After 25 years at Real Madrid, the last three at the helm of the first basketball team, Chus Mateo (Madrid, 56 years old) retains the enthusiasm of the young man who started training in a school. He has been the national team coach for two months and next Thursday he will make his debut in an official match for the World Cup qualification. First he reflects on his career and his personality, on the present and future of the Spanish team.
Ask. Was being a coach your calling?
Answer. It was a game that became my profession. I started training at Colegio Agustiniano, in the La Estrella neighborhood. One day in Physical Education, which was then called Gymnastics, there were basketball competitions. I must not have done badly and they selected me for some summer games. I got hooked. I really enjoyed leading groups and participating from the sidelines in a sport where the coach has a lot of influence.
Q. What do you like about training?
R. The strategy. Chess helped me with this. And the values of collective sport, that collaboration is essential and that no one is capable of winning alone. Help your partner and get help from your partner, laugh and cry together even if you have very different personalities.
Q. Is loneliness the worst thing?
R. When I was a coach I read a book by Javier Imbroda, If you fear loneliness, don’t be a coach. So I didn’t have more pressure than I put on myself. Then I was his assistant and I understood it. The misunderstood is the coach. You come home alone with your problems, fears and insecurities. You have to work a lot on a mental level, on emotional balance, and not let yourself be defeated by pressure. Many people accompany you on your journey who know that you suffer in loneliness.
Q. How did you experience that pressure in Madrid?
R. Sometimes I exaggerated the responsibility. Then I stopped to think. It’s a game, a sport, I don’t kill anyone nor does a person’s life depend on me. What is the maximum thing that could happen to me? Let them throw me out. Well, I have my family. But deep down I’m demanding, I feel that behind me there are many people happy to win, laughing and crying. I felt responsible for those people, the most observed.
Q. Did you like it?
R. I have enjoyed many things and suffered many others. I really liked the game we were making, especially the second year, when I saw my idea reflected. We won three titles and finished second in the Euroleague. Achieving your goals relieves you because I had the pressure of wanting to do well, I took responsibility. He felt upset if things weren’t going well. I have always thought that only victories justify good work. You only justify having worked well if you won, and that’s not fair. They are the rules of the game. Sometimes even when you win you can’t maintain your confidence.
Q. Like in Madrid?
R. There is a lot of demand. I lived there 25 years and I understand it. I knew what was there and I liked experiencing it, like someone who loves to jump with a parachute. I took the risk.
Q. In two months as coach, what have you prioritized?
R. I had two scenarios in my head. The immediate one, making a first selection with a narrower range due to the possibility of choice. I went to introduce myself to the players, made them understand my enthusiasm and told them that they have their coach here for whatever they need. I traveled a lot in Spain and they made things very easy for me because there was a lot of effort and they are playing very well in a fierce league like the ACB. And then, organize the long term for a generational change, with young people who want to open the door. There are promises that can be stars and that must be cooked over low heat. Saving processes is not appropriate at this time. We need to let people mature and not think that we already have something very, very good. We have to protect them.
Q. He replaced Pablo Laso in Madrid and Sergio Scariolo in the national team. Not afraid of challenges…
R. The coach must meet these challenges. I know it is very difficult due to the stature of my predecessors, but a coach cannot say no to Real Madrid and the national team. It’s an opportunity that life gives you and I prepared for it. I am privileged. I have gone through very difficult times in my career which made me mature and think that things are not black or white and that there is a range of greys. I’m learning to value the journey and not put out hot towels or throw bells in the air. I maintain emotional control and feet on the ground.
Q. Does being a good person help in the elite?
R. I try to be because that’s how my parents raised me and that’s how I try to raise my children. I want them to help others and not do harm. That is, linked to a sport that requires collaboration, dialogue, understanding. Authority and trust are not “because I command it.” There are attitudes that value that authority. Sometimes we think that shouting alone makes the team work, but players look for solutions and the coach must be ready to answer their questions. If you don’t help them solve their problems and make the group work, then you’re not ready. The coach is a leader who must convince the players, with their ego, to put their talent at the service of the team. This is the difficult thing. This is how you earn their trust.
Q. The Hernangómez brothers came out of the Eurobasket very well. How do you see them?
R. I trust them. Surely his performance was not to your liking. Criticizing them is beneficial. Three years ago they were MVP of the Eurobasket and of the final. Now it’s their turn to raise the flag of leadership. The failed experience will help them do better. We must let leaders appear, we cannot impose them. In the selection they will appear where we don’t expect them and will surprise us all.
Q. What did Ricky tell you?
R. They were very personal conversations. I see him enjoying the sport that he was passionate about. You have to let it continue to do so. I would like him to return to Spain, but it depends on the weather. He will make his own decisions, I won’t get involved. He will be the first to understand that he can close the door on the national team in a different way.
Q. How will you follow young people who go to the United States?
R. We need to have people there to help us and we will expand the facility. There is a person I absolutely trust who works there for us, who talks with the universities and who will prepare my landing in the United States when I go for three weeks between January and February. There are almost 40 Spaniards and I want to see many of them, in the NBA and in universities. I am also considering taking some of them to Spain for a training camp when their academic and sporting programs allow. And we will have a network of young coaches.
Q. Should we strengthen our commitment to play Spain?
R. Decidedly. The players must feel that the team is theirs. What the people who look out the windows give us has no value. We need to make them feel important, that they are not a second-tier team or eating a brownie to make others go to the championship.
Q. Is chess similar to basketball?
R. It’s a game I was passionate about as a child and now I’ve gotten back into it. I play on airplanes with my cell phone, against the car. There is a great similarity between basketball and chess. A coach uses his own pieces, even if they are more complex. Whoever is on the board does not feel, does not suffer, does not have ups and downs. They have preset movements that do not vary. A shooter can have a bad time, the human factor affects. The strategy is common, but managing those pieces in the dressing room is very difficult.
