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Dan Shamir: "I'm not at a stage in my life of living without competition"

After 11 months without an official game, New Zealand Breakers coach Dan Shamir is excited for the start of the season and tells in an interview from Tasmania about life in New Zealand free of corona ("Life in a movie"), why in Australia they were right and the Euroleague was wrong, about the remaining dreams and Danny Abdia: this is only the beginning"

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Saturday, 16 January 2021, 14:08

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"My kids go to school, don't know what a mask is."

Shamir (Photo: GettyImages)

On 14 February 2020, the New Zealand Breakers advanced to their final league game of the 2019/20 season.

She waited almost two weeks to see if her balance sheet this season would be enough for her to enter the playoffs, and was disappointed when she found out she would stay out.

Coach Dan Shamir thought at the time that the team would soon begin preparations for next season, which was scheduled to open in October.

He did not believe that it would be more than 11 months before he would coach an official game again, but Shamir would only do so this coming Friday, when his team will leave for Adelaide.

"It's a lot of time without a game," Shamir says of the longest break in his senior career, from his team's seat in Tasmania, "I will not lie, I did not prepare for 11 months without a game. When the season ended we went into closure like the whole world, we lived in uncertainty. When we left the quarantine we started building the team and coaching the players we have, we did not know for how long they would postpone the league.At that time we coached the New Zealand players, we had something to deal with.Add to that we feel lucky to live in a clean corona environment. My kids go to school, do not know what a mask is, live like the whole world wants to live.You feel lucky, and not unemployed, we have lived the world basketball.On the other hand you are exhaustive.How much can you promote your players without games? Coaches within The stress and madness of the season think how much fun it will be after a coaching career, to live life and be with family.We went through this period, but to live without the competition, without making a game, recovering from the loss, enjoying the victory - I'm not at this stage of my life, it's not for me I'm really looking forward to it. "

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Good foreigners, good atmosphere, tough league.

Shamir enjoys (Photo: GettyImages)

As mentioned, Shamir is currently in Hubert, Tasmania.

The New Zealand Breakers were supposed to be in Melbourne until things settled down and the NBL could return to Auckland, but Corona's cases were discovered there.

Shamir talks about what the breakers' season opener will look like: "We will have mostly away games. All the teams will come to Melbourne, reduce all travel. There are very aggressive reactions here to a few isolated cases of Corona so from February 20, immediately after the Australian Tennis Championships, "All the teams will come to the base. We hope that maybe later a bubble will open between New Zealand and Australia and we will be able to host games."

How did the Corona affect the level of players who reached the league this year?

"Already last year I was here there were very good foreigners, this year even better. The Australians who play here are the good Australians, like Joke Landale who played in Zalgiris and chose to stay in Australia. There was a leap here also because of the corona situation, because the league is good here "And the conditions are good and so on. We built the squad at an early stage, we kept a good squad but it's a problem that for so long players haven't played basketball, and we only had 4 weeks of pre-season. After so much time it's hard to play intensely."

Last year you almost reached the playoffs, is it realistic this year to get into the top 4?

"Getting to the playoffs in this league is difficult. It's a league of 9 teams, it's not like most leagues that 8 go up to the playoffs. It's 4 out of 9, and all 9 are good. We also have last year's continuity that will help us, there is We have very experienced players, the foreigners we added are to Lamar Patterson who knows the league very well, was two years in the top five this season, a very proven player.Our coordinator is Ty Webster from Glatsray, a New Zealand player in the caliber of a foreigner with European experience.There is also Corey Webster who is now injured , But he's a player who can make points here and produce a lot of situations. Colton Iverson who's like glue, works black for creative players and is also very experienced, proven in this field. We have players who know how to play, we can be a very good team, at the beginning of the season it's not clear how It will really look like that, we are very concerned about how we look physically. "

Shamir is sure: "There are not many players like Danny Abdia, every NBA team wants a player like him" (Photo: GettyImages, Tim Nwachukwu)

El Shamir recently joined a new acquaintance in the Israeli colony on the fifth continent - Tomer Hemed, who also signed with a New Zealand team, Wellington Phoenix.

"We talked a few times, chatted a bit about Australia and arranged to meet, in the meantime I am in Tasmania and he is in Sydney," says Shamir about Hemed.

In so many months without basketball, you did not think maybe to leave?

"I have an amazing owner and an amazing organization, if it was not Corona and we would have continued for a second season then there was good continuity. We finished the season strong, the hall was full, 8,000, 9,000 spectators, good situation for the coach, you do not want to give up easily. For a not-so-easy situation, from my conversations with my friends in the Euroleague, I asked them what they think, what is smarter - what do they do in the Euroleague or Australia? So they say Australia does more in the mind. That I say thank you for where I am. "They did everything to have games with an audience, the season is renewed with an audience, with strict protocols so that the season will be in an environment without Corona. Out of the situations that have to be chosen, this is the right situation in my eyes."

You live in a place where there is no corona, can you imagine from the side how the rest of the world lives?

"I have a lot of friends in Israel and also friends a lot of places in the world, I know what it's like but can not imagine it. In New Zealand we live in a completely different situation. Corona has not been here for a very long time. 3 corona cases were discovered in Melbourne, it did not get worse, day After that there were 2 more cases and it stopped there. That's why they took us out and moved us to another country, closed the borders of Victoria, and that's how they took over. I tell people that there were 9,000 infected in Israel, so we are in a completely different reality, in New Zealand. Apart from the fact that they will not see me for a few months now, will not remember that there was a corona compared to the trauma all over the world.They live like you lived before the corona, these are completely different philosophies.New Zealand is completely closed, I can not go back there, I have to do isolation, though "One can not criticize me, do not enter New Zealand, it is not on the agenda. There are very extreme steps, it is beyond basketball, far beyond basketball. A country that has closed itself off and is taking aggressive steps every step of the way."

You're sick of basketball, at least you got to see more basketball without pressure.

"Now that we started coaching my doses went down, but before that from the start of the Euroleague season I saw a lot of basketball, it was fun to watch all the games. You know this corona situation is a blow to everyone, I enjoy the games, spend more time than usual, watch Spanish league, Euroleague, "EuroCup, Champions League, etc. I see the lack of environmental interest, it's less interesting that it's sterile basketball."

Shamir: "Katsch's story is a testament to how dynamic the business is and how difficult it is to plan and anticipate when opportunities will come to you" (Photo: Official Website, FIBA)

When he is far from Israel, Shamir talks about his angle in Danny Abdia's entry into the NBA.

"I got to talk to a lot of NBA executives who wanted to know about R.J. Hampton and Lamello Bull, and always asked about Danny Abdia. Already during the year I knew a lot of good teams and respectable people considered him great potential. Talking about him was very strong, he was a choice. Top 5 for sure. I have no touch with him, but he's probably a very special player. There are not many players at this height with this game vision and versatility. See what he did in the Euroleague and compare to players who were in the draft with him. There are not many players like that. We know about What level is it, what shots he should have taken in teams like Maccabi, and who he should have kept. I'm sure he's a player with a safe niche in the NBA. This is probably just the beginning. I do not pretend to understand him too much, it's a different sport and it's "Just the beginning. From what little I understand and know about the NBA, there are not many players like Danny Abdia, every NBA team wants a player like him. So I am sure he will have a good long career."

Are you starting a second season, do you already have the next direction, the next dream?

Euroleague?

NBA?

"You have to get into the head of someone who is in a professional sport, and not always the person who asks understands it. It's a very dynamic life. You do not know what the next thing will be. We are anxious that we do not know if it will be the next thing. You can plan and it's a waste of energy to think what's next. Katsch's story is a testament to how dynamic the business is and difficult to plan and anticipate when opportunities will come to you and things need to connect. A rational person like me does not think about these places. I'm very happy where I am, good for me In all respects, also personally and competitively, the interest and people I am with. What will happen in a year? It's hard for me to predict, Gani is signed here for another year, it's better not to think far. I take things in proportion, I coach in a good place, when I step on the field under normal conditions I enter a beautiful arena with 10,000 people and good basketball, what's wrong with me? What am I missing? ".

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