ... Getting there
is something else, it is very different.
Leandro says that he was also
bitten by the uncertainty bug
at some point
.
His explanation makes a lot of sense to this situation: "I had the decision in my head, it happens that it is true that I ended up playing well and quite a lot, so there I wondered whether to stay another year or leave; but I had in mind to give the jump and I think I did well. "
Bolmaro, during the last Euroleague final: he played many minutes in decisive stages.
Photo Ina Fassbender / AFP
It was all
a trip full of vertigo
for this Cordovan from Las Varillas, who just turned 21 years old (last September 11) and five years ago he was still a standout in athletics and was just starting to put it on the hoop.
Now, finally, perhaps he will begin to retrace a path that, strangely for him, will be slower than usual and above all, if things go as expected, he will have it for a long time in the same place (at least, in the same place). league).
"I'm used to adapting all the time, I know how things work, but it's true, they were 5 very fast years. Everything has been thanks to effort, which is what I base myself on every day and what I will do here, trying to improve. , of being concentrated, looking at details.
I have to find the ways to add minutes, to find my game and be able to earn everyone's respect.
For now it was going well for me and now I have to maintain it to make my way ", he thinks aloud Bolmaro.
And he reaffirms, with the same enthusiasm that he exhibited in the tartan, in the Almafuerte parquet, in the modern DowCenter or in the Palau Blaugrana: "
I am a worker, I like to train and what I propose I achieve. Now I intend to spend many years in this league
, because I love it,
so I'm going to get it
. "
-When do you think you will get excited about having reached the NBA?
-I guess when I have free time, maybe when the season is over.
Now I'm training and everything will be travel, training, games and it doesn't give you much time to think about what you achieved in itself, but when I have free at some point I will think about it a bit.
The first days I loved it, I am grateful for the effort and sacrifice I made because this is the gift, but this still continues:
now I have to work hard to be someone in the NBA.
The new World
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Leandro Bolmaro (@leandro_bolmaro)
Beyond those moments of doubt, which had more to do with the very good he had harvested in Barcelona, where a season of prominence could quietly await him this year in return for this start from scratch in Minnesota, Bolmaro was clear that he would choose the step to the United States and received significant comments in recent times.
"I spoke with my teammates who played in the NBA, such as Niko (Mirotic), Alex (Abrines) and Pau (Gasol), who recommended that I come at this time, and with Luis (Scola), who was the one who mainly guided me, He told me that it was time to take the leap because here was the best. And that's how it is, here are the best players and coaches and if I want to reach the highest level I had to come. It is the best thing that could happen to me, to come and finish train me here ".
-Everyone talks about how different the league is from the rest of the world, even from top teams like Barcelona. What did you find in these early days?
- It's another environment, another way of playing ... (Think) What do I know, it's the environment, above all.
For example, you are in the gym, giving everything to lift a certain weight, and all your colleagues cheer you on, yell at you;
if you're shooting on the court, the same thing happens.
Another thing: there is always competition, they are dying to compete and win, it is something that does not happen everywhere and it is great, the motivation that also helps to build a team is tremendous.
It is different from other places.
-And what did you find in this new group, at least among the players who are showing up for voluntary training sessions. They are one of the youngest entering the next season.
- Yes, we are a young group, except for Pat (Beverley) and Taurean (Prince) who are a little older, but since I was in Miami with them I saw how they work and it is spectacular;
they try very hard and from that effort we get along better.
In the dressing room and off the pitch we are doing well, and that is the important thing because in the end what you have to build is a family.
Seeing how they received me and how they are united is beautiful;
They are great people, we demand perfection from each other, no matter who it is and it is terrific.
Leandro Bolmaro with his teammates at the Twins stadium, the city's baseball team.
NBA Photo @Timberwolves
In that construction of a group identity, this week some members of the team could be seen going to see the Minnesota Twins, the city's baseball team.
"The crew chief told us to go see them and instead of getting bored I went to see my first baseball game. Those things, you see? Sharing each other is very good. That way we will improve the chemistry and improve the team," he says.
onion
.
-In these first training sessions, where are you putting the focus?
- Off the pitch, where I pay most attention is food and rest;
Inside, I give a lot of preponderance to the physical issue, in the gym, and the details of the game, from dribbling to shooting, vision, working on weaknesses and reinforcing the strengths that I have.
- Was there anything that surprised you from the start?
-The first game I almost died.
They started running, running, on the fifth pass I stayed and I was dead (laughs).
I came for two weeks without doing anything and here they play very fast, it is to grab the rebound and fly, and you have to defend, and so ... They play five minutes in a row like that, they don't stop, it's incredible.
Now I'm getting more into the rhythm but that still costs me a bit.
That was what surprised me, the speed at which they play.
In this adaptation path, Bolmaro knows that he has an ace up his sleeve: being a great defender in a team that finished 28th out of 30 in defensive rating, a statistic that indicates the number of points he receives per 100 possessions.
"The defense is always what gives me confidence for the attack so from there I build, it is how I earn my minutes and space in the team. From the defense I got to where I am now so I value it a lot and I always try to improve in that, "says the guard, who can also offer coach Chris Finch the versatility of being a point guard.
In attack, meanwhile, he has the advice of Pablo Prigioni, also from Cordoba, one of the team's assistants who facilitates the transition to the NBA.
"He explains the systems to me, he knows how everything works; we always talk before or after practice, he tells me how to start the systems, what is best for the team, what options are there; I really like to learn these things. We work individually. things that I use later, he tells me to do this and the other thing that will work. "
Collateral damage
It always happened: athletes occupy a place in society that brings them closer to different personalities from the most diverse environments.
In Bolmaro's case, in addition to being able to be close with referents of Argentine basketball and Cordobans like him, such as
Pichi
Campana,
Marcelo Milanesio and Rubén Magnano
, suddenly he also found himself having dinner and sharing moments with Paulo Londra, another man from the
Mediterranean
Republic.
and one of the most prominent contemporary artists of Argentina, America and successful in much of the world.
-How is it for you to start sharing spaces with these kinds of figures?
-It's incredible, for me being with Paulo was a great pleasure, getting to know him a little better than social networks are was incredible, he's a fantastic guy, very cool, he has an amazing group of friends.
I didn't think it was going to be the way it is and it looks great.
Sharing a dinner with Milanesio, Pichi, Rubén, listening to them, was something I couldn't believe.
It was very nice.
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A post shared by Leandro Bolmaro (@leandro_bolmaro)
-I'm taking you somewhere else. I imagine you play NBA 2K (
N. de R .: the league's quintessential video game
).
-Yes Yes.
-Did you ever believe your player?
-No, you know not?
I create the player of the career and I always make him a shooter or pivot.
Not me, seriously, ask those who play with me!
It's boring to do myself.
Better a shooter, standing there in the corner (laughs).
-And how do you think your player will be when the game comes out?
-I don't know, let's see, I'm about to buy 22 so when I download it I'll see it.
-And what rating would Leandro Bolmaro give Leandro Bolmaro?
-And ... 90, over there (laughs).
No, seriously, I don't care, it's to play for a while.
Look also
After-hours workouts, accolades, and learning from the best: Leandro Bolmaro's early days in the NBA
The story of Leandro Bolmaro, the other Argentine who is called "Messi" in Barcelona
