Laso's great journey: from Pablito to Don Pablo

On the afternoon of June 29, 2011, in the press room of the Santiago Bernabéu, no one had the feeling that they were witnessing the beginning of an era.

But

Pablo Laso

(Vitoria, 53 years old) appeared there with a clear idea.

“I arrive with the hope of resuming the values ​​of Madridismo, of creating, with work and effort, a communion with the fans to turn around the criticism of these days.

I accept the challenge with as much enthusiasm as responsibility ”, he solemnly recounted in his presentation as the new Real Madrid coach, projecting his ideas and defending himself from the general rejection that his appointment triggered.

“I am very funny about the inexperience.

Obradovic won the European Cup in his debut and then he won another and another ... Experience must not be confused with ability and I feel qualified, "he responded firmly to the misgivings about his lack of curriculum.

THE INTERVIEWS WITH PABLO LASO

• 2011. "No coach hits baskets"

• 2013. "I value the path more than the titles"

• 2015. "We neither give up before nor settle now"

Nine and a half years have passed since that day and, in this time, Laso has won 20 titles (5 Leagues, 6 Cups, 6 Super Cups, 2 Euroleague and 1 Intercontinental) and has built the third golden age of Madrid basketball after which Pedro Ferrándiz and Lolo Sainz built.

Step by step until he completed the 734 games with which this Sunday, in the ACB match against Estudiantes (white victory by 65-79), he equaled Lolo Sainz as the coach with the most matches directed in the history of Madrid.

Gone are the 605 that the famous Miguel Muñoz served on the football team bench.

A path as lofty as it is unexpected.

An update of the encyclopedia and the record of Madrid that came rescuing the historical formula of the club, as Pedro Ferrándiz explains at 92 years of age.

“Laso's great revolution was looking to the past.

His Madrid is the reflection of the philosophy and style that 50 years ago cemented the club's glory: perseverance, spectacle and effectiveness.

It has revitalized the idea that should never have been lost.

He rescued what I left as an inheritance ”, details the pioneer and refounder of basketball in Spain.

Ferrándiz has the most successful track record in the club with 12 Leagues, 11 Cups and 4 European Cups in his 13 courses as a coach.

He is followed by Lolo Sainz, the outstanding disciple who inherited the

Myth

board

and prolonged the successes of his predecessor after participating in them as a player.

In Lolo's file on the Madrid bench: 8 Leagues, 5 Cups and 2 European Cups in 14 seasons.

Nobody made more than they did in the white house.

The 69 titles that result from adding the 27 by Ferrándiz, the 22 by Sainz and the 20 by Laso account for 76% of Madrid's showcases (91 trophies in the 89-year history of the section).

“Pablo arrived with the lesson learned, from his time as a player and from having lived it at home.

I knew what Madrid was, what it needed, what the public wanted ”, develops Sainz.

“Afterwards, the structure of the project has been fundamental.

It was a success to put everything together in the tone of a nucleus of national players in the category of Felipe, Rudy and Llull, with foreigners who make up the family like Carroll.

The dynamics of many signings and little patience were cut.

This is how a recognizable and recognized Madrid has been built.

The fans returned to the Palace excited to see their team ”, continues Lolo, who also emphasizes another essential aspect.

“In sports and in a club like Madrid, the fundamental thing is to win and that Laso has also done very well.

Here, being second is a mortal sin, "he says.

Sainz draws the same line as Ferrándiz to relate Laso's Madrid to the club's history.

“I was soon convinced.

Since I saw how the team played.

For people it was a new, surprising thing.

For me it was to rescue and continue our lifelong style: defense, rebound and counterattack.

Madrid returned to its essence of commitment and competitiveness.

And Pablo, in a way, to his childhood ”.

THE INTERVIEWS WITH PABLO LASO

• 2016. "I was the one who trusted the most."

  400 matches.

• 2018. "The identity of this team is the greatest title."

  500 matches.

• 2019. "The goal does not have to be only to win."

  600 games.

"It's ready"

Laso grew up on a basketball court since he was a child, as his teacher, the famous coach from Vitoria Xabier Añua, tells us.

“When he was four or five or years old, he came to his father [Pepe] trainings in the Mendizorroza pavilion.

There he played and ran with the ball, which was bigger than him, ”says Añua before detailing Pablo's beginnings.

“He came very well trained from the San Viator school, where he acquired a very strong discipline.

But, when he was 15 years old, his father sent him to a

college

in the United States to complete his studies, learn English and play there ”.

Pablo's return to Spain coincided with Añua's reinstatement to the benches, at Baskonia in the 1984-1985 season.

And he did not hesitate to make his debut in the ACB, with just 17 years.

“He came with a maturity and a very advanced mentality compared to the rest.

I really liked him as a player, he was small, but how he ran, what vision of the game he had!

He was always thinking about the team.

He already commanded, he had intelligence and passion.

You could see it was going to be

a beast

.

He was a child, but he was a leader, he made himself heard.

Soon he saw that basketball was going to be his thing ”, analyzes Añua.

Laso played 10 seasons at Baskonia and, in 1995, Pedro Ferrándiz, then acting as technical secretary, signed him for a Madrid undergoing reconstruction after winning his eighth European Cup and Sabonis' subsequent departure to the NBA.

"He is an unrepeatable player and it hurts me not to have coincided to have given him all possible assists," said Laso (historical leader of assists in the ACB), remembering Sabonis in his first appearance in white.

He spent two courses under Obradovic and barely a dozen games with Miguel Ángel Martín,

El Cura

, before throwing the blanket over his head and packing his bags for Cáceres.

He only won a Recopa with the white tank top.

Since Laso's departure, in 1997, until his second arrival at the club, in 2011, Madrid only won four trophies in 14 seasons: Sergio Scariolo's League, in 2000;

that of Bozidar Maljkovic, in 2005, with the triple of Herreros in Vitoria;

and the League and ULEB double with Joan Plaza in 2007.

Laso did not take long to channel his vocation towards the benches, marked by the influence of technicians such as Herb Brown and Manel Comas.

“He immediately started training in Castellón, a year after retiring.

And soon after, Valencia called him.

It was a very premature start ”, Añua takes up.

“To train in a team of that entity you have to have more training.

You need to know in which terrain you move with managers, players ... That did not go well for him.

But he has always been very smart and very humble.

He had the ability to retrace the path, he went to Cantabria and then to San Sebastián and there he started the race again from below, in the LEB.

The four seasons that he was in Gipuzkoa served him to

beat him

well in the profession ”, completes Laso's mentor.

“When Alberto Herreros and Juan Carlos Sánchez asked, they were told: 'it's ready.'

And they dared to bet on him.

He arrived as Pablito, he became Pablo and now he is Don Pablo.

Madrid is a way of life and Laso knew how to adapt perfectly because he had known the lesson for a long time.

Pablo is very Madridista, because he lived it since he was a child, because Pepe was very very Madridista.

That of the

men of the house

is not a cliché, it is a great success ”, closes Añua, which marks a turning point for Laso in those in San Sebastián, in which he flew with an independent mentality, forging his personality as a distant coach of the paternal ancestor.

New generation

Laso appeared in Madrid with 124 matches directed in ACB in his service record, with a balance of 49 victories and 75 defeats.

There was no European competition or

playoff

game on his resume

.

“Madrid is spirit and results.

Knowing that is the experience that Laso brought and he knew how to transfer that demand and responsibility to the players quickly ”, Lolo Sainz takes up.

“A great level of trust was worked with them.

I've never seen a player blame anything for anything.

He always talks about the team and in the plural.

When it is lost it is always a 'we have been wrong', including itself.

If the coach is devoted to the cause, the players follow him with the same force ”, Lolo emphasizes.

"He is following the purest canons of the club in terms of play and attitude, and he knows a lot about basketball," adds Ferrándiz.

“That knowledge is not a matter of handling 25,000 plays, but of knowing how to manage the group.

He treats the players very well, demands them, yells at them, but he also knows how to give them a hug at the right time.

At all times he has been face to face.

He carved out his own method, he knows how to squeeze the veterans, he distinguishes the young people who are going to be good ... He is a very powerful person internally ”, confirms Añua, who highlights in his disciple the same virtues that his most emblematic players of this tour.

MORE INFORMATION

• The evolution of Lasism

Sergio Rodríguez, one of the icons of

Lasism

, explains it like this.

“He is a coach who lets us play, but he also sets many guidelines for reading the game.

We build the confidence to be champions.

The merit is not only the titles but also having started to reach the finals that, for many years, were not reached.

And always compete ”, emphasizes El Chacho.

“His message reaches us because he continues to speak the player's language.

It does not bind us, it gives us happiness ”, Facundo Campazzo said before leaving for the NBA, the seventh to promote the basketball mecca under Laso's command.

“He made us believe from the beginning.

He implemented an intense and fast style in which we players feel comfortable.

Based on trust, we achieve a regularity that we did not have before, ”says Llull.

A journey of 10 seasons and 734 tiles.

A constant transformation in which Laso has managed 58 players.

“The last great challenge ahead is to build a new Madrid with a new generation, that of the Alocén, Abalde and Garuba.

And then he will say: 'well, 12 or 13 years have passed, and I'm leaving before they get tired of me, "Añua sentenced when talking about the coach's contract that ended this summer and is pending renewal.

“Laso has contributed criteria, normality and sensitivity.

He has known how to keep the history of Real Madrid basketball alive and carve out a great niche in it, ”Ferrándiz closed.

👌 @pablolaso ​​talks about his 700 matches in @RMBaloncesto: "I feel very proud to reach such a large number."

#HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/XAhi3hu9o3

- Real Madrid Basket (@RMBaloncesto) October 25, 2020