By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
Every veteran player have to “kill the player inside him”. Some of them succeed. Others don’t. Carlos Jimenez belongs to the second category. After 18 successful years in Estudiantes and Malaga, the 36 year old forward decided to retire, although he had a very efficient season.
Malaga’s administration appreciating his basketball instinct, asked him to start his coaching career next to Jasmin Repesa. But he denied because, as he told them, he wanted to start his career from the bottom at Unicaja’s youth teams and to advance gradually. As he used to say to his friends, he was tired with the life of a top level basketball professional of top.
He started to work as coach in Unicaja’s youth teams and almost the same time Repesa was searching for an experienced forward who would play few minutes for a couple of months, until Sergi Vidal come back from his injury. So, it proved to be an easy decision. Jimenez put his coaching career on hold and wore again his jersey with a one month contract. He integrated immediately to the preparation games wanting to compete also against… age.