Nacho García: "In Spain there is no firm commitment to women's basketball" 

"I asked for a professional contract. They didn't answer me. I packed my bags and left". That was the beginning of Nacho García's second period as a basketball coach. The day he tells Estudiantes that his work deserves more than a handout.   

Before that, he had played basketball until he was 18. An injury forced him to retire. A player "nothing extraordinary", as he defines himself, who played for Agustiniano and Canoe.  

At the age of 16 he was already coaching 8 year olds. He has played for all the girls' youth teams in Madrid: Agustianiano, Canoe, Majadahonda, Estudiantes and Leganés. That did not secure him a contract to coach the women's elite in the Euroleague, but it does allow him to give his opinion on women's basketball and training.  

Lucas Modelo and Víctor Lapeña have taken him to the best basketball in Europe, first at Dynamo Kursk and now at Fenerbahçe. In Turkey he assists last season's best coach and the best girls in world basketball.   

What is the assistant coach role like in Europe?  

Assistant coaches are becoming more and more important. In Euroleague men's teams, each coach has his own staff. In Fenerbahçe, Zeljko Obradovic was there for seven years and he is like a god. He brought in José María Izquierdo with whom he coincided in Badalona, now Igor Kokoskov has come and he has brought the assistant he had in the Slovenian national team.   

Normally it's someone you trust because you're away and, although the most important thing is the work and someone with ability, who helps, who contributes and provides balance, there is also life after that because we are on our own. It is necessary to have someone from your country, someone who understands you... With Víctor Lapeña I have a very good professional and personal relationship. And that has helped us a lot.  

What is your job at Fenerbahce?  

I am Victor's first assistant. Then there is a Turkish and a Serbian. I analyse our team, our Euroleague opponents and the most important ones in our league. I also analyse our squad. The team work is prepared together by Victor and me. We have discussions about what we would do in opposing roles to find out where we would hurt each other.    

Victor gives me a lot of space in the matches. He consults me on decisions, I suggest ideas... You feel useful and that's very important. If I have an idea that Victor thinks is good, he gives me the board so that I can explain it to the girls during the match. But it's clear to me that he's responsible for the final decision.  

How did last season end?  

It was a shame. We won the President Cup which is like the Super Cup, then we won the Turkish Cup with authority. In the Euroleague we finished first in the group with three defeats out of 14 games. We beat good teams. We won the first play-off game at home. That was when the pandemic was coming to Europe. After that game we got a call from the General Manager to tell us that training was suspended until further notice. All the leagues around the world in all sports started to stop, the coronavirus was near. They called us on a Thursday at 18:00 and we flew back on the last flight to Spain on 17 March. After all the work you do, to not be able to finish the season because of such a dramatic situation is a shame. Nothing was recovered. We were ready to come back in June, but everything was cancelled.   

How did you deal with the pandemic so far from home?  

I wasn't really aware of what was going on. In Istanbul the government didn't give much information, but I was shocked and almost burst into tears when I arrived in Spain. At Barajas I picked up my bags and was outside in just 10 minutes. There was no one in the terminal, only the police and the taxis. We didn't pass any cars on the M40, I could see queues in the supermarkets... the arrival was hard. I got over it when I saw my wife and daughter. I was asking the taxi driver questions and I was shocked.   

Where are you now in the competition?  

Now we have 8 games left in the regular league. We haven't played the Cup or the Super Cup. The Cup was suspended to finish the league. In Euroleague we have played both rounds in a bubble. Before there were two groups of eight teams in the regular phase. This year they have made four groups of four teams. The first bubble was played in Istanbul and we had the group of death. We arrived with seven players with covid who joined with a week's training. You can't imagine what we suffered in that bubble. We had an injury to starting point guard Jazmine Thomas - Connecticut's point guard in the NBA - and she didn't play the second game. We beat the Poles with only one point guard. In the third game our remaining point guard was injured due to a head injury and we lost to Lyon by 14 points. In the second bubble we have been better because we have a good roster and healthy girls.   

 Did you also have to spend the covid away from home?  

I spent it without smell or taste. And I was exhausted. No energy. Eleven days at home. It took me almost three weeks to recover completely. I extrapolated it to the players and I understood their suffering. In training we had to open the doors of the pavilion so that those who had been ill could come out and breathe because they were short of breath.  

Why did you leave Spain?  

 I saw that my cycle of five years and four promotion phases at Leganés was over. I wasn't happy in my job either. Because basketball was not enough to live on. In Liga 1 it's just enough, but the salaries in Spain are very low. In the end a lot of things came together. At that moment Lucas Mondelo called me. It was the oasis. I had been doing this all my life and I had the opportunity to play with a Euroleague champion and with the best players in the world.   

How did you know Modelo?  

I played with him in the Spanish national team in 2008. I worked in training. We have always kept in touch. We talked a lot, I followed him in Salamanca. One year I was with him when he passed through Madrid and I told him that if there was a chance for me to be in his team, I would like to try. The day he called me we had just bought a new house, he was putting in some chairs. He called me and I thought it was strange that he did it without writing to me first. He offered me to go to Russia. I told him that I would call him in 30 seconds. When I told my wife about it, she started crying with joy because she knew I wanted something like that.   

What I found, apart from the economic aspect, has nothing to do with what I find in Spain. The sporting aspect is important because it is not easy to make your way in Europe with two teams as important as Dynamo Kursk and now with Fenerbahce.   

What is your life like in Istanbul?  

It is a very Europeanised city. We live in the Asian area which is very modern, with skyscrapers... it really caught my attention. I live five minutes from the pavilion. The first time I came here was with Dynamo Kursk against Fenerbahçe in the Euroleague and I remember that as soon as we got on the bus we heard the call to Muslim prayer. That scared me, but when you live here you realise that it's like everywhere else: there are people who are Muslim and follow all the rules and there are many people who eat pork, drink alcohol, never pray... it's not like you imagine it before coming here. I live in Rivas (Madrid) and I see a lot of women with their hair covered, more than where I live in Istanbul. Maybe there are more in the European area. They are people with that Mediterranean touch of closeness that after coming from Russia is very much appreciated. They have an amazing gastronomic culture. In Spain you stay for lunch or dinner, but here you stay for breakfast. They have farms with football pitches, baskets... they meet at 11 or 12 o'clock in the morning and eat non-stop all day.   

Are you affected by political issues?  

Now with the coronavirus, from nine o'clock in the evening no one can be on the streets from Monday to Friday and at weekends everything is confined. We have been like this for almost three months.    

Why is there no support for women's basketball in Spain? 

In Spain there is no firm commitment to women's basketball except in exceptions such as Valencia, Girona or Salamanca. It is an economic issue. If you want to put on a show, you have to have money to hire the best players.   

In Turkey, they are very committed. The best league in Europe is the Turkish league. Apart from Ekaterinburg, the best Americans are in Turkey. There are fans, people follow it, they watch it... Whoever is a Fenerbahçe fan is a fan of all the club's sports. Last year we experienced spectacular things. If we go to play abroad and in that city there is no basketball or football team for boys, all the Fenerbahçe fans come to see you and you put half of your team in a hall with four thousand spectators.   

In Spain, coaches have to be respected by paying them for their exclusive dedication to their job. I don't know if everyone has a contract as it should be. I think they brought out a law that made it mandatory to do things right. They are almost handouts. Either you have a patron like in Valencia or in Salamanca with Perfumerías Avenida who supports the team or it is very difficult to make a living from women's basketball. It's almost impossible. You would have to stay in Salamanca for the rest of your life.    

Do your beginnings in grassroots teams help you in your work? 

Yes, you never have to lose perspective. You have to remember where you come from. My daughter has been playing since she was 8 years old and she is now 12. It is important to know all the different ages of basketball. All experiences are good for you. We have players here who are millionaires. Stars like Kayla McBride, Satou Sabally... they have a lot of prestige. Even for dealing with them, this point of view is also useful.   

How do you see basketball in training?  

Training basketball is being corrupted by the desire of young coaches to win. They forget about small-ball training. It's a culture that I don't know where it leads, but I can assure you that being champion of Madrid in the minors is not going to guarantee you a Euroleague contract.   

I have worked with the Madrid Basketball Federation in the training courses for level 0, 1 and 2 coaches. When I arrived in Leganés I proposed to the club and the sports councillor to remove the results of the local league games. The problem in these age groups is not so much the competitive coaches but the parents of the children who are all day protesting or saying how good their child is. I proposed to remove the results so that the kids play and don't give importance to the result.  So that they have fun. To get them hooked. There was no way.  

I've stopped going to see matches in the fry, cadet and other categories because they've lost the idea that the best player wins. Now you find areas in children... things that catch your attention and a lot of importance is given to the result too soon. This worries me about sport in training. If you care about the result, players 12, 11, 10 and 9 are of little importance to you. And without those players you can't have a team. What's happening in Spain is that a lot of boys and girls are stopping playing earlier than they should because they get discouraged. They train not to play and you have to train to play.   

Is training a girl different from training a boy? 

It's more about the person than the gender. We have all kinds of personalities. American, Turkish, Italian, Ukrainian... each one has her own personality. Victor and I, when we make the team, the first thing we always ask is what the player is like on a personal level. If she is a normal girl, if she has a big ego, if she is the typical one who needs a house facing south, an 18th floor and a driver... we try to have reliable references. So far we have not been wrong. We have very normal players, very direct, they do what you tell them to do. The relationship between us and them is fluid.   

How does professional basketball treat players who want to become mothers? 

Normally if it is planned, the player says so. It happened to me in Leganés with Estela Rubio, but it was at the end of the season and it didn't affect me too much. Then she didn't play the following year. There are not many cases either. The only thing missing was for there to be a problem at work because a girl got pregnant.   

Is the situation for female players in Spain precarious?  

It depends on the club. In the women's league you can find players who earn over 100,000 euros gross per year and others who earn 600-700 euros per month and have another activity. There is a very big imbalance. The difference between Salamanca, Valencia, Girona and Zamora, Bembibre and other teams below them is huge. It is almost impossible for there to be surprises like in Turkey. All the teams have at least two foreign players who are very good. A bad day from you and a good day from them can make you lose a game.   

What percentage do you take away from Victor Lapeña's trophy for best coach? 

He always tells me that it is ours. We played very nice basketball last year. Very dynamic, running, open court, being aggressive at the back... it attracts attention. That and the 11-3 Euroleague win made a big difference. I'm proud that Victor was given the trophy because it's a recognition of his work, but also of the rest of the team.    

What are your objectives this season?  

This year is to get into the Euroleague Final Four and win the Turkish league.   

Do you notice the crowd in the stands?  

That's what I feel most sad about Turkey. From playing with a crowd to playing without a crowd there is a big difference. They have a law that forbids Fenerbahce fans to go to Galatasaray and vice versa.    

Is a Euroleague like the NBA possible?  

The league is played when the Euroleague lets you. It will end up being a European NBA. It is unfeasible for the players to keep up this pace for many years. The age at the end of a player's career is going to get shorter, they go from playing 50 games a year to 87. There are weeks when you don't see the Fenerbahçe men's team because they play two Euroleague games away, two Turkish league games away and the following week they have another game away as well. When we talk to Kokoskov he tells us that he doesn't even know where he sleeps. The rosters now have 15 or 16 players because otherwise it is impossible to face the competitions.   

We are forced to have Turkish players in the squad, you hardly see them in the Euroleague but then they have to play in the Turkish league. Kokoskov has two teams, one for the domestic league and one for the Euroleague. It's similar for us. We have four Turkish players who play in the Euroleague but in the Turkish league we are forced to play with two Turkish players on the court at all times and out of the six foreign players we can only use four. That conditions us because they are two different quintets. In Euroleague we could play with a quasi-American line-up and in Turkey we have to combine: if we use the Turkish point guard and the Turkish centre, the two forwards are foreigners and the 4 is a foreigner. If we play the American point guard, we have to put a Turkish player at small forward and another at inside.   

How do you see the future of Pablo Laso?  

In basketball it is more accepted that there are coaches who stay in the same place for many years. The Real Madrid team has aged a lot in recent years because it has a lot of veterans. There will come a time when they have to be replaced. And it's going to be very difficult to get such good national and foreign players who identify so much with the club they play for. That's what used to happen with Iturriaga and company. That's not usually the case now, but Laso's Madrid has achieved it with players like Carroll and Taylor because they've been there for so many years. Laso can continue for another 10 years because the message will be the same. The problem will be to replace Reyes, Llul, Rudy or Carroll, who unfortunately will be gone.   

What is the secret in San Pablo Burgos?  

A great chemistry in the locker room and a very good coach. I'm sure. It's a bit like what happens to us. We have such a good locker room that when our players are not on the court they still have fun together. Burgos is made up of hard-working people who are very aware of their role, nobody takes their foot out of their work out of respect for the other and all of that has made them have a dressing room that is like a pineapple.   

How long will you stay in Turkey?  

Victor has renewed until 2023 and it's as if I had renewed myself. If they are happy with his work and if we achieve our objectives, we will continue. I am confident that we will do well and achieve our goals. I highly recommend this city.   

Will you return to Spain?  

I would like to return to be head coach, but I see it as very difficult. If you want to be in teams at this level to live Euroleague, to coach quality players...you have to be here. Unless basketball in Spain changes a lot and someone wants you in their team... I've thought about flying out of Spain on my own rather than returning to Spain. My idea is to continue with Victor.