Sergio Hernández: "A coach must teach, not command"

The interview with Sergio Hernández (Bahía Blanca, Argentina, 57 years old) was postponed in its day due to the death of Diego Armando Maradona.

"My head is not for notes.

I am absolutely in

shock

”, He apologized that November afternoon to postpone the appointment and mourn the loss of the myth and the friend.

“I was left with the reflection of how many things Diego came to transmit so that the commotion was so unanimous, between devotees and non-devotees.

And also the idea of ​​how to put the stone on death and continue walking, as in the construction of the Chinese wall.

You have to take advantage of the here and now ”, says the Argentine coach (Olympic bronze in 2008 and world silver in 2019).

The news caught him just arrived in Zaragoza - where these days he fights to straighten the course of Casademont after a bad start to the course -, the land in which his compatriot León Najnudel made history.

Question.

That Najnudel adventure in 1984 —when he won the Cup directing Kevin Magee's CAI— marked the city of Zaragoza and also Argentine basketball.

Answer.

Yes. For the coaches of my generation and for Argentine basketball, Najnudel is our messiah.

He was the creator of our national league, just after his brief stint in Zaragoza.

What he saw here definitely inspired him.

There was talk of professionalizing basketball in our country, but it seemed like a utopia.

He won that Cup and earned a respect that could have served him to continue working in Spain, but he understood that his mission was to transfer that concept of league to his country, to mark a before and after.

Leon made it possible.

With the basketball tool he taught us life and took care to dignify the profession of coach.

MORE INFORMATION

• Scola, the anguish of legend

• Scola gives himself a tribute and puts Argentina in the World Cup final

• Campazzo surrenders to the Serbian monster

P. When

did you embrace the job of coach?

R.

From very early on, I understood basketball as something more than a job.

Back in 1992 the unconsciousness of youth helped me in my beginnings in professionalism.

But, in 94, my two children were born and this stopped being a game.

If I did things right I could feed them, if not, everything would get complicated.

It seems like an enormous privilege to be able to work on your passion, but it also has its complexity, because you put everything in a single basket: self-esteem, money, humor… When something goes wrong, what you least remember is your pocket.

Your soul hurts, you feel the worst.

So you have to be careful, do your job as well as possible, but without thinking that the world is a basketball.

Q.

Do you become a coach when you are young because you don't have enough to play or because you see the game with a greater perspective than others?

R.

Because it does not give you, without a doubt.

Or because it gave you and then you want to continue.

But nobody prefers to be a coach to a player.

At the age of 20, I was studying, I was with my girlfriend, I led five teams of kids and played.

I had to give up something and I left what I did worst which was play.

But the essence of the game is to play it.

The rest of us are collaborators who help those who run and jump to be as well prepared and organized as possible.

In my first Games in Beijing 2008, I found out.

We got bronze and I got ready to get on the podium.

There they stopped me.

I explained to them that I was the coach, but they made it clear to me that there were 12 medals and they were for athletes.

They are the only essentials.

The leadership of a coach is a service.

It is not about commanding but about trying to teach.

The coaching position is not a place of power.

Q.

Is the great power to gain authority?

A.

Without a doubt.

If you become a coach because you like to command rather than teach, you will have a short career.

Authority gives you power later.

A healthy power.

Bielsa always says that he works to get them to follow him out of conviction, not obedience.

When you convince the force is tremendous.

What I aspire to with my teams is to build an identity and win and lose with that identity.

Playing with personality makes you happy, whatever happens.

It is more difficult to be yourself and have a personality than to win.

Q.

What key is the first you play when you enter a locker room?

R.

When you get up on the fly, as happened to me here in Zaragoza, the first thing to do is touch the key of illusion.

That the illusion to win can with the fear of losing.

Even in an emergency, you have to clear the doubts that make you small.

Afterwards, the motivation is overestimated.

It seems that the harangue is fundamental and the reality is that the main thing is the tactical order, the player wants those tools of knowledge of the game.

Chest blows and 'we are the best' can sometimes serve as candy, but it is not the way.

The basis of leadership is knowledge, not eggs or rasmia, as they say here.

Q.

A few weeks ago you apologized for having told your players during a time out that they looked like "babes".

R.

We still have or have stupid impulses that one has to remove like husks.

Those impulses make us see the things that we have not completely overcome.

If you say that we play like girls, it is because you still consider girls weaker.

I apologize, but at the same time I continue to cultivate myself to change.

I am 57 years old and I was educated in things that today are a must to rethink.

Clarifying that what I said is wrong seemed the right thing to do.

My mother had to wait at home while my father went out to get the money.

If I had lived today I would have done a lot of things.

Thank god that has changed today.

Q.

What advice did your parents give you and what do you advise your children?

R.

At 40, my father told me 'don't listen to those who say that life is short.

This is very long and there is time for everything. '

Sometimes you think that your moment is over or you complain about pressure, but everything has its time.

My children are surely going to be globetrotters, as I have been.

I have two 26-year-old male twins, both basketball coaches.

And the advice I gave you is to incorporate into your life everything that you can take on a whirlwind trip.

The pleasure of reading, music, art, curiosity, knowledge, all that does not take up space in the suitcase and allows you not to be alone.

Happiness is not sought, it is found.

Q.

In his two stages as an Argentine coach, he has lived the journey with the

golden generation

and has set up the relay with the runner-up group in China 2019.

A.

From within, the process was not so surprising.

We watched the new creature grow and dismissed the old one.

In 2015, this litter began to develop, which was runner-up in China.

We played a Pan American in Toronto with an average 19-year-old team, no one remembers it but there we saw that there was something.

With the reinforcement of Scola and Nocioni, many of these young people made it to Rio, where Ginobili and Delfino later joined.

The spectacular legacy of the

golden generation

is in everything they achieved and in how they stimulated the growth of the Campazzo, Garino, Deck, Vildoza… They accompanied them, propped them up and let go of their hand at the right moment.

This litter shares with their elders the pleasure of playing together, of making a team.

There is a lot of work behind it, it is not overnight, but I really enjoyed it.

Today you also realize, looking at the level of several of them, that we have very good players.

It was not a miracle.

P.

Many parallels with the Spanish team with which they met in the final in China and so many other times.

R.

Unfortunately, we crossed too much.

Because they always beat us.

We admire each other as rivals.

Forgetting the USA, Spain is the best team of the last 15 or 20 years, without a doubt.

In 2006 they were unstoppable and did not lower the level.

P.

Chapu Nocioni once said that his generation lacked a Pau Gasol or a Marc, do you agree?

R.

Imagine the

golden generation

, or even this one, with one of the Gasols.

They are differential.

We had a tremendous couple like Oberto and Scola, who played by heart, but perhaps we lacked that plus.

But the thing is that Marc and Pau would also like to have the US, not just us.

Before Jokic, you already have to go to Sabonis to find such decisive and intelligent centers, with so much reading of the game.

They are capable of scoring 20 points or scoring six and dishing 10 assists.

The whole world envies them.

MORE INFORMATION

• Nocioni: "Competitiveness does not erode over the years"

P.

How would you order all the talent you have directed in the Argentine team?

R.

Manu Ginobili is detached from everyone.

Afterwards I have had incredible players.

Perhaps Luis Scola is also detached.

To this day he continues to show us the way.

What he did in the World Cup in China, I who have known him for 15 years, I can not believe it yet.

What he did on the court and outside ... As the pursuit of excellence teaches us every day ... Ginobili and Scola are going to be the two best players in the history of Argentine basketball for a long time.

Later, if the perfect Argentine player had to be designed ... he would have the character of Nocioni, the talent of Ginobili and Delfino, the perseverance and leadership of Scola, the vision of the game of Prigioni, Campazzo and Pepe Sánchez ... and the understanding of the Oberto's role.

And the last ball always to Manu.

The ball always at

10

.

P.

Is your arrival in European basketball complicating your life or the challenge you played?

That vindictive phrase of 'Obradovic earns in one day what I earn in more than a month'.

R.

I know it is complicating my life, but it is what I am looking for.

Standing still in the comfort zone at 57 is dangerous.

I distrust comfort.

I had two options, either get old or renew myself to stay young.

And for that you have to get into trouble.

There is always hunger.

The myth that winners lose their hunger is a lie.

The one who wins is getting hungrier.

You try to go as high as possible.

Coming to Europe was a challenge and here I am, wanting to do my best every minute.

Later time will tell.

I'm still looking for challenges, I'll get tired one day.