28/07/2023 and las 10:00 CEST
Pablo Laso will never forget the early morning of June 4 to 5, 2022. After placing the 2-0 in the semifinals of the Endesa League before him Baskonia and leaving the series practically sentenced, both he and his family and a group of friends went to dinner. After a match that did not last too long, it was time to sleep, and around four in the morning, the coach from Vitoria noticed a general malaise in his body in which a pressure stood out in the chest.
The discomfort subsided slightly and Pablo went back to sleep without problem. In the morning, he contacted the team doctor, who carried out some tests prior to the trip to Vitoria in which a small heart attack suffered hours before could be detected. Said cardiac episode caused him to undergo a catheterization to place a coronary stent. “I was lucky that it was just a warning and they caught me on time”, explains the coach in ‘Pablo Laso, win to tell it’ of ‘Giants of Basket’, a book in which he reviews his career at Real Madrid and in which he also explains in quite detail what happened regarding the heart attack.
Shielded in a statement that left much to be desired, the white club announced the dismissal of the coach alleging medical reasons that Laso himself was unaware of. That is where the official version of Madrid goes. The truth is that at a sporting level, after having devastated Barça in the Endesa League final and having stayed two points away from the Euroleague-ACB double, there were no reasons.
After the break and the ‘holidays’ experienced last season, Pablo is expected in Munich to lead the Bavarian project for the next two seasons. The coach reviews his final at Real Madrid in SPORT and talks about the expectations with which he arrives at Bayern, and the objectives of the German club for the coming years.
Alberto Herreros, Clifford Luyk or Alberto Angulo. In the book you name all the people who accompanied you during your time in Madrid except one, the general director of the section, who was the one who fired you (Juan Carlos Sánchez). Because?
I name the people who I consider have been important to me. The people you have named, my assistants, Florentino Pérez himself… I appreciate the people who have been important for my success in the years that I have been a coach and for this story to have a good ending. If there is someone who feels bad because I have not named him, then there he is. My utmost respect to everyone, but I value the people who have been really important to me, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten people, but I’ve never had the intention of leaving anyone, either by not naming them or by naming them.
You’re talking about a small heart attack, and despite the fact that it was a major scare, it seems that your life was not in danger. What exactly happened?
Look, at night I woke up with a feeling like a little overwhelmed in my chest, and I thought “I don’t know how strange.” But like when you can have a bad night, I said “that’s it” and went back to sleep. In the morning I got up and while having a coffee I called the team doctor. We were playing the semifinal against Baskonia and he told me that it was better to do some tests. There a protocol was opened in which everything was put into motion. They had to make me a catheter, but I was fine, to the point that the next day the cardiologist came and the only thing he said to me was “you are better than you were three days ago.” That phrase guided me a bit, that feeling of being told that you’re wonderful. I even got scolded by a cardiologist friend of mine who told me “you’re stupid, you should have trained, it would have been great for all the people who have had this type of heart disease to see that in the end medicine is moving forward”. What before could be a more serious episode, well let’s say that my thing was not serious at all. I am very well, I have led a completely normal life and the proof is that I am as calm as possible. I also always say the same thing, if I thought that by training or anything else I would put myself at risk, I think I have my family who would be the first to tell me, “Are you stupid or what? Stop training or stop running “, but in this sense I am the first to find myself perfectly.
And about that risk, how can someone dare to issue a statement hinting that such a person is not recommended to continue practicing the coaching profession?
Well, this is not a question for me anymore, is it? I am perfectly. In fact, when they tell me that I am not going to train Real Madrid anymore and they ask me what I am going to do, I tell them that I am going to continue training, because the doctors have told me that I can continue training. That’s it, I don’t see a major issue, they tell me I’m not going to train, well that’s it, I won’t train at Madrid, but I will continue training. I act pretty normal. The doctors give me peace of mind, they discharge me and tell me that I can lead a normal life. Well, the first one who wants to lead a normal life is me, it would be missing more. And if the doctor told me, “Look, you can’t train”, well, the first one who wouldn’t train would be me. I am not that stupid. At least what I don’t want is to die. What I want is to lead a normal life and it is the luck that I have, that in the end after that episode I have been leading a totally normal life for a year or so.
Pablo Laso arrives in Munich. Why Bayern?
The question is very open and it is a very simple answer. I like projects and ideas, I don’t go to a place for money. Bayern have an exciting project, there is a change of flag in the future and it is a great club. Bayern Munich is recognized throughout the world and above all, the people who work there convey to me that there is an idea of growth over time. Many years ago a very close friend of mine told me: “you will end up training at Bayern Munich”. When I trained in San Sebastián, look at the years that have passed. And two or three years ago, a friend of mine told me “you have to come train at Bayern Munich” and I “well, what’s wrong with everyone at Bayern Munich? And look where I ended up. The truth is I am very happy and excited because it is a project that I believe in as a coach, in which I believe there are good players and in which I believe we can continue to grow as a team and as a club.
Do you have in mind being able to give the club that definitive leap so that in the short or medium term it can fight to win the Euroleague?
I would love to tell you yes, but I think that if I told you that Bayern are favorites in the Euroleague next year, I think I would be swinging a lot. We are a team that must continue to grow, I think we have young players who must continue to improve. It is something that always, from the first day we spoke, both Marko Pesic and I were clear about it. When talking about the big names in the Euroleague, some of whom have even gone to the NBA, we are not in that bid. But we are very confident in the work we can do to grow our players and for people to consider Bayern Munich a destination where any player can come. That’s what we aspire to, that when people come to him and say, “no, it’s that Bayern Munich loves you, oysters, it’s that they want to go to Bayern Munich. Why do I want to go? Because it’s a great club, because they are doing things well, because there is an idea of growth”. Well, because of all these things, we at Bayern Munich believe that we can be attractive to any player. Hopefully also in money. But right now, in order to be considered, we believe that we must do many things well and that is where we are.
How has the Pablo who started at Real Madrid changed with the one who is going to start now at Bayern?
I have a little less hair but more experience, for sure. When I started at Real Madrid, when I had some Euroleague referees I didn’t know them at all. Today, well, they probably know Pablo Laso better and I know them. But I believe that in the end the same illusion is maintained. We are lucky that it is a sport in movement, what was worth a year ago, it is not worth it now. The players keep changing, but in the end, I think that there are ideas on which you build an idea of basketball that are not going to change and that are going to be the same, right? I still believe that basketball is not defense, it is not attack, it is a sport in continuous movement in which you have to work quickly, that you have to be able to defend and attack, this is not handball, that you can change those who defend now those who do not attack Well, I think that sports are changing. What I do believe in is the idea of the game, which is what I am certainly going to try from the beginning and for that I am going to try to have the best wickers possible, that is clear to me.
2023-07-28 08:00:30
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