We spoke with Juan Gutiérrez, former player of the national team, Olympic medalist, outstanding player of Obras Sanitarias and current manager of sports operations at Bahía Basket.
JUAN GUTIÉRREZ: “I WANTED TO BE PART OF A WORK GROUP AND BAHÍA BASKET PROVIDED IT FOR ME”
Juan Gutierrez at the Dow Center
Born in 9 de Julio province of Buenos Aires, Juan Gutiérrez migrated to the capital in search of gaming opportunities. He had three spells at Obras Sanitarias and an extensive stint in Spain, where he played in Granada, before returning and dominating the National League winning two MVPs and the South American League. He tried to return to the ACB with Tenerife, but his physical problems caused him to return to the Temple of Rock, where he retired prematurely at 32 years of age.
In the national team, he shared the glory with several Bahienses, including Pepe Sánchez, Pancho Jasen, Manu Ginóbili, among others. With the senior team he played in the 2010 World Cup and won the bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics, in addition to obtaining the 2011 Pre-Olympic and three South American Tournaments.
We address his post-retirement path, the link with the people of Bahia, his arrival in Bahía Blanca, his functions in Bahía Basket and much more. Let’s dive deep into our conversation with Juan Gutiérrez:
“I had to retire due to osteoarthritis in the hip. I had surgery at the time and I put a prosthesis on my left hip, which is a procedure that is generally done on older people, I had to do it when I was 32 years old. Unfortunately now I have the same inconvenience in my right hip and I will surely have to intervene as well”.
“I am doing everything possible to delay the arrival of the operation, but I know that it is something unfailing and that I am going to have to do it sooner or later.”
From a mental point of view, it must have been difficult to see you so young and having to make the decision to leave the activity.
“I always thought that for me the question of retirement was going to be something easier because I was always very curious and involved in things other than basketball all the time. I was already commenting on matches on TV or I had ideas in my head about what line of work I would like to take on when I was no longer playing”.
The injury made you speed up the process I imagine.
“The day I announced my retirement I already started working as a player representative and also continued commenting on games on television and had a project on the radio. So at first it was bearable because my head was busy with new goals in a new line of work, but after six or twelve months I started to realize that I wouldn’t be able to play even if I was fine.”
You look good physically, are you sure?
“When I arrived in Bahia and started working with the boys, I realized that mine was happening on the other side, from the place of words, experience and others. That ended up helping me to assume retirement. Until a few months ago I couldn’t help but go to a court and feel homesick of some kind.
With everything you were doing, what caught your attention in Pepe Sánchez’s proposal for you to leave everything and come to fulfill a function in which you had no previous experience?
“All the activities that I was carrying out were of a practically individual nature and in a certain aspect I was not fulfilling myself. I wanted to be part of a work group and Bahía Basket provided it. Pepe is a reference in what is a former player going through sports management and in a new and different place with such modern management tools that until I have to update myself daily and make the decision was the easiest thing in the world in that sense ”.
And the rest of the stuff?
“That was the most difficult part because many things had to be left behind along the way, from work, emotional… leave a large part of the family there. But deep down it was too tempting a project not to do it.”
JUAN GUTIÉRREZ :»I AM AN ENTHUSIASTIC OF LEARNING NEW THINGS»
Juan Gutiérrez left his life in Buenos Aires in search of new challenges
Did you have some kind of adaptation period to learn the new function in Bahía Basket?
«Luckily I was able to do as an organic transition where in the first three or four months I was able to get to know the place in depth, how it worked, the methodology used and after that I got to work contributing my grain of sand and how my vision coincides with the objectives of the place is everything much more easy”.
How does your work fit into that team that is Bahía Basket?
«I work from the interaction with the players, with other clubs, with other organizations, helping to process the methodology of every day, changing some issues that one sees differently to come with another baggage. My head is very much in line with what happens on a day-to-day basis at the Dow Center and it was just learning new things and adding my knowledge.
Specifically in sports management you have had examples of all kinds, both in Argentina and in Spain and elsewhere. Did that experience help you or did you have to sweep everything away and learn something completely new?
“We are not alien to the world in which we are inserted and even though many things are done differently here, that experience collected over the years is very useful.”
«I take the issues that can be adapted to ours and discard those that do not go with what is proposed from this space. I am an enthusiast of learning new things, therefore I always try to learn new things.
What do you consider to be your strength from the position of sports director and what is the point at which you have to continue working and learning?
“I think that a strength that I have can be a weakness at the same time. Having been a moderately well-known player with a long history opens the doors for you more easily than having not gone through that place. At the same time, it is difficult for me from the interaction with the players to detach myself from taking their side to be as objective as I should be, but it is something that is learned every day.
Is the hard part of the sports manager something that you have to train yourself in?
“Training never ends. Every day I am learning something new. Without going any further, yesterday I participated in a meeting with leaders of the city’s clubs and met the people who occupy those roles in the different institutions and understood the reality in which we are involved. Sitting down to chat with the leader of Velocidad, Alem or other clubs enriches us and brings together links that are essential for what I do.
How is Bahía Básquet inserted in basketball in the city?
«Bahía Basket joins from a very positive place. In a place that has to do with Bahia as a cradle of talent and here what we try to do is gather talent and create opportunities for them to compete, to have a life with additional tools to the game in a role similar to any club in the city, but with our particular vision».
“We are lucky to be in a city with great human resources, with very strong internal competition, which is healthy and demanding. I like that a lot, someone who comes from outside values it differently, even more than the people of Bahia who are immersed in this and see it as natural, when it is not”.
How do you see the place that basketball occupies in Bahian society?
“Recently a foreign coach came to the Dow who is working on an NBA G-league team and was amazed at how basketball is lived in the city. What we assume as normal because we are involved in the day to day, is not normal. That is why we must value it, protect it and continue working with everything we have so that this continues to improve and continue to be as inclusive as possible.
How do you see the level of local basketball?
“I love it, I really like it a lot. One of the things we always say when we go to the courts to watch the games together with the coaching staff and collaborators is: “what a way to see good basketball players in Bahia”. We are talking about a league that has no foreigners, that is mostly made up of boys from Bahia and the region, that very few are recruited or brought by the clubs and yet the level is very good and I like it a lot”.
Last weekend there was a very important event of an integrating nature in the Dow. How important is it to have a gender department in the clubs?
“The Dow Center is committed to trying to change this reality in which we are involved, in which inequality and other problems are visible and real. On Saturday there was an incredible event together with Amnesty International called #MeJuegoPorLaIgualdad within the framework of this 8M and it was excellent to experience it because it reflects everything that we are and want to be in this organization. All change takes time, but it’s great that the foundations are creaking when things start to change.
“Having a gender area is super positive because coaches, coaching staff, management and players are not alien to the world we live in and having a comprehensive perspective serves to be better people.”
To close, how was Juan Gutiérrez’s relationship with the Bahienses of basketball?
«I entered the national team in 2006. I was in the pre-selection along with Pancho Jasen and Paolo Quinteros and we were the last cut before going to the World Cup in Japan. I didn’t share as much there as I did in Mar del Plata 2011 (Pre-Olympic). But if you like basketball. the relationship with the Bahienses will eventually exist. I played for many years with Juani Jasen in Spain and that made me forge a very good relationship with Pancho with whom I have a beautiful friendship and obviously with Pepe and Manu and others, “Juan Gutiérrez closed.
