EUROLEAGUE & FRIENDS | PODCAST #3 Pedro Martínez, entrenador del Valencia Basket I MARCA

How is it to talk about basketball with Juan Roche? The guy must be a good pilot, right?

Well, instead of wanting to beat, I don't know, Madrid or Barcelona 61-60, let's see if we can beat them 104-102. And I think that season helped them a bit to improve their self-esteem and say, hey, I'm here because I've arrived and I'm not just any player,

I'm going to be one of the best in the world. Have you ever received an offer from Madrid, Barcelona or any top EuroLeague team? Hi everyone, this is Rocha Arena. Welcome to EuroLeague & Friends Made in Spain. Well, Kino, how are you?

Very well. The stage is impressive. how are you? Very good, impressive stage we have today here with us, at the level of the guest. Yes, yes, totally. Well, first of all, I want to thank you for following the first two episodes. We have tried to overcome and I think we have succeeded. We are enjoying it a lot, we are very happy and we hope to continue like this.

In his third week as a first coach in his career, He was European Champion at the age of 18 with the youth team at the Courage Cup in 1990. And here he is, at the top of the barrel, Pedro Martínez.

Hi, how are you?

Well, first of all, what a season Valencia vs. Baskerville! In general, everyone thinks you are exceeding expectations. I guess you are relatively happy with the team's performance so far, right?

Yes, I am especially happy with the day- with the caution we always have when we are in competition. Until now, especially in the EuroLeague, we are in a good situation, but the experience says that we should not sing victory and that we have to be prepared for what is coming and not think too much about what we have already done.

We are here to talk about basketball and to talk in a relaxed way. Kino, how are you seeing the season in Valencia?

It's great. I'm honestly surprised. It's true that I liked the outside line a lot from the beginning, but I had some doubts, because I know that Pedro has already shown them, with some of the inside line, but it's not as if you're playing. Apart from what you apart from the results, the way you're playing, how you get people hooked, how I watch Valencia on TV, how they play,

it doesn't matter who they play against, it's always a fun match. I think that shows in the city, when the Copa del Rey is on, everyone is hooked, looking forward to seeing what happens with Valencia.

It's your second time in Valencia, the first one in 2017 with the League title. It's a constant in your career, you've been to Manresa several times, Gran Canaria, Valencia... Basconia. Also in Basconia, yes, twice.

Youth.

True. They love you.

Yes, it seems like you leave a good memory where you go. Yes, well, I see it as something positive, because sometimes the I've caused the departure, sometimes the club's decision. Sometimes it's traumatic. I think it's positive that, some time later, the two paths meet again.

I like that it happened. The club has changed a lot since you left, especially for the Rocha Arena. The club has taken a giant step forward in its ambition, but also with its feet on the ground, to compete at a higher level. Is that a factor for you to come back? The fact that you came to the Rocha Arena, to see that the team is going further?

The club has always had a high standard in terms of professionalism. It has always wanted to be with the best on the pitch and in the organization. In the previous stage it was a club with a very professional and good club. And now it's even bigger because the facilities are taking you to it. It's a club at this level, one of the best I've been to and probably one of the best in Europe. I was going to say, one of the best in Europe, because I've spoken to a lot of people and I've been to a lot of countries. And this reminds me of the treatment you get in the Spanish national team.

Everyone is taken care of to the maximum. When I arrived here, they were doing the Alqueria, which we finished in the Covid period. We were the most prepared club in all of Europe. Everyone was envious of us and suddenly they do the Rocha Arena. The treatment they have, I think, for all the staff here is brutal. We complain a lot when we are doing badly, but when we're doing well, we give it our all. I was welcomed here from the beginning and the attitude is incredible. It's a club that has an ambition to compete in the EuroLeague by winning the EuroCup, which we have done several times, but it's not easy.

The club has always had the ambition to compete with the best in both the CBA and the EuroLeague, and now the club will have a certain continuity in the EuroLeague, and I think that's also a trigger for the club to continue to grow at other levels and not only in the sports one.

People don't know, but here is the Rocha Arena, right behind is the Fontetta, where Valencia Basque used to play, and in the middle is the Alqueria.

It looks like a baby now. It seemed big to me when I played there. Now it looks in the middle of a park with a lot of basketball courts you have created a kind of interesting java and basketball. Yes, yes, the truth is that it is very good and well, I even think that what Rocha Arena has done is improve the city, especially in the area around where Rocha Arena is. Businesses are opening up, many floors have been built of a certain level. I think he has been a motor for the area, in particular where Rocha Arena is and for the whole city.

People don't know how passionate Juan Roch is when he goes to the basketball court. When the team was in the old first B, in what is now Leboro, he went to the games, even celebrated the promotion, he has been in all the titles that the club, he is very proud. How is it to talk about basketball with Juan Roche? He must be a good pilot, right?

Well, soon we are going to celebrate the 40th anniversary since he founded it. He is a person who has a passion for sport, because he does more things than basketball, but especially for basketball, and not only for men men's basketball but also for the women's. So, well, he's a very competitive person, he wants to be at the top, he wants the investment he makes, which is obviously an important investment, to have a return in terms of results, and this has a part of a certain amount of pressure on them, but he also puts in some means. I think that people who don't do this kind of thing should be grateful,

because they could obviously dedicate themselves to other things. He dedicates himself to basketball and running, which is something that has made the city… He has done a marathon or something, I think I've seen it. Yes, he has done a marathon, well, he has done many things for the city. There is a walk that he did to be able to practice, to be able to run, which is sensational, in the old riverbed. Well, I think he is a person who does a lot of things, not just for sport, because his wife also

dedicates herself to other types of cultural activities, from the rehabilitation of buildings, they have a museum. Yes, but you can see his passion, we see him in the first or second row, he loves it. He doesn't miss a game, we've been here, it was a strange day, he had a much bigger commitment, but he's a passionate person and he talked to us and was there for us. And they tell me that he watches all the games on television. He is in the day-to-day of the club, he knows what's going on and he has passion. He is not just a person who invests his money or a part of his money in sport, but he really does it because he likes it and has this passion for doing it.

Let's talk a little bit about the book, then we will go deeper into your way of playing, but it seems that you always try to play in the same way, you win, you lose, you go ten up, ten down,

you always try to play in the same way, I guess Well, let's say that over the years I've been training in the youth team of Badalona, in lower divisions, and there we always bragged that the youth team was a team that played fast, that played the green and black hurricane that they were talking about many years ago. So, that's where I had trained and what we have done in the last years, I think we haven't invented anything, we don't do anything that other teams and other coaches haven't done, but surely what we have done

has been to take it to the limit. And also with the years as a coach, what I've done is try to simplify and have clearer priorities than maybe in other times of my life as a coach. So we are very focused on training and playing in a certain way and we dedicate most of the time and even almost look for players who adapt to that type of game. Also, the fact that we compete in the EuroLeague and the CBA, we don't have much time to train because we play a lot of games, led us to think that what we had to do was to do simple things,

very well done, better than doing a lot of regular things. So we prioritized last season, thinking that maybe we were going to play in the EuroLeague, a way of playing that I think has had continuity this year and it is very important that there is's a continuity of players. It leads us to a type of game that I think hooks the players, most of them, and also the fans. We haven't innovated anything, we haven't invented anything.

What we have done is... You do it much better than the other teams. We've reached extremes. There was a time, I don't know if you agree, when you won the Barça of Pascual, for example, with 60 or 70 points. And here, suddenly, it happens,

in all the games, we get used to having more than 100 points. What you say, things that seem simple from the outside, and players that do it very well. For example, I don't want to give you two names, I think Cameron Taylor and Javier Pradilla are great friends of mine. They are the perfect definition of things that are done super extraordinarily, that are done well, at a very high level, but they are things that seem simple and that you can achieve by training.

So, signing players like these, with so much intelligence and desire, I think it helps your style a lot. I remember many years ago, in my first stage in Manresa, in the early 90s, that what was fashionable at the time, when you played against a big team, Manresa was not at that time, it has never been,

then it was, well, you have to slow down, let them shoot three points, see if they don't have the day, and at a slow pace, we can surprise them. We could have scored three points, but we could have surprised them if they didn't have the day. I think it was in Manresa, in this last stage, that we were a bit like, well, the teams that are better than us won't be happy if we force them to play at a very high pace. I think that's when the idea started to come up. Instead of wanting to beat Madrid or Barcelona, 61-60,

let's see if we can beat them 104-102. That's when the idea started. I remember that with Salva Kams, who was my assistant at Manresa, we used to joke a bit. If they beat us, at least they run a lot. Running with Salva Corriaz.

Yes, and that's when things started to change, things that other coaches had done. For example, Aito has always been a reference for me when I was training, and other coaches, Alfred Julebe, also when I was training, he was a coach who wanted to play at a very high pace. So they have been people who have influenced me and marked me.

And then, also in recent years, a person who has influenced me a lot and from whom I have learned a lot has been Jordi Fernández. So, well, these influences lead you to do what other coaches did, but probably prioritizing this more than other things. Another thing that he had to win, as an anecdote, I had him as a physical coach in Lleida, Jorge Fernández. He came as an assistant and look at the time, the first coach of the NBA.

And another thing that you said, that I had Aito, is that apart from liking offensive, he also innovated. He went a bit to the future. He explained a lot of cases. Wagner, when he was 2, they said he was crazy, and now he's a top player in the NBA and he's won a lot of things in Germany.

But well, getting ahead of the times is what I think makes the coach take those steps forward and move forward. I think that in two or three years' time, everyone will want to play like Valencia. Paris and Valencia, you are the two who started this style, right? Yes, well, Paris, Lissalo is also a person that I have had a relationship with and he has also been a great influence. We started in the pandemic with Manresa, Salva Camps as an assistant,

Mark Stein as an assistant, and then the players' influence. We can't forget the players' influence. I remember many conversations with Dani Pérez, who I trained with for five years at Manresa. I remember a conversation just before the pandemic, and he said, Dani, why don't you play faster?

You've always been in teams that have asked you not to make mistakes. And he said, yes, it's true, but I really like playing fast. I said, look, Dani, next year we're going to play faster. And I think that's the moment to say, let's change a little bit the way we were playing, which is not that we wanted to play slow, but we were going to train more to go faster.

And that also leads you to be more proactive in defense, to generate more possessions. And there are more things that you have to add to this. The players have to understand that playing this way, which bothers the opponent, especially if the opponent is not used to it, the number of minutes has to be limited.

We play with short rotations, but I repeat, Maito did this 20 or 25 years ago. What we have done is, if Maito changed in 6, we change it in minute 3 or 4. And for that, which is what allows us to keep a very high pace, we need the total, absolute and disinterested collaboration of the players. And not everyone. It's difficult, I tell you. It was hard for me as a player.

It was hard for me to get into the game. When someone believes 100% in this and doesn't question the changes, and just goes with the idea, I think that's when things come out. Sometimes it's a process, some players it's easier, some less. But I think it's very interesting what you say,

that everyone believes and I think it's very interesting that everyone believes in themselves. If it goes wrong twice, it's ok. If it goes wrong the third time, it's ok. Of course, you have to try to do it every day. And you have to train a bit in this line, because if you don't, you won't get anywhere. If you train it, or you say preseason you train a lot of pressure on the track and you do well in the preseason games, but then, between training less and not daring to do so much in the competition, you do little and badly.

So, what I said at the beginning, we don't want to do many things regularly, we want to do a few things very well, and that's the key philosophy. Not wanting to train a lot of things, but what we train, we're going to repeat it enough times so that it becomes a habit. And that, you have to adapt. And of course, it also works better with top-level players, that you can, in quotes, pass very fast lessons and focus on things that are a bit different. This was already the case in Manresa, but here it's even more so, having players of a lot of quality makes everything a bit easier.

But I agree with what you said, the player has to adapt, not everyone adapts, that's how it is, some are not comfortable with this dynamic and it's understandable. As coaches, we understand that, we try to adapt. I think it's fun to play like that, I liked it, but it was hard for me because at the end of my career I didn't get to the physical level, because you need a minimum physical to play like that. At a certain level, athletic. And it was harder for me, but the way of playing is very fun.

You run, you have a lot of freedom, a lot of movement.

In fact, at the Barça Guardiola, they said, we have to find a nickname for Valencia, for Pedro Martínez. What do you think? Now that you've said it, do you like the orange hurricane?

Hurricane is fine. First, I insist that we haven't invented anything. We've just put more emphasis on some aspects of the game, as most teams do, and we don't want to be an example, or put a medal on ourselves, neither as a coach nor as a team.

We have our shortcomings and our virtues, but it's true that now the players feel comfortable. This is very positive, but we don't want to have any magic formula, and of course I don't have it as a coach.

We need a nickname for the team. How about Huracán Taronja? Do you like it?

I don't know. Valencia Basquiat.

Has there been any special moment this season? The first game in the Racha Arena, the two victories in Greece, the victory against Japan. Has there been a moment that you say, things are starting to happen here?

Well, yes, surely the two games that were also in 10 days of difference that we won in Olympiacos and in Athens. In Pireo and Athens. Those were very good games that gave us a lot of confidence. I also remember a game here with Dubai, which was a very difficult match, which we won in the end, playing very well the last 3 or 4 minutes when the match was very complicated. These are matches that make you grow as a team, because having had a lot of difficulties and having had a bad time,

makes you feel good. But we've also had bad moments, because we lost a match in Paris, which we had absolutely won, in the Liga CB, we lost some matches in the Granada field, with all due respect, but it was a match that was hard to lose, so that's the season, there are good moments, bad moments, and everything is part of the journey. In 1990, he won the Copa Corage at the age of 28

against the Escabolini of Pesaro, coached by Sergio Escariolo, who is about the same age as me. I'm from the same age group.

He's four or five months older than me.

Exactly, and I'm still at the same level.

Yes, yes. At what level?

Yes, yes, totally. The best of the best. You are the two most long-lasting coaches of your generation, right?

Yes, Luis Casimiro, he has been with me for many years. I see it as something worthy, because it is very difficult to be a coach, very difficult to get there, and then to keep training for so many years, I really give it a certain value.

And 18 years later, after a lot of ups and downs, you reach another final, in this case of the EuroCup, with Girona training Marga Sol. It was also Marga Sol's best season in Spain. For you, how was it to train Marga Sol and and then go to the next level to go to the NBA?

Yes, exactly. That was his last year in Europe until he returned to Girona. We had a good team, Fernando Sanemeterio was there, Victor Sada, Roman Montañez, we had foreigners of a very good level of foreigner. Well, Mark was a crack, a super competitive crack, a blast. Exaggerated, with everything. Super competitive, yes, yes. You sing with him and if he wins, he gets a cabrio.

Yes, yes, doing one-on-ones with Darrell Middleton. I remember a very good anecdote with him, which sometimes I use as an example, that we, the coaches, we were whistling, we played 5 against 5, and there was a day, I didn't say it much, now also, with the distance, I could have said it more times because it was not going badly, but he said, hey, today don't whistle, so the training will be harder and we will prepare better for the game.

We didn't whistle, the players were surprised, but the next one was going to make a stronger defence. Very competitive, with a lot of talent. Now, of course, he has no merit to tell him after the career he has done, but at that time he had to come to Girona because Barcelona didn't have the space. You discovered it a bit, I have spoken with him, he was good, he had already been in the national team, but the year of being the best here and going to the NBA, he speaks wonderfully about that year, the mentality, the intelligence he has when playing, and I've seen few people who are so angry at losing, and who always have a fixation on winning.

And if the fixation is watching 25 games, he's going to watch 25 games. If he has to run a thousand sprints, he's not going to say. I think that's surprising, he's very fond of that. I think that's why he's done everything he's done. Yes, for sure. But I was there. The year before, when Antonio Maceiras and Pessic signed him, in Girona, he's already playing pretty well.

That summer is when the World Champions are left, he's doing really well, especially in the final, when his brother got injured. And then, I mean, it's not like he suddenly plays well because he was already a very good player. But it's true that that's the first year that's different. I think he broke the record of weekly MVP Savonis. And well, he had a great year that led him to enter led him to gain a lot of confidence in the NBA.

I think that was something he lacked, or I thought he lacked, more at the beginning of the season than at the end. It's a bit of self-confidence, to say, I'm a very top player. And this, because the very top was always his brother was always the top player and he seemed like he was going to be good and not so much. I think that season helped him to improve his self-esteem and say, hey, I'm here because I've arrived and I'm not just any player and I'm going to be one of the best in the world.

We advanced to 2017, it was a very surreal week. We lost the Euro Cup final. I remember meeting with Pierre Oriola the day after losing the final and I told him, well, Pierre, don't worry, the league is still there. And I was thinking, I'm lying to my face. How did Valencia win the league and you won it? And I guess that was it, going from hell to heaven, maybe it even gives you a better taste of having won the league after what happened.

Well, of course, with the passage of time, at the time, it was a total drama, a total disgust, because we thought we had won the game, with everything in favour, with 7 or 8 minutes left. And then you lose it, and the disgust is huge. But then, when you enlarge the picture, that year we also played the final of the Copa del Rey, we had a very good team,

and we lost the final of the Copa del Rey in a super-equal final against Real Madrid. We were very disappointed at that moment. But of course, when you enlarge the photo and say, after losing the final of the Cup with a very bitter feeling and losing this one with a horrible feeling, saying what a disaster, what we have lost. Winning LaLiga gives you more courage because you say we had to overcome very big adversities,

on a mental, individual and group level. I remember it as a great disgust to lose that final because it is very difficult to reach the finals and lose them. If you have to lose them because your team is better, then look, it's fine, or you assume it better. But it wasn't the feeling we had. Then winning LaLiga, of course, you say, wow, with everything we've been through before, it still has more merit than if it had been otherwise, but at the time we didn't know. At the time, when we lost in the two finals, the feeling we had was to say, fuck, now the league,

what you said, the league, no joke. If I'm not mistaken, you had the picture, I'm talking about memory, but you had Baskonia, Barça and Madrid.

Yes, yes.

Famously a triple of Renfro that comes out, who is very famous here in Valencia. That's the quarter-final, that's the tiebreaker. And then, with the track factor against Baskonia, in the first game, I think we were losing by 12 or 13 at the end of the third quarter, and Fernando Sanemete had a triple from 9 metres, and that goal... That was a goal that made us change our position and we won the game. We lost the second and we won the next two. And then the final with Madrid.

Before talking about tactics, a question. In your career, the last 12-15 years, you've been considered one of the best coaches in Europe, have you ever received an offer from Madrid, Barcelona, or any top Euroleague team in these 12-15 years? No, no, no. The truth is that I have not. I have been very happy as a coach, training in Gran Canaria, training in Manresa. I have felt very identified with those clubs. Obviously, professionally and sport-wise,

you do have the hope of improving. That's what Valencia has given me. So, things have come as they have. I have done nothing less and I am super proud of all the teams I have been in. I guess it must be a virtue, but I've always identified a lot with where I've been. And here I also include my family. My children and my wife.

I'm kidding, we're mercenaries, we're going to change. In this world it's like that. I'll steal it from you because I've been in 15 places.

I can steal that it from you, I've been in 15 places.

I can steal that phrase from you. But as long as we're there, we'll do it to the death. My children have been fans of Gran Canaria, the room full of posters and the scarf. And now the last stage of Manresa, it's the same. When we were in Baskonia, we always felt very comfortable and identified,

and gave a lot of value to where we were. I've never been in a club thinking I had to be in another. Always super comfortable, and obviously with the personal and professional ambition of signing a better contract or being in a better team sports-wise. I'm always super comfortable and obviously with the personal and professional ambition to sign a better contract or to be in a better team sports-wise, but without any anxiety of saying, well, yes, well, yes.

It is also part of your sports world, you have to have a little ambition. I think what you have done is very important, which has helped me a lot in my career, which is to adapt to the place and feel it quickly. Otherwise, time passes, years pass and you have lost a little time. You have been here for a year and you have not felt what the club meant, like a year a little empty.

Apart from the means, ambition, character of the team, I think there is no better place than Valencia right now.

I am very comfortable, really. I have an impressive coaching staff, we have a great time and we are helping each other to improve. Puna is a great group of players, a very professional club, an incredible facility, the city is fantastic to live in. I don't know what else to ask for, I don't need anything else.

Speaking of tactics, we spoke before about Joaquim Fernández, he invited you to a couple of Summer Leagues in the last 2 or 3 years.

I invited myself, more than anything. The two times I've been invited and he said yes, you are welcome. It happens. I remember interviewing your friend Isalo before meeting you. He was crazy about meeting you. I guess seeing what other coaches do and

seeing that they have a lot of admiration for you, it has to be satisfactory.

Yes, there is a very good anecdote about Isalo. I think it was also during the pandemic that we were at home through a mutual acquaintance, a mutual friend, Oscar Yebra. There's a good story about Carlos, I think it was during the pandemic, we were at home with a friend of ours, Oscar Yebra, he was training in China, I had a good relationship with him, we talked about the distance, and he told me, there's a Finnish coach who trains in Germany with his brother,

in a team, not in then, but in another German team. I don't remember now. He said he'd be interested in talking to me because he'd seen me play for your team. So we had a couple of long conversations, an hour and a half, two hours, talking on Zoom. And the guy was very interested. I didn't know him at all.

I started to wonder, why was so interested in me. And he turned the tables. At first he wanted to know how we played and what my ideas were. I said, wait, this is the other way around. He was a coach who influenced me a lot. And then Jordi Fernandez. I know him from Badalona,

we are from different generations, but when he was assistant coach at Cleveland and trained the team linked to Adilic, that's when I met him. We were in Badalona, we were going to have a drink to get to know each other, and he was talking about basketball and I said, this guy has a lot of level and he has influenced me a lot, I think he is one of the coaches coaches I am most grateful to for how he has opened up his knowledge, then his mentality. I have had the opportunity to meet him in Sacramento when he was a first-year assistant. And then last summer when he was already the first coach in the Nets.

He has influenced learn a lot from our rivals, from our coaches, from the coaches we have a relationship with and from the assistants. We spend a lot of time together and discussing, discussing, discussing experiences of everything that happens in our day-to-day is very important. And then, and I don't think Kino will agree, the players. For the coaches, the players are a great source of learning. All the players, well, not all of them, but there are some players, I remember many years ago with George Singleton in Manresa,

or Spencer Nelson or Larry Lewis in Manresa, in Gran Canaria, Tisi Reines, who trained in Menorca, in Tenerife and Gran Canaria. They are players that you get a very good communication with, a trust with, and I have learned a lot from those players, their experiences, their talent. That's a great source for the coaches. The way you've lived the experience of a player, the way you've had to express it on the court,

I think that's very important. I've been with a lot of players, but going back to the topic, when I talked to Marga Sol about tactical things, he only talked about the bases, which is the most normal thing, but he was a pivot who saw it from a different perspective. He was a base in the body of a pivot, but he gave you another vision. Maybe you're right, I've been playing like this for 15 years, and maybe if I try to do it this way, there are very interesting points that I think there with the coaches, well Aitu asked a lot too, Aitu and I had many

talks sometimes they were about photography or geography, for example we had chess or the common bag, suddenly one day it was only basketball and he asked me how have you seen this? How would you do this? How would you get the pass to this player here? And he would do a little bit of a guess, and I think that also gave him ideas, or sometimes we shared the same thought, and it was curious the questions he asked you as a coach. Maybe Aito wanted you to answer what he wanted you to say.

Probably, yes.

But yes, no, I'm joking. It's clear that...

I've always had it.

these insecurities have led me to say, I have to improve, I have to improve in any way. Going to the gym, talking to other coaches, seeing what other coaches do to try to be at the same level. Sometimes, being insecure also has a positive side, which is that it forces you to say, what can I do to not stay at the the level I am and to try to improve.

We talked about that before, that everything is invented, ok? In basketball, now, to innovate is almost impossible, but to be as many years as the first coach, you have to adapt to how not my case, but there are coaches in the world. Basketball is a globalized sport, it's played everywhere and there are people who eat a lot of coconut and create trends. So it's a live game. The rules also help, changes in the rules that lead to the game changing. It's not the same to play with 30 seconds than with 24. The three-point line, further or closer, all this makes the basketball evolve. And there are people in many places in the world, in Australia, in the United States, in Europe,

that eating the coconut, that trying, are changing, not in a revolutionary way, but they are changing trends. So I think that being a little attentive, analyzing what others do, it helps you to be up to the level. So, a little bit what I have in mind,

Charles Darwin's phrase, that the species that survive are not the smartest or the strongest, but the ones that adapt better. So, as a coach, I presume that, to have adapted well to the basketball trends,

rather than being the smartest or the best, which I have never been, but to try to adapt to what others do and to try to adapt to the trends of the game. And the new bodies too, because you want to play like before and now suddenly you get a Tocumbo and no matter how much tactics you use to defend, or you take two or three or you close the space,

you won't be able to. So I think it's very important to adapt. I think a Belgian team that tried things, that tried to play with a team of more than 2-5. I don't know if they were successful, but they didn't go down either. There are teams that keep trying things and it's interesting. The Australian coach, I don't remember his name because he's not particularly well known, was the one who started to innovate how to go to the attack rebound. And right now there are many teams in Spain, in Europe, but in the NBA.

So, a coach in Australia has created a trend. The attack rebound has always been there. There was always an interest, but doing it, as this man came up with in Australia, has created a global trend. This is the sport of today, and more so with globalisation,

that information arrives more or less quickly, but everyone has access to it. These things happen. We are the ones who copy, but the ones who innovate, it doesn't have to be from NBA or Europe, it can be anywhere. I play with Juan Pibaolet in Athens, so there was a time when I was throwing a triple and he was in the triple but straight. In principle, he would have to do balances and I was there and he said to the coach, why are you going to the rebound? Pedro told me to go to the rebound and it always went well, so I kept going to the rebound like a beast.

The guy was going like a beast, and the player you asked for was doing it 100%. The mentality is to always go there, but it's true that it makes it very difficult for you the first pass of the counterattack, and it makes the other team not be able to go not that fast. It's a clean rebound, it's difficult,

it has a lot of things behind it that if we analyse it, it's interesting. Yes, because the offensive rebound, this is a bit like what this Australian coach and Thomas Lisalo have also implemented very well in Europe,

it was always the goal to take a missed shot and score two points. So the current trend is, I'm going to offensive rebound as a form of defensive balance. Before, many years ago, the defensive balance was,

if you don't score, run back. If you score, run back. If you catch it, you catch it. And now, the trend is, we're going to defensive rebound very aggressively, because that's the best way to prevent the other team from counter-attacking. So, the good thing about it, which we, for example, in Manresa and now in Valencia, like, is that this provokes activity, intensity, proactivity, all those things that we are interested in. We sometimes say to ourselves, let's see if we can see what's next.

I'm almost sure it will have to do with proactivity, intensity, the next thing that will continue to evolve the game. We have to see it to try to keep adapting.

Yes, also, in your team at least, it seems that the first good shot is the first open shot. It doesn't matter if it's the second 5, 7 or 9 of possession. If someone has an open shot... It's hard for the players to understand this, because the days when the triples don't come in, for example, it must be more complicated.

Well, that also comes a little bit from... Here, the one that has influenced me that I've discovered nothing, because I don't want to believe that, because it's not the truth. Jordi Fernández has influenced me a lot. We don't shoot only three points, we don't care about all three-point shots, we look for certain three-point shots.

And the players know when it's a good shot and when it's not. It's not, let's say, it's not pulling for pulling and we join that, what we do like is that there is a high number of possessions, so we are not too speculative because what we want is that there are many actions, that the game is somehow a crazy game, but not crazy in any way, that is, any three-point shot does not work for us and you also have to that many times, to get a three-point shot, you have to shoot two.

Because if you only shoot three points, you become unpredictable. So we have some rules, we don't want any three-point shot. And that's where Jordi's influence comes from.

Interesting. I also think that in Manresa, in Gran Canaria, you didn't have this problem, in quotes, problem, having a squad of more than 12 players, is it difficult to manage compared to your previous teams in which you didn't have this?

Yes, it has a difficulty,man squad, he would have said, why do you want so many players? But the fact that more and more games are played makes the squads longer and longer and the players are also adapting. What used to be a drama, that a player would be left out of a call-up for a match is more naturalised than before. The players understand that this is what it is. It doesn't mean that everyone likes it, as it is logical. But, of course, playing so many matches, knowing that you are going to have physical problems,

with a short squad, you are not going to get to the end of the season. So, what is sought is to have longer teams to avoid the problems you'll have and to try to get something fresh to the end of the season. But for the coach, that has a management that's not easy. It's not easy because I'd like...

I mean, if I could get all my players players play with their maximum confidence, I'm convinced we would be successful. But it's very easy to say and very difficult to achieve. The easiest way to give confidence to the players is with the minutes of play. But the minutes of play are very limited. So maybe a player considers that for him to feel the coach's confidence is to play 28.

And the coach says, if I give you 28, what do I do? The 12 that are left, I have few left for the rest. So, getting that balance and that management, for me, is what is most difficult right now. With my assistants, we spent more time thinking about how we could make this player not misunderstand him and see if we could get him in the next game so he wouldn't lose confidence and try to be positive with them, to dramatize these decisions a bit. But it's not easy because, of course, each player, I understand,

they look for them. The coaches look for the team and we want everyone to do well. But of course, the player says, if I don't play, I won't do my statistics, I won't have a team next year, and then, of course, the management of that is complicated.

We're going to ask a couple of personal questions. You're going to like this one, because I know you like it. It's about social media, Twitter in particular. You don't have to be on Twitter, no one calls you, but you like to express your opinion there from time to time. He's one of those who likes to read. You like to read. I read them, I read them.

You laugh, huh? I get distracted with the fun to follow him. I have to be very cross, because I suppose it happened to us the same, that at the beginning you answered anything and now you have learned to measure yourself.

It's a problem, social networks, I tried to do it in a natural way. How do I say it? You like it better when you have social networks and train in the Gran Canaria than if you train in Valencia, or I imagine Barcelona or Madrid, because there you will get more people, then it ends up becoming something problematic. I have given opinions that have nothing to do with basketball,

that not everyone likes. So now I try to be more cautious, because in the end it depends on how it ends up becoming a loss of energy. In the sense that, for example, you put your name, and everyone knows who you are, or me, because everyone knows who I am,

many times you are interrelating with people you don't know. And that's complicated. It's complicated and you have to listen to things that make you go, -"Fuck, go away." -"Where do I start?" Yes, yes. So, well... Now I'm much less active.

Well, I also think that, at some also think that at some point, especially at the beginning, many people told me that I was too serious about TV. I consider myself a serious person, but not so much. I also said that I was a bit like that. I said that I was a bit like that.

I said that I was a bit like that. I said that I was a bit like that. I said that I was a bit like that. I am, at least I like to be. I am here, people around me know me better, and that's how it started. But you have to be careful.

You talked about running, it seems you stopped running and you changed it for something you told me,

the Japanese march. You told us that you were a Japanese rider, right? Yes, yes, yes. I really liked to run, but I guess it was because of my age. I had a knee that hurt a lot. So now I do the Japanese march.

What does it consist of?

It's the interval training of a lifetime, but walking. You can do it for 2, 3, 4 minutes at a normal pace, normally throwing high, and then at a very high pace, without running. You have little impact, and the more you do, and if there is a little rise, much better. Then you change the pulsations, when you go faster or slower, and there are days when I do an hour and a half.

It's okay, it's okay. You also end up destroying it as you wish. faster or slower. There are days when I do an hour and a half. You also end up destroying it as if it were real. Yes, I tried it and it's... It's fine, it's fine. It's entertaining. It's also a way to disconnect. This year I set myself the goal of trying to do things that had nothing to do with basketball. Because, I mean, if not, between so many games and such,

we're a bit, sometimes... I'm with my assistants talking about basketball, with my friends talking only about basketball. I have to try to find a way that's like an escape valve. And this is one, because you have to be aware of the clock. And if they call you on the you, you don't answer.

If they send you a WhatsApp message, you don't answer. So, you have to be focused on that. And then, two more things that I've been fond of this year. For the first time, I go to the gym. I go to the gym for half an hour, 40 minutes. I try to go almost every day.

We have a fantastic gym here, and then the chess, I had played a lot when I was young, now you can play with applications. We share the gym, I haven't played much, I don't know if you like Japanese chess, but chess is a thing. I was talking to a psychologist and she told me that I had to disconnect because I was in Russia and I was with my friends and I was going to train while travelling. So the Russians started playing chess a lot and my father had taught me. And now I have been playing for 8 or 9 years, trying to level up, trying to get better every day.

So one day we still play a game. Yes, and in these apps it's great because if you want to, you can cheat. You can throw three games back and you can rectify the one you didn't realize at that moment.

That should be worth it, right?

Well, you can play with the option of going back or not.

Ah, ok. But of course, if you don't go back you win very little. First, we're going to give you this board so you can see a couple of things. He's the one who's 28 years old and winning the College Final. With the autumn-winter fashion and the big jackets.

I was there, to be clear. I was the assistant of this team. I had been in the lower divisions in previous years with many of the players who were important in the first team. And they stopped him at the first coach, Ger Brown, three or two weeks before. I was there, but it was a beautiful moment.

Go to the other side.

This is the fourth game of the 2017 ACB League. It ended with a disaster.

Yes, a disaster.

And Donchis gives him a trip. They get a bit of a fight. Yes, we were all friends. We had a group of three and we talked a lot about this move. Yes, yes, yes. Besides, that's the... Well, Sergi Yui puts us in the middle of the pitch to win the game. It's recurrent in my life. Every X time someone puts it in and I say,

fuck, it's Yui again.

Anyway, the one who puts you in the shower is Luke Sigma, who is probably the most polite person in the world. He's euphoric about winning.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Luke Sigma, a crack. What a player.

And we have the last one. This is the crossover that been Montero.

I think you have helped him a lot. I don't know if it's because of his age, which is more moldable, but it's true that Montero is playing much better with you than before you had him. He's a player, first of all, very young. I think all players have the ability to improve if they have a good mentality. He has it and he's improving. He's gaining a lot of experience. When he signed with us in Valencia Basket, he had never played in a European competition. The first year he played was last year at EuroCup.

Obviously, now, at EuroLeague, it's The first year he played was last year at EuroCup. And now, obviously, it's the first year he plays in the EuroLeague. So he has a great natural talent and he's improving because it's, by the way. He hasn't convinced me that he's someone who has reached his maximum, he has to improve in game knowledge, in defense, but he has impressive innate things like that play, that ability that comes from talent, and he's very competitive. He's a very winning guy.

I think that the priorities have changed for Valencia Basque. I suppose you had a series of goals in the beginning of the season in EuroLeague.

Now they will be more ambitious, right? You've seen it, you must be more ambitious now. Yes, at the beginning of the season, when we started winning the first 4 or 5 games, Cameron Taylor made some statements, a little bit, that I said, and this one, saying that our goal was the maximum, like the one that time we weren't like that. Valencia had played this competition, but it had been years since they had played it. We were with the general manager and the coach, with whom I have a connection with the club. The idea was to see if we were in the play-in fight.

That was the goal before the start. Now we are at that point, with the tremendous equality and the very good teams, and still many games to play, that if we are not top 4 we will be disappointed, which is not fair if that happens. But we will see this regular season final, it will be fair. We will be in the fight to be top 4, but we can fall to Pleyin. So, what has to be, will be. And to compete without giving up anything, but also with the humility that the path has to give us. The path has given us good and bad moments.

And that's it. And always think that if it's in our hands, we can achieve it, but if not, we'll have to persevere.

Kino, I think you have the playoffs more or less in your hands, and once you play in the playoffs, you never think about losing the series. Would you try to go to the Finals?

Well, everyone will try, that's for sure. The thing is, when there are players and teams so competitive, you don't think about the perspectives people had. In the end, the perspective is something complicated, and you have to evade it a bit. You have to focus on what depends on you and from there, do your best.

People will always say good things and bad things. Do what you do. I think the key is to focus on yourself and always try to compete like Valencia. It's very good. It has surprised us all. What happens from now on,

at least for me, I've said it before, is to receive it as a prize. In the end, it's all a learning experience. He will know much more than we do. But it's nice to see you and that you continue

to make us enjoy it. It's good for basketball, especially because it's what we're all interested in. Because there were some years when getting over 80 points seemed like a miracle, and we like it too. It's true that we talked with Xavi Pascual,

we loved his game at that time, and he was also very good, I'm not taking away his merit, but for me, who is more offensive, or who considers me like that, we also like to see games with more than 100 points and it's nice for the defense.

He wasn't defensive, was he?

No, he was a crack of the 2x2 generation, as he was called, with the American who played in the field.

Ratavius Williams.

It was also easy with him, you could thrown anywhere and he caught it. Yes, but he has played elsewhere and they didn't give him well. I have one last question. You are not going to stop training at this level, but if you I live in the day to day. I don't want to think too much about the future, I say this with a bit of concern, because even if you have some bad moments as a coach, and there are moments when you say, damn, what a problem, where is this going to go? I have good and bad experiences, and the bad ones are annoying, I'm going to miss it a lot the day I don't have it. But I'll have to face it when I get there.

I will always be a fan. A positive part of my job is that I am forced to analyze, to follow the teams, to follow the coaches. That forces me. When I don't have the obligation, I will the coaches, so that forces me. When I don't have the obligation, I'll do it less, but I think I'll keep doing it. You'll be in the Titus, as you've said, and you'll be in the El Giriadrico.

One of the ones who tried the other.

Yes, but I'm sure I'll be a fan because I love it. I love it and neither the Japanese march, nor the chess, nor going to the cinema fills me as much as watching a basketball game. And this, even if I don't dedicate myself professionally, I'm sure I'll keep doing it.

Well, Pedro, thank you very much for being with us here at the Roche Arena. I think it's a spectacular place.

Impressive.

Incredible.

Very handsome. Here in Rocha Arena, I think it's a spectacular place. Yes, it's very beautiful. Good luck to Valencia Basket in the rest of the season. Kino, anything else you want to add?

It's been a pleasure. See you next time.

Thank you all for being here. Remember to like, subscribe to the podcast. We're also on audio version. We'll be commenting on YouTube. We're also on audio version. We'll be commenting on YouTube. I'll try to comment on everything. See you soon here at EuroLeague & Friends Made in Spain.