Japanese basketball grew in recent times. Right now, “orange” represents the third team sport behind soccer and baseball (sumo is religion). And since the arrival of Julio Lamas to the team in 2021, the ideas grew stronger.
They are franchises with the pure essence of competing adding millionaire budgets and foreign minds. One of them will be Gabriel Revidatti from Corrientes, who will be part of Veltex Shizuoka, a team that has been led by Argentine Facundo Müller for a year.
“The chance to go to Japan arises because Facundo (Müller) was left without an assistant, Guido Fabbri had to return for personal reasons. He contacted me and raised the possibility of joining the project,” said the 33-year-old coach from Corrientes who recently closed a positive process that lasted six seasons at the San Martín de Corrientes club.
And Revidatti expanded on this novelty that will mean his first international experience: “It comes to me at a fair moment in my career because after six seasons in San Martín, and having fulfilled several objectives that I had set when taking over at the club, I had to start the process all over again or take on new challenges that are not easy to come by. I came across this chance and really felt like it was a chance I couldn’t pass up.”
Regarding Veltex Shizuoka, Gabriel analyzed: “It is a team from the third division of Japanese basketball and it has goals of being promoted. It signed good foreigners and some good national squads that will allow it to fight for that promotion. The last tournament was very close because it was third and only two went up. The competition was with a regular phase, without playoffs, and this year they have many chances to go up again.”
In the Shizuoka franchise, in addition to coach Müller, one of the important cards is Alexis Elsener from Cordoba who also extended his contract for one more season. “I didn’t have many references to Asian or Japanese basketball, but perhaps what is known in the world of basketball, Argentine coaches or players who started going there. Or foreign players who went through our league and now compete in Japan. They have a league that showed growth, that Japanese basketball has been improving remarkably in recent years. What is clear to me is that the foreign players that are arriving are of a high level,” the man from Corrientes said.
For Revidatti, the years in San Martín (National League and Development) forged an unexpected experience. In this regard, he said: “I see Argentine basketball very well. It has a very competitive national team and as for our National League, although it is true that good players emigrated to other leagues and that it is becoming more and more difficult to hire foreigners, all of this has as a counterpart the leading role that young players with a lot of talent take on. That replacement is good with that number of young people with many minutes in our league. That generates an increasingly broad base of national players”.
Regarding his knowledge of training basketball, Revidatti added: “I always aim for the participation of young players who can have more and more talent in our league. San Martín has not had foreigners in recent seasons and that values the national player “.
The trajectory of the man from Corrientes was forged in Arturo Frondizi and Alvear within the ABCC, but he emigrated to Eldorado to direct Tirica and returned a few steps to take charge of Antorcha de Saladas before arriving in San Martín.
The coach also referred to the level of local basketball: “I also see basketball in Corrientes well, there are many talented players from Corrientes. There are more and more players from Corrientes forming part of professional teams in different categories. Although there are many things to modify and improve, it’s good many times to see the glass half full”.
And he closed with an idea: “I don’t have the precise data, but if we compare the number of players from Corrientes who were professional 20 years ago with today, we greatly increased that number. We have many talents in the province and now we have to continue developing them and try not to hit your ceiling so fast.
