He is the coach of the moment in the Endesa League. And in Space. Ibon Navarro (Vitoria-Gasteiz1976) attends to this newspaper once the play off ACB in which your Unicaja of Malaga fell to him Real Madridletting the only title of the season escape. The other four (Intercontinental, Supercopa, Copa del Rey and Champions) He told them for triumphs.
The Basque speaks of this year unforgettable, although it really ensures that life changed him when he arrived at the Andalusian club in February 2022. He also analyzes the output operation, confirms the departures of Kameron Taylor (already official) and Few al Valencia Basket and reveals that it has remained to fix things with Chus MatthewReal Madrid technician, after the crossing of statements throughout the series.
Question: I knew you personally at the Gran Canaria Arena after Unicaja raised the Cup. How much has life changed since February 16?
Answer: I would not know how to tell you, I would say since I came more than from the Gran Canaria Cup.
Q: Since it arrived.
A: Yes, in the end when you get in the maelstrom of the competition you are not realizing many things either. Since I arrived yes.
Q: Now that pulsations go down at the end of the season. Do you stop thinking about everything they have achieved?
A: Well … generally, when the season ends there is only a happy team that is the one who wins the last competition, the one who wins the last game. We have not been obviously, but when you receive so many congratulations for the season, not for this but for the trajectory of recent years, not fans, that you appreciate it for the love, although you understand that it is subjective. You receive it from companions and people from basketball even outside Spain. Yes, it is easier to start contextualizing a bit what has been built beyond the results and titles that are very important, but that you are a reference as a club of what has been done in the last three years. Being part of that is very nice.
Q: Which of those congratulations has made you more enthusiasm?
A: UF … I wouldn't know how to tell you. I appreciate all, but a message from Argentina of a club that the coach carries a green tie as inspired by the Unicaja in Malaga in Spain and that did make me quite funny. The others all, I don't think there is one that stands out. You have to know how to decorate words more, but the important thing is intention.
Q: What coach does he look at him? Who is your reference?
A: I am that I am very fan of almost everyone in the ACB, even those out. There is a very high level in Spain and in Europe. Yes I have more personal affinity with Moncho Fernández, Jaume Ponsarnau, Pedro Martínez, Txus Vidorreta… They are with the ones that could most talk about their teams and ours. There have been practically all. You know that nobody spends three minutes to send a message for sending it if you really do not feel it or think about it.
Q: And Chus Matthew? Could you talk to him after the last thing that happened in Martín Carpena?
A: We have not been able to speak. We are going to talk because we have already written to each other, but we have not been able to speak because in the end he until Wednesday was playing the final and was what he had to be. Then we have written to ourselves and I congratulated him and we have to speak. The last 48 hours for the two have been a bit moved.
Ibon Navarro and Chus Mateo shake hands at the Movistar Arena. (EP)
Q: Now it is in Malaga and not on vacation. Tell us why.
A: Very simple. When the season ends, everything needs to be done.
Q: On Wednesday you had good news: the renewal of Tyson Pérez.
R: So dos. Yakka Kan, Semesory Tayl.
Q: Dylan Ostkowski's signing has also been officially announced by Belgrade Partizan. I want to go back to that series against Real Madrid and ask him if the two games at the Movistar Arena was a coach attack (he played zero minutes and then shone in the carpena). Or simply arrived physically?
A: Look, it seems that if we leave Dylan Ostkowski, it was that we throw the game and people do not understand that the player who plays for him puts it and trust him as well as with Dylan Ostkowski. We do not lose in Madrid because it does not play. We lose because Real Madrid is better than us in both games. Specifically in the first much better and the second we have ten very bad minutes, but we compete much better even though it was not. The one who played was more prepared than Dylan Ostkowski. There is an action and a reaction. He realizes that he really is not right, he is very disconnected and makes an effort to connect and help the team, but at that time he was totally disconnected by the team. For many things, not only because of the party of the party, but also for other things that you do not have to know why it enters within the player's privacy.
Q: It is being sold that next season is going to be the disarmament of Unicaja. Does it really have to be so?
A: It seems that five are going to leave, but the first summer came nine. I trust the work we do with the technical secretariat of tracking. Not now, we have been doing it for the past three years. We have to be prepared. I am quite sure that we are going to give people first and then with the right players, but it is possible that we have to change the way of playing a little and that it takes time to be the solids that we have become with the group that now ends.
Q: Do you personally motivate you more to focus on being able to give the bell in the league and dose in other competitions in the hope that next year it may be the victory in ACB?
A: That is not being very realistic. We are not the team that has to win the League. To think that we are going to focus on winning the league is not living in reality. The League is a competition that in theory next year will be won by Real Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia, even Baskonia would even tell you. Any of those four teams (are from Euroleague) will be more trained than us a priori to win it. Just as he has been in the last three years. Another thing is that we based on work and a little bit of luck because we can compete with them. If with the best team in recent years we have not managed to win it in the last three seasons seems unlikely to do it now. That said, we will see. I trust that this problem we make an opportunity to improve some things and surely worsen in others. Let's try to get a little better.
Q: I imagine that you have seen the Liga final between Real Madrid and Valencia. In a club like white, one year is not understood without titles. Chus, for now, has not breached that dogma. If you were Juan Carlos Sánchez or the one who comes (Sergio Rodríguez can assume the address of the section) or Florentino Pérez, would he keep Chus on the bench?
A: If I were Juan Carlos Sánchez or Florentino Pérez, because I would not be a coach of Unicaja and I would not have a damn idea of basketball and I would know about many other things that I do not know now. With which those who are going to make the right decision are them. I don't. I insist that at the end of the season there is only a team that wins the last game and is league champion, which is for them together with the Euroleague the most important competition. It cannot be that winning is normal and not winning is a failure. Everything has many nuances.
It is true that Real Madrid, but has also been the Barcelonathey are teams that have to be almost obliged in the Final Fourbut the Euroleague is a very hard competition with the two Turkish teams, the two Greeks, the effervescence of Parisof Monaco… Notice that the budget of Olympics It is even superior that that of Madrid and Barcelona and has been left out of play in. It cannot be that either you win and it is normal or does not win and it is a failure.
In the nuances you have to know the work and day to day of the team, how many problems that always appear during the season are managed and that is better known by Real Madrid managers than me. What I can tell you is that the final result is difficult to be so good if that management during the year has not been correct and adequate. So, from the point of view of the coach, of Chus and all his staffit has been very good.
Q: I finish this. In the face of Eurobasket, in which Alberto Díaz and Yankuba Sima will be possibly … What options does it give to Spain, trust there may be surprise?
A: I answer you from Alberto, Yankuba call Pedro Martínez, don't ask me (jokes). It is complicated, we are on the verge of a generational change in the selection and it seems to me that right now the most important thing is that the legacy of that competitive spirit that has always had with the new players that will arrive is maintained. If we are in a hurry to reach a very high competitive level and we have no patience, it will be very difficult for the Spanish team to aspire to titles. I hope they do it very well, they get very far, but the priority is that the new players learn from that spirit that we have always liked of the selection.
