Spain has won four European Championships and all four with Sergio Scariolo on the bench (2009, 2011, 2015 and 2022).
The coach on the flank and Rudy Fernández on the pitch are the common thread between the golden generation and the newcomers.
In this Eurobasket he has led the renewal towards a success that hardly anyone could imagine.
Scariolo (Brescia, 61 years old) has added his eighth medal in 10 major events with the victory in the championship.
He has a contract until the 2024 Games, the culminating point of this cycle marked by the generational change.
On the plane back from Berlin to Madrid, the coach analyzes the success of a new group and the role of its protagonists.
Tiredness doesn't drown out emotion.
Ask.
Is this one of the tournaments in which you have felt more like a coach?
Response.
Being a coach involves many facets, management, leadership, techniques, tactics, responsibility... I can't say that one aspect is more important than another, but each team still needs a little more of one or a little of the other.
In other years we have expressed a high-quality basketball, due to the individual talent that we had in the team.
What we've achieved now, this gold with a team that had a very different amount of talent than before, speaks volumes about the ability of the players to cohere so well that these individual components have worked as a performance multiplier. each.
On other occasions, I have had a greater personal difficulty in this type of management, because the players had to accept putting aside their egos and entering roles.
That's why I said that now I've been able to play basketball with some players from whom I've never had a problem asking for more.
They have all teamed up.
It has been very rewarding.
P.
Has it surprised you how the team has exceeded its own limits?
R.
I was surprised by the result and if there is one who says no, he lies.
But when you know them so well, have trained them so many times and have followed them since they were children, you know what can be found.
Of course, then you put them together and the final collective result depends on the chemistry, on the decisions that are made... We are here so that the players can get together, but it is not possible to know in advance how that will work.
Now, these factors that depended on the work have fit one hundred percent and the final collective result has been of a high level.
P.
The Spanish team causes great admiration for its results.
Do you also feel admired?
R.
Apart from me this year, the coach's work is subject to the assessment of people who in most cases do not have the deep knowledge to be able to do it.
Here in the end they are worth sympathies, antipathies and results.
When you take it on, you take a little bit out of that debate.
Neither for better nor for worse that interests me more than normal.
If I were aware of that, I would neither have the emotional balance to live on a personal level nor to be able to lead groups of this type under pressure.
Honestly, I'm relatively concerned.
Basketball is a simple game.
10 men chase a ball for 40 minutes and at the end, Spain always win.#EuroBasket x #BringTheNoise pic.twitter.com/jIeftfRmCI
– #EuroBasket 2022 (@EuroBasket) September 18, 2022
P.
How much has Rudy helped you as an example of work for the youngest?
A.
Very much.
It has been incredible how at 37 years old he has been able to give the best version of himself, quickly entering a role that he did not have, because until recently Rudy was an example leader on the court, but the visible, vocal and public leaders were others.
Rudy has quickly understood the difference in the situation, he has entered the role as has happened before, even overcoming difficult moments on a personal level.
He was between the older brother and the father of some.
What has been surprising is how you saw him play with the machines and get as if sitting in the park playing with the children.
That was the image with the 20 or 21 year olds that we have.
Awesome.
Q.
As for Willy, do you think he was ready to have more prominence before this Eurobasket?
R.
It is the sweet price we have paid.
And some have not been as lucky as Willy to still have a moment of full maturity in which it was finally their turn to take the step forward.
Some have stayed on the sidelines and have even left without having this opportunity.
Willy, with intelligence, has understood that he had two legends before him [Pau and Marc Gasol] and has waited for his moment.
Already last year he had a growth and we knew that now he had to assume this role.
He has done it and it is an assumption of responsibility for the future.
Willy is a player who has room for improvement and whom his teammates will look at with different eyes because they expect him to be a leader, an example and a reference every day, every game.
That is the sweet price to pay for status.
P.
Why did you say that in the case of Lorenzo Brown and his nationalization there has been xenophobia?
R.
It is a topic that right now does not come to mind to deal with.
We will deal with it at the time because it is worth it.
All experiences have to teach things.
Now is the time not to detract from the team's success.
Q.
Why has Brown fit in so well?
R.
When you know a team well, you know what the team needs.
Sportingly, we are delighted with its provision.
What has been surprising is how a player who has been in the NBA and the Euroleague, who asks to play for the Spanish team because it is his sporting dream, has adapted without earning a penny, giving up his American passport, which is not a .
And from day one with humility, a willingness to join the group learning, listening, respecting the veterans, the codes, even playing pocha.
This really has surpassed any imagination.
It was to put something different within the group as a formation compared to the rest and the way in which it has fit in has been impressive.
Scariolo, during the Eurobasket.FILIP SINGER (EFE)
P.
What does the victory of Spain mean?
R.
Once again it is confirmed that this is a team sport, in which the team that does the best wins.
Normally, the most talented team also manages to come together and perform.
And it is not easier.
It can be even more difficult when there are many stars, who have to find a smaller role.
Others have not succeeded as well.
We, yes, with an advantage, that many of these players have been playing together for a long time, growing up, doing the same things, within the same system and the same way of living together.
This cohesion, due to the work of all these years, gave us an advantage.
P.
Do you understand that there are players who have given up playing with Spain?
R.
It is a free, voluntary choice.
I can't judge, and less in the case of players who had already shown their commitment.
It has happened to me that a player who at a given moment has resigned, then he has told me: "You can't imagine how much I've regretted it."
But it is a family that does not exclude.
Doors are not closed here.
Obviously, certain priority rights are generated for the future, because that is the law of life.
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