By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
A long journey indeed for Aito Garcia Reneses with his coaching career stretching through five decades. The 73-year-old Spaniard sat down with Eurohoops discussing his approach to squad members, young upstarts rushing to move to the NBA and more.
“One of the things for us coaches is to help our team to be better and the best way is for them getting better every day,” he pointed out on developing players, “The main goal for the coaches is to have his team play at 100%, if possible 100% every week, every month, every year. It’s better because they are improving. This is the best thing without considering if you are at the top level or with young players that play in junior competitions.”
“I think sometimes it’s good, but most of the times it’s not good,” Reneses remarked on European upstarts making the NBA jump early in their careers, “Because they aren’t only attracted by the salary, but also because the NBA is very famous and they feel very well there. Sometimes they do the mistake of going there and they lose a few years. Other times they don’t.”
“I enjoyed it every time from the beginning to the end,” he mentioned looking back on his coaching path, “Yes, I was at Barcelona and there were a lot of people that were saying I am very bad, but really I don’t think it was true. Now, these last years, everybody is saying I am doing very well, which is not always true. You must be satisfied with the job you are doing and that’s why I continue being a coach.”
His full interview on Eurohoops TV: