Catalan basketball hides three protagonists that you often forget. The Athleticone of the leading media in the NBA world, included a few weeks ago Sergi Oliva a 40 under 40, a prestigious list of the 40 people under the age of 40 who will most influence the evolution of the competition. This gelidenc shares prominence with executives, coaches and agents who will play a key role in defining what the NBA of the future will be like. A native of a town of less than 8,000 people with no previous professional experience, the Utah Jazz Assistant Coach is one of the spearheads of innovation.
The new challenges in the NBA require different answers and you have to understand the game to improve it. The profiles of the coaches have changed and the vision of people like Oliva allows us to understand competitive advantages from the data and study new ways of playing. “I think that the preparation there is very high and the work that is being done in training in Catalonia is very powerful. This creates a very conducive breeding ground. Then there must be the predisposition to accept it. The fact that the NBA has opened up to international players has also made franchises more open to introducing people from outside the world. It’s a country that is very open to looking for talent abroad, wherever it is, ”explains Oliva.
Another of the most respected assistant coaches in the NBA is also Catalan: Jordi Fernández. “One thing we do very well in Catalonia is to train trainers, and this is very important, because you can always learn from others and adapt it to your personality. When I see Coach Day organized by the Catalan Federation, I would always be very excited to be there, because I see a lot of familiar faces that I have come across, ”says the Denver Nuggets assistant coach. Its growth is evidence. The Catalan examples do not end here, as Xavi Schelling is the director of sports science and physical performance at the San Antonio Spurs, a glue guy leading a paradigm shift in performance. “The key is to translate the complexity of the data into a language that is understandable to the parties involved. You have to be creative and curious to manage a much wider field of knowledge, ”he explains.
Both the Jazz and the Nuggets will begin playing in the playoffs for the NBA title on Saturday and the Spurs will play the play-inso no one can think of saying that there is no Catalan in the play-off of the best league in the world.
