By Antonis Stroggylakis / info@eurohoops.net
After five years as head coach of Zenit St. Petersburg, Xavi Pascual decided to take a break and recharge ahead of the next challenge of his career.
Pascual, a former EuroLeague champion with Barcelona in 2010 and winner of several domestic titles in Spain with the Blaugrana, in Greece with Panathinaikos Athens and in the VTB League with Zenit, is eager to get back to coaching in the top-tier continental competition. A league that the Catalan coach admits to have missed quite much.
In an interview with Eurohoops, Pascual discussed his future goals, his thoughts on the ever-changing EuroLeague basketball and how different is the impact of the coach on the game. He also talked about the EuroLeague format, opinions on whether it’s fair or not, how and when players completely buy into a coach’s philosophy, and his former apprentice Ricky Rubio’s return to basketball.
Eurohoops: This is your first summer in four years that you are not preparing for the upcoming season. How is it?
Xavi Pascual: There’s a big difference, you know. Because, first of all, you’re not in front of your computer every second, trying to find new players, and communicating with the managers, communicating with sports directors and owners.
It’s completely different. It’s a real summer.
For the last 5 years I have been working continuously. Now, I think it is time to stop for a little bit. To rest a little bit. Switch off my mind a bit and then reset it. Be ready for the next challenge.
EH: You are a free agent for the first time after 2020. At this moment in your career, what looks like the most appealing project for you to take over?
X.P.: Now it’s a period that I want to improve myself. I want to be better in everything. I want to be ready for something that really I will feel that it’s the right choice for me.
Coaches aren’t like players. Players need to work during their basketball life. Sometimes they may take some jobs that they don’t like too much but they have to take them. When you are a coach, you must be really convinced. You must feel that this is my place, what the owner wants, I can do it. We are in the same page. You must feel that this job is special.
This is how I feel at least. If I don’t feel like this, I won’t work.
If during this season something nice, something that I feel it’s for me comes to my hand, I will take the opportunity. But I really have to feel that it’s the right thing for me.
An era finishes but a new one comes that can be exciting.
EH: After the Russian teams were expelled from the EuroLeague in 2022, you’ve been coaching only on a domestic level. One can easily assume that you really missed coaching in the EuroLeague…
X.P.: 100 percent. When a signed my contract with Zenit St. Petersburg, one of the reasons was that this was a new club in the EuroLeague. They had the desire to take an important step in the Euroleague and that was the reason I went there. During the first years, we were making progress. I believe we did a good job. We put Zenit basketball in the picture of European basketball. But, suddenly, what happened happened and we disappeared from the competition. That was the most difficult part of my job there.
Sometimes life is the way it is. You have to accept that there are some things you can’t control. After that, you have to accept exactly what the reality and work hard with this. I’m extremely grateful for all the time I spent with Zenit. The organization, the fans, the coaching staff and everybody who was working with me. It was a great time. Of course I was missing the EuroLeague competition. But everything else was great. Very good organization. And I have to point out that I was working without any interference, which is really important.
I was enjoying all that from one side but I was missing the EuroLeague on the other side.
As a professional you have to be always ready for whatever happens and work toward making the best out of any situation.
EH: What did you miss the most about coaching in the EuroLeague?
X.P.: The competition. And the level of the players. It’s great. Also considering how the competition is now. Big games in two days sometimes. This pressure that makes you enjoy your profession. The big games in Europe I was missing very much.
“I was following the EuroLeague, watching games and… I had every feeling imaginable. In the beginning, when we were expelled out of the EuroLeague in 2022. I was watching the games and honestly, I had a bit of frustration let’s say (laughs). In 2022-23… I was a little bit angry, I have to admit. After that I started to enjoy it more. It’s a complicated feeling you know. You want to be there but for other reasons you are not there. You become a bit upset, right?”
At the same time, I was enjoying my colleagues, the players and the teams. I was watching the games not only as a spectator but as a coach that always wants to improve and get better.
EH: The EuroLeague is a constantly evolving organism. There’s an ongoing change in how the game is played, maybe in a higher rate than ever.
What are the changes that you’ve noticed over the last couple of years, studying the game from an outside perspective?
X.P.: The basketball has changed indeed in the EuroLeague. Mainly because we have more games and fewer practices. Less time to practice overall. That’s crucial, I think. The game becomes a bit poorer tactically but richer when it comes to speed and execution. That’s a general assesement.
The hand of the coach isn’t as visible now as it used to be. You don’t see it as much as you used to when it comes to changes between games. Coaches don’t have much time to make specific preparation for each game. So, coaches use the same tactics without many adjustments from one game to the other game. The adjustment have to do more with what are the individual characteristics of the opponents and the tactics of the opposing team.
That’s because you simply don’t have so many days to practice. Let’s take a double-game week. From one game to the other you have one practice in which you can’t practice that hard. Then maybe you get a shootaround or two with some more work. The coach doesn’t have time to change many things, or implement different or new sets.
“The competition inevitably goes to a direction where the players take more decisions and a bigger initiative, and the coaches help the players take those decisions outside of any tactics. Mostly by taking advantage of individual characteristics, like speed etc.”
So the answer to your question is this. It’s not that the coaches have less impact on the game but the way they impact the game has changed.
Tactics still matter. The teams that are in the Final Four and especially the winner, Fenerbahce, were excellent teams tactically. For sure you need to create a team and work like a team.
Paris Basketball, for example. The chemistry of the team was amazing. The way they played… it’s very difficult to achieve this chemistry. It was incredible what they did.
EH: When you became the head coach of Barcelona you were 36 years old. You practically “grew up” as a head coach of a major club, a high-aspiring organization, with Barca.
What were the biggest lessons you gained from this experience that you still carry with you?
X.P.: First of all, as you said, it was my first experience at the highest level.
But, as a coach, but I was coaching senior teams many years before. That, for sure, gave me some backup that helped me start this period at the highest level. After that, for sure, the period I had with Dusko Ivanovic as an assistant was very important, because I learned a lot from him.
The combination of all of that helped me be ready for this moment. And it was a moment I didn’t expect to have. Initially, I was a substitution until the end of the season after Dusko Ivanovic parted ways with the team. And after that there was the first year that I really started making things my way, so to speak.
As a personality, I am an individual who is not afraid of anything and I believe in myself a lot. I am like that. I never felt like scared, intimitated or anything like that.
Whatever it is, it’s impossible for me now. I never felt that way. I feel like I can do it, that I can help my players play well.
These things. For sure that from this period the most important thing I’ve learned is that everything counts. Every single detail. Not necessarily related to basketball.
For example, If you go to a press conference and you make one mistake? This counts. If you make a mistake in a substitution. This counts. This is the main lesson I learned from the first day and still applies to this day.
EH: What did the Barcelona experience teach you when it comes to the business aspect of basketball? Of the cutthroat side of being a EuroLeague coach.
X.P: In the life of a basketball coach you always learn good things and bad things. It’s a matter of experience. And experience usually is a combination of mistakes and how you learn from them.
Indeed, I learned about everything. I learned that summers are very important. When you build teams, this is very important.
“As a coach, you have to be on top of all these decisions. Because if another person takes these decisions and it doesn’t work after that, you have to work for a whole year with a player that maybe you are not convinced to hire him.”
If a Sports Director takes the decision and the coaches are secondary, this matters. From this period I understood that the coach must be on top of the building of the team roster.
I also learned how you feel after losing one game and how difficult and important it is to manage this feeling.
This is perhaps the most important thing. Managing the period after one loss until the next game. To prepare the team to win immediately. All teams lose games. But then you must immediately win. Don’t allow losing streaks that really create frustrations inside an organization.
EH: I used the word “cutthroat.” EuroLeague clubs aren’t really famous for being patient, for the most part…
X.P.: No one has patience.
EH: And I have to recall that recent quote by Sarunas Jasikevicius: “Reaching five straight Final Fours is an incredible achievement, yet some people treat it like a failure. That’s the ugly side of sports and the media.”
What’s your take on this?
X.P.: He’s right. It looks like only one team – the winner – has success and all other teams are like disasters.
This is how the system dictates it. But it’s not true. Because some coaches did an amazing job up to the limit of what their team can achieve.
That’s the system. And as a coach you can’t think too much much about this. You just have to think about what you can control. How to put all your energy, all your mentality and all your effort in the right direction all the time and nothing else. All the rest, opinions, even decisions of owners… these are things you can’t control. If the owner decides that your period is finished, you can’t cry. If the owner decides are out, you are out.
And it doesn’t matter if you did it right or you did it wrong. We can’t waste our time and our energy trying to think about whether it’s fair or unfair. In our job, we try to put the energy into our work and try to do our best to help your team win. Nothing else.
EH: Speaking about consecutive Final Fours without managing to win it. There have been talks about if the format is fair or not. Dimitris Itoudis has been saying for many years that the EuroLeague champion should be decided in playoff series and it appears that there more voices agreeing with him now.
Do you agree?
X.P.: We can always talk about it at different points view. For example, if you win the regular season, is it going to be unfair if you lose in the playoffs? You can always have a different point of view of what is fair or not.
The most fair in one competition is always this: There’s the regular season, everybody plays two times with everyone else and at the end the winner is the winner. This is the most “fair” competition that can be.
But, of course, you must have the playoffs and the Final Four. There’s always a way you can criticize whether a competition or system is fair or not.
For example: Last season with Zenit, we finished first in the regular season and then we lost in the playoffs. Is it fair or not? The competition is how it is. We have to accept it. In our case, CSKA beat us so we have to congratulate them and that’s it. We can’t say afterward if it’s unfair or not because we were better during the regular season months.
“Personally, I like the EuroLeague format very much. The Final Four. I love it. For sure it’s unfair but we are playing for the fans. A large part of our profession also has to do with the supporters of our team and for lovers of basketball.”
When it comes to the system, the only problem for me right now is the increased number of games. In some domestic leagues, like Spain for example, the combination of both competitions is going to be unbelievable. I don’t know how it’s going to be manageable. More games every 48 hours. Inevitably, there’s going to be more injuries. It’s going to be too much, from my point of view.
EH: I was watching EuroLeague’s The Crossover podcast in which you and former Barcelona center Boniface N’Dong talked about the 2010 team that won the championship.
He was joking about how tough and demanding the practices where, so much that they were considering their games as their days off.
X.P.: The players are ready for everything. It’s not that they don’t like to practice. They like to practice if everything is correct and everything is fair. If they understand the reasons you practice hard, what’s the goal, and what you want to achieve.
The problem is when the players don’t understand which is the reason and when some coaches are taking the decision to practice hard just because they woke up that morning being in that mood.
“If the players understand the reason why you are working in one direction, and what you’re trying to do, they will follow the coach like crazy”
But you have to be inside of the plan. Not that you practiced hard because you lose one game and tomorrow you practiced soft because you won one game.
You have to be consistent and faithful with your plan. Then players will follow you. For sure.
EH: Among others, that Barcelona team included Ricky Rubio. You were his coach when he won his sole EuroLeague title and you were his last coach before he moved to the NBA.
Obviously, you’ve been following his career. Recently, he opened up about his mental health battles and now he’s about return to basketball with his first team Joventut Badalona.
How do you feel now watching him say that he’s finally excited about playing basketball ahead of the new season?
X.P.: I feel extremely happy that he overcame the problems he had and he will return to playing basketball this season with Joventut Badalona. I have one reason to go there and I will definitely go there to watch him play. 100 percent.
He’s an extremely nice guy that always I remember from Barcelona. First of all, he’s one player with incredible impact to the entire team. I remember when he came to the team, it was incredible how he understood everything while being 18 years old. He had this kind of perception.
“From the very first moment, he was always trying to make other people happy. It was incredible. He was thinking about everybody. How to make them feel well. And this incredible personality… he was probably not thinking too much about himself. He always cared to make everybody around him happy. And maybe, I don’t know, at one moment in his life, he forgot about himself.”
I was following his career with great admiration, being very happy for what he’s achieved. I wasn’t aware of these negative emotions he had inside him. But the good news is that he went through all these problems he’s talked about and he’s returning to play. And that’s amazing.