By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Sacramento Kings forward and former EuroLeague MVP Sasha Vezenkov touched on how he experienced last season in the NBA, the differences in the day-to-day routine compared to his seasons in Europe and the relationship between players and coaches.
Here’s what Vezenkov said as a speaker at the 2024 EuroLeague Head Coaches Board congress that is currently taking place in Athens, Greece.
In the NBA with all the trips, my first season was crazy. You just go from one hotel to the other and from there to the arena and the facilities. Then you play with a different team and have to read the scouting report. Then you play and travel again. It’s very hard to remember everything.
First of all, you have to be very resilient and tough mentally and then physically
Coaches have to be honest with their players and, of course, players have to always tell the truth to their coaches. Because if I go to the coach and tell him some things and then he tells me something just to make me feel better, everything will change. Now there are a lot more disputes on teams and there should be a willingness for you to learn from your coach but also from the coach to learn from you. So everything matters.
I disagreed with the Strength and Conditioning coach (ed.note: of Olympiacos). I asked him why I played 15 minutes. He told me: ‘Because that’s what I say and because the coach says so.’
I love the game. This is why we’re getting paid because we want to play more. Every player is looking for something. We athletes are difficult. Even if you play 40 minutes and lose, you’ll go to the coach and tell them, “See, I’m tired, why did I play 40 minutes?
So you see. We have problems all the time. We have to communicate. We are like little children. You have to trust your coach and he has to trust you and this is how you build a good team.
When I started playing, everything was different We had these long preparation periods before every season. We were practicing the same things and, to be honest, the players who played more had different programs. Coaches tried but, as I said to be honest the players who played more were more important.
But as you play more you have different needs, the strain is different. When I began playing 10 years ago, games were fewer, everything was different. Now, you have 80 games, it’s almost impossible to do the practices you want. Now practices are shorter.
Thanks to ELPA (EuroLeague Players Association), there are different rules about double practices. Each player is different because each player has serious injuries, their own routine, and different needs when it comes to weight lifting. Teams have to build a good staff. The head coach should be occupied with everything that happens on the floor, that’s his job. So all the support comes from the staff.
Whether you play much or not, you have to find balance. When you don’t play much, you have to practice more, you have to find out how you’ll work. In the NBA, everything is different, everything has been very specific for years. Here in Europe, we have to make moves to go forward and to help in the development of these things”.