By Niki Bakouli
Few hours after his agent let us know –via Twitter- that Rimas Kurtinaitis signed for two more years with BC Khimki, we have the honor to host his first interview, with the great help of Olga Krylova (Khimki’s press officer).
Read which words he choose in order to describe everyone of his players, what was the hardest task as the Russians were heading to Eurocup’s title and about the importance of someone giving you a chance to show who you really are…
– You said you’ve worked seven months for the moment you’ll take Eurocup. How hard were these months for all of you, with training and preparing the mentality of your players, so they’ll be 100% ready for the Eurocup Finals?
“Frankly, we had some fears of non-entering Eurocup Finals: whether would it be injuries or sudden losses – it would be a disaster for Khimki, its management, for the fans, for everyone because hosting the Eurocup Finals was a great responsibility for us. This very circumstance suppressed us, but it’s our job – to prepare players for important games. I’m happy we managed to do it during seven months and we were confident. Moreover we have performed well not only in Eurocup, but in VTB United League and Russian League as well. Psychologically, we became a team with a champion character. It’s a daily work and daily explanation to our players about our goals and purposes. I managed to convince the players we could do it and eventually we did it”.
– The fact your city hosted Eurocup Finals put more pressure to your players? Or it was another motivation to do the best you could?
“For sure, when Khimki was given the right of conducting the Eurocup Finals, we understood that it was a great responsibility. But we managed to cope with it successfully. Our home gym helped us but as I’ve said many times – when we are concentrated to our job, it doesn’t matter where we play. We had some advantage but a fan won’t score a free throw instead of you. They can only support. Everything depends on us”.
– Basketball is a team sport, but we rarely see one old school team play (one for all and all for the team)! What a coach really needs to convince his players to put down their egoism for the common good?
“Well, there are two ways of forming a team. First: you pick strong players with high salaries and you give them a chance at the court, and pretty much this is all you do as a coach. They will win the titles for you. But now we live in the XXI century – it’s impossible just to step on the court and win, even if you are a basketball master. I have another philosophy: I like my team to be a real team, with strong type relations between our players, not only after victories, but after losses as well. I want them to be friends in real life. So we pick this kind of players”.
– The fact that you were a great player (and you had great coaches) was useful for you, getting the job done in the best way? To communicate with them by the best possible way? To know the best possible tricks and how to react in any instance?
“I think a lot. A coach who was a player has some advantages. I would like to point out something: not always a good player can become a good coach. If a player becomes a coach he has pros comparing with others, even great coaches who didn’t play basketball or were mediocre players. I take most of my decisions during games, on the assumption of my experience as a player, in the way I would perform if I wore now Khimki’s jersey. I try to speak with the guys… the players language. I know everything from inside, what we will face and what we can do. This contact between coaches and players gives a huge advantage”.
– You got your first Eurocup title, as the coach of Lietuvos Rytas against Khimki. And your second… with Khimki. Can you comment this fact of.. life?
“Well… I had two chances and I succeeded in both of them. With Lietuvos Rytas it was more difficult because our roster was not too strong, we just played with the fire of our hearts. We wanted it very much and we achieved our maximum. Initially the club’s leaders were happy just beacuse we entered Eurocup quarterfinals. But the appetite comes while you are eating and at some point, we felt we could do it. That season I managed to win all the titles with Rytas – Baltic League, Lithuanian national championship, Lithuanian Cup and Eurocup, four out of four. As for BC Khimki, we were better as a roster. Khimkians came always second, they lacked the belief in themselves. I suppose I helped them get it. Communication at a player’s language with a coach who is a former basketball player helped Khimki a lot”.
– Another fact is that you got league titles in Lithuania, in Baltic League, in VTB League. Now… you are ready for the Russian league?
“Of course. I’m upset for our results in VTB United League. It seemed like we were ready to enter VTB United League Final Four easily but the circumstances turned out like they did – some of our guys faced this situation for the first time in their career. When a month before the end of the championship you win a very important Cup and emotionally you are at a very high level, there are a lot of joy and fun. But It’s not easy to cope with the situation if you don’t have experience. Games with Lietuvos Rytas at VTB United League quarterfinals distressed us greatly, we couldn’t totally cope with it and so, we were beaten. But we had couple of meetings; I explained the situation to the guys: the season is not over and you can’t celebrate Eurocup’s title, cause it’s already history. As for the Russian league, we have to face CSKA Moscow – a top level team, everybody knows it. We are concerned about Lokomotiv-Kuban and Triumph, because we will face one of them at BEKO PBL semifinals. Nevertheless, we are ready to fight until the end like we did last season, so we’ll see…”
– BC Khimki will play at next year’s Euroleague, after injuries kept your team out of this year’s tournament. How hard was to reconcentrate to your new goal, after losing the Euroleague qualification round?
“You know, one of the key moments of this season was the disappointmnet of not qualifying to Euroleague. In sports, the team which is better in a certain period of time, wins. It was not an easy thing for us to change our approach. I told my players “we have six months, we have to work hard and win Eurocup”. And we did it. We had a lot of meetings and the most difficult thing was to explain to my players how to handle from a psychological point of view the Eurocup as the most important tournament we participate in. A common question I had for them was which is the most preferable tournament for us: VTB United League, Russian championship or Eurocup and I was always saying every tournament is important for us. But we knew Eurocup was more important. Because even in October 2011 I said that the path to the Euroleague through winning Eurocup, is easier than to beat CSKA in Russian league. So we put all our strength to this tournament and we succeeded”.
– Your roster was from the first moment a Euroleague roster, with all these great players, with tons of experiences. Planinic was the MVP but everybody contributed to Eurocup’s title. Can you describe each one with few words?
Fridzon: “Mix of brain and strength, very rational and efficient player”
Vyaltsev: “Energy, impetus”
Loncar: “cunning fighter”
Quinn: “like a builder, he may assist and score”
Monya: “a great fighter”
Khvostov: “he knows what he can do, guarantor of stability”
Pushkov: “he opens of our team”
Gelabale: “balance between energy and calmness, rational player, balancing player”
Zhukanenko: “chameleon, our perspective”
Kelati: “scorer, sniper”
Planinic: “the brain of a team”
Nielsen: “golden man in defence, very hard-working player”
– Austin Daye left after the end of NBA lock-out. Which were the pros and which the cons of having him, for a little while?
“Daye is a very good player, moreover he is young. I know it is difficult for NBA players to adapt in Europe, so I’m glad he joined BC Khimki. He’s a clever player with a very high basketball IQ. Unfortunately he was only for two months with us, but I suppose he has a good future. He doesn’t have a good season at Detroit Pistons, but I think he has all the future”.
– Another player who left at the beginning of the season was Keith Langford, though you managed to find his replacement (Gelabale). From the chemistry point of view, how hard is to start over in something you worked hard to get it done, but you had to change it?
“I can say one thing: we had to cut Keith Langford because it was difficult to establish a good contact between him, the coaches and the other players. Langford is one of the best players in Europe, a brilliant guard and we wish him every success at Maccabi Tel Aviv, but we chose to cancel his contract for our common good. Judging from results, I’ m glad our choices were good. Sometimes we lose games, but we cry together and when we succeed we feel happy together. And this is the most important of all”.
– Ten years have passed since you became a coach, after you were a great player. First of all, this transition was easy? Second, the expectations you had at 2002 (and Baku Gala, Azerbaijan) are everything you live now?
“After finishing my career as a player, I didn’t become a coach at once. Initially, I worked as sports minister in Lithuania, than I was a vice-president of BC Kyiv Ukraine and only then I decided to start my coaching career. It was in Azerbaijan, with BC Baku Gala. First of all, I had offers from Lietuvos Rytas, but I had to go all this way by myself because I was not confident that I was ready for this level. And it’s one thing to be a good player and another one to be a good coach. I gathered a team at Baku, as well as the national team of Azerbaijan, we suffered a very long and hard way, eventually we became champions of Muslim Games – for Muslim world it’s like Olympic games- and after this I came back to Lithuania and began to coach the junior national teams. My first serious challenge was Ural-Great Perm, Russia, but I worked over there only for four months. There were many problems, not only sports related. I want to say that it’s not easy to enter the European basketball as a coach and I cannot say enough about world basketball. I think in Europe there are a lot of coaches like me; they just wait for their chances. And there are some coaches that wait and wait for a chance, for all of their lives and they never get it at international level. They train local teams, although they can train national teams. They just suffer from lack of a chance. I’m happy that in my life I had two great changes. First one with Lietuvos Rytas and second one with BC Khimki. And I appreciate both of them. So I think the most important thing is to get a chance and the second one is to prove you can live up to the expectations, by achieving great goals. I did it and I feel happy”.