By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Whenever opting free time into watching basketball games, Gabriel Deck will generally bring himself to the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague over the NBA, he explained in an interview shared on the portal of CABB, the Argentinian Basketball Confederation.
“I hardly ever watch basketball games,” he confessed, “This is rare for a player, but the truth is I really don’t watch games in their entirety. Maybe some very interesting matches, but watching games is not my priority.”
“More EuroLeague and sometimes the Argentinian league, but not too much,” he added referring to his preferences, “Actually, I rarely watch NBA games. It doesn’t appeal to me. I didn’t see the Los Angeles Lakers versus Miami Heat finals.”
Despite, matches not being an essential part of his spare time, players must follow recent action, especially when preparing for an approaching matchup with a specific opponent. “Yes, of course, I watch the next rivals. I am not obsessive. When I know who I have to face, I will watch games, but mainly parts not the whole game,” he pointed out.
Moving on to the Argentina national team, Deck and his teammates coming off second place in the 2019 FIBA World Cup look forward to further success at the international level with the postponed Olympic Games expected to be held this summer.
“We thought we can get back together after the World Cup and relive some great experiences, but we couldn’t,” he mentioned, “After China, everything happened quickly. I miss those unique moments. We were under the illusion of playing in Tokyo, but understood that wasn’t going to happen.”
“Repeating our successful run currently seems very challenging,” he furthered, “We will see how it goes when the team is back and competes in prep games. We must go step by step. But we feel that anything is possible. Nobody thought it could be done in the World Cup but we did it. Why shouldn’t we believe we can repeat it.”
Deck is averaging 2.2 points and 3.4 rebounds through his first five EuroLeague appearances of the 2020-21 EuroLeague season. At the domestic level, he is up to 7.2 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per ACB contest.