“In Spain, Meloni’s triumph is painted as if Mussolini has returned, I don’t see that extremism,” said the Italian-born coach.
The current guru of effort and discipline was an undisciplined boy who was expelled from school. Sergio Scariolo, coach of the Spanish basketball team and coach of Virtus de Bologna, talks about it in his book ‘My love for basketball’. The son of teachers, kind, well-educated and with clear Italian gibberish, the highly successful national team coach admits that he loves being involved in a thousand battles. “I’m looking for them, I’m looking for them.”
-The book is dedicated to his mother, who showed him “the meaning of never giving up”. What have you not given up?
-My mother, 93 years old, did not give up for the death of my father, her life partner. Almost 24 years have passed and he even knows how to enjoy himself. She always has a very hieratic attitude. His ability to put bad times into perspective was very inspiring.
Are you more passionate?
-No, I inherited a lot from her: that chill at decisive moments or not euphoria when things go well and much less into depression when things go wrong.
-One world gold, four Europeans, Olympic silver and bronze… Fancy a crack?
-Not really. I see one that’s curra, yes. But I have unmasked that facet of triumph in my life. At other times I felt unfairly undervalued. And now I may feel unfairly overrated.
-Pau Gasol praises his way of getting involved in the personal problems of his players.
-It’s in my character. Coaches often tend to see players as machines to produce baskets, rebounds… And it’s not like that. I try to put myself in the mind and heart of the player. You have to know how to listen. After all, almost everything is psychology.
– At the age of 61, he remains a multi-employee. Do you want more?
– It won’t anymore. It is wanting to repeat the state in which you feel comfortable and happy.
-And do you know how to retire on time?
– Well, I do not know. For now I don’t see the end, I’m in the best moment. One day I will go down. And then I’m the one who says to myself: you’ve lost the spark, the energy and the passion.
– They call him a guru. Who puts their feet on the ground?
-I try to attract them to myself, because there aren’t many people who have the power to condition my way of seeing. Well, except for my wife, heh, heh…
-The owner of the Virtus, Massimo Zanetti, was a senator from Forza Italia. Is it good for the coach to share ideology with the person who hires him?
-It’s not good or bad, because we never talk about politics.
-I don’t think I would stop training a team for ideological reasons.
-No, because one has nothing to do with the other. In Latin American countries there is a tendency to stain everything with politics, but I see it as a degeneracy. Not everything is political.
– Still, are you happy with Giorgia Meloni’s victory?
I never received my ballots. I don’t know if they were sent to me in Canada, Florida or Russia. In Spain, the result has been presented in a very serious way, as if Mussolini had seized power. It’s like when the PP and PSOE had an absolute majority, it looked like they went from Mao to Hitler, and it was a total lie. I don’t see all this extremism now, nor when the left ruled in Italy.
Source: La Verdad
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