Copa del Rey – rooms – working day 1
Roger Grimau (Barcelona; 45 years old) transmits candor. He looks like he has never broken a plate and he seems like a good person, a profile that is far from bizarre, all natural. He shakes hands, is interested in the other, looks in the face and projects transparency. And although it is difficult for him to attend to the media individually, when he does he does not look at the clock or avoid issues. But he is also meticulously rational, because when they ask him to pose with his arms crossed for the photo, he politely dismisses the proposal because he understands that this pose means rejection. “But if you want, I’ll do it, huh?” He offers. Barcelona coach in a time of transition, he keeps the team second in the Euroleague and has the occasional setback in the ACB that does not keep him from the leading positions, even though the defeats explain that the team is capable of the best and worst. He hopes to see the best Barça in the Cup.
Ask. Is it true that you were offered the coaching position late at night?
Answer. Yes. Normally, when I get home I leave my phone on silent. But I have a hard time sleeping and that night I was able to react to the call and arrive at the club facilities in a few minutes. When they asked me to join the team, I responded that I always wanted to be the coach of Barça, not just a coach.
R. Well, if you have already reached where you wanted to be…, what challenges fuel you?
R. Here everything is a daily challenge. We are no longer talking regarding a medium-term objective, but rather you have to prepare well for matches, training sessions, know how to transmit… Even though we have a staff very spacious, in a club that is so big it gives little more than to think regarding the next day; You must be focused on a mental level.
P. Do you notice the pressure of the famous environment?
R. On the one hand, here I feel very comfortable from the first day, embraced by the locker room, the managers and the executives. And on the other hand, I put more pressure on myself than anyone else. Sometimes it’s sick. That’s why I try to stay disconnected. For example, I quit social media years ago. My family filters me a lot; Well, it doesn’t tell me anything. Although sometimes my wife or my children tell me that they insult me. Or even to them, which happens more than I imagined.
P. Insults?
R. Yes, there are. It’s not that there are too many of them, but it shocks me. I don’t know if it’s 50 or 2,000, but you have to give the importance to someone who insults you from anonymity. But in general I try to be very focused on my work. I don’t have the ability to be focused on the team and enter other battles.
P. Is that pressure you put on yourself that doesn’t let you sleep well?
R. I’ve had trouble sleeping for years. I probably think too much regarding things. As a player it already happened to me because at the end of the games, regardless of whether he had participated for 3 or 30 minutes, he analyzed what he might have done better. As a coach your head flies. Even when things are going well.
P. With that pressure can you enjoy yourself?
R. Enjoying is as necessary as it is difficult. I do exercises at a forced pace to achieve this because you have to have moments in which you can clean, not think… But it is difficult, many things come together. And putting a lot of feeling and emotion into what you do is good, but it also has a point that is not so good and makes you suffer or not enjoy it as the occasion deserves. But it’s my way of doing things and I wouldn’t know how to do it any other way.
P. Have you used outside help to treat it?
R. The best is the family. Sometimes, when I get home regularly, I see that my wife Leti, my daughter Vega and my son Joel, who is delighted with the experience because he doesn’t remember when I played, are proud of me. That gives me life. But occasionally, with pills, I have turned to a psychologist because I believe in the figure. I would like to do it more regularly, but I lack time.
P. The thing is that he arrived at a Barça in transition, with a reduction in the salary bill of 20% and in which their star (Mirotic) had left. It’s not what you want, even though it’s Barça, right?
R. No. But it is what it is and it is what it is. I have never complained nor will I. I have no reasons and my job is to train.
P. But if things don’t work out, the coach falls first…
R. This charge is a countdown, yes, yes.
P. Do you feel like the team is already yours?
R. It is a medium-long term process. But I do believe that we have had brilliant phases of play and that the idea is taken. Although you have to have constant progression and improve.
P. You give the players a lot of freedom on the field, right?
R. Yes, but always within some basic structures. I like that they find their space and that they flow, that they express their talent. Basketball belongs to the players. And we must do everything possible to make it easier for them.
P. And if possible with a happy game…
R. Yes. But with this joy, sometimes we lose three or four balls that make no sense. You must be aware that there is a toll for playing like this. So it’s regarding making the toll cheap and that sometime the barrier will be up and we won’t have to pay.
P. And why in the Barça basketball section is there not a style, a DNA, that sets the model as it happens in football?
R. Because they are different sports. In soccer, if you are good with the ball, you can have possession for long periods of the game. In basketball, where everything is back and forth, it is not possible.
P. His team has also had ups and downs in this course, capable of the best and the worst. Do you see it like that?
R. Starting from the basis that it is impossible to win every game, I think we are having a good Euroleague. But in the ACB we have lost three or four games that we should have won and that would make us see the season differently. We have lacked that point of regularity, of solidity, of finishing off games, of not letting ourselves come back.
P. Have the players lacked commitment?
R. No. I have zero doubts regarding his character, commitment and energy and I have been delighted from day one. But the basics must be improved so that this does not happen. Or that when we have a bad moment in a game, that it be short and that it does not take its toll on us.
P. But a couple of months ago you and the basketball director Juan Carlos Navarro did give the squad a warning and said that there were behaviors that might not be repeated…
R. In a season, as in any job, there are moments of everything, good and bad. I explained that if everyone gives their all, whether one plays more or less comes down to a technical-tactical decision.
P. One of those who has not played much is Willy Hernángomez, for whom the club made a great effort. What do you have to improve on?
R. In his case there is a process of adaptation, of returning to European basketball, of being with a new team and coach. He is at a very good level and getting better, but he also has a teammate like Vesely who is spectacular.
P. Now it’s your turn to win the Cup, is it a requirement?
R. At Barça it always is and we give it all the importance. It is the first major objective of the course. You have to go for it with ambition.
P. If they pass the rounds, they would meet Madrid, which is having a great year. Does your good work encourage you to improve?
R. Great rivals feed each other, they are communicating vessels. But for now the focus is on ourselves, on continuing to grow. We already beat them once and that was necessary, important.
P. And how important is it that Ricky Rubio is with you?
R. In the human sense, having Ricky is the best news. We feel very proud to be a grain of sand in his recovery. But otherwise, we remain the same. Yes, at a legal level it has had to be recorded, but it doesn’t change anything and I don’t want to talk regarding things that we don’t know if they will happen. At the moment, it helps us a lot in training. And when your process says black or white, we’ll see. I hope it’s white, but nothing more.
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