Renewed until 2028 before the big challenge. The Spanish Basketball Federation (FEB) presented this Thursday the extension of Sergio Scariolo’s contract as senior men’s coach for the next Olympic cycle, on the verge of facing this summer’s great objective: winning the pre-Olympic tournament held in Valencia between on July 2 and 7 and thus get a ticket for the Paris Games.
“A titanic feat,” commented Scariolo after being eliminated in the last World Cup about the difficulty of qualifying for the Olympic event. The digestion of that disappointment, the knowledge of the rivals that Spain will face (Finland, Bahamas, Lebanon, Angola and Poland) and the environmental advantage of being hosts have not lowered the level of difficulty, according to Scariolo. “It will be a very complicated task,” said the coach. “It is the most difficult moment since I entered this house in 2009. This increases the need for imagination, to find the formula to achieve the objectives, a generational change and strengthen those who are already there, accelerate the transfer of those who do not yet have the maturity and experience of being part of the first team, and on the other hand, maintain as high as possible the competitive identity that has characterized us for many years and that can never go down, neither in defeats nor in victories. The last World Cup is the example. Competing until the end is non-negotiable,” he added.
Scariolo redoubled the degree of complexity of the moment of the selection by pointing out the loss of prominence of the Spanish player in the ACB and in the NBA. “I would like to reverse the trend of the importance of the Spanish player, which has reached worrying data. Of the first 50 players in rating and minutes in the ACB there are only three or four Spaniards. In 2009 when I arrived it was three or four times more. “These are the lowest figures of all the European Leagues,” said Scariolo. Only Willy Hernangómez (Barcelona, 10th), Lluís Costa (Tenerife, 28th), Santi Yusta (Zaragoza, 36th), Alberto Díaz (Unicaja, 39th) and Sergi García (Breogán, 49th) are among the top 50 in rating in the competition Spanish. And for the first time in 20 years no Spanish player has participated in the NBA final playoffs. In the regular season, only Santi Aldama in Memphis has enjoyed relevance (61 games played), while Usman Garuba barely participated in six games with Golden State after signing a dual contract to combine the first team with the reserve team. The return to Europe of Ricky Rubio, Ibaka and the Hernangómez brothers emptied the rest of Spanish representation.
“The players have to deserve the space, that is their job, and that they are given that opportunity. The generational change will depend on how much they can play on their teams. “This is happening at a time of emergency due to the aggression and recruitment of the NCAA,” Scariolo said about the sporting and, above all, economic incentive that the American University League now represents for young homegrown players and the increasingly abundant flight of the promises of the Spanish basketball to America. “We must protect the clubs that invest in the training of players and the tragedy can occur that they stop doing so. You cannot prevent kids from progressing and growing, but you have to make something attractive available to them so that they can continue their training here. I hope we are aware and support the clubs that have given us so many talented players.” The new regulations by which players can earn large salaries in the United States compared to what they can earn in Spain has once again turned on the warning light.
It is in this scenario that Scariolo operates today, who will give the list of those summoned for the pre-Olympic next week. The 63-year-old coach has led the national team in two stages, between 2009 and 2012 and from 2015 until now. Along this path, in which he is close to completing 200 games on the national bench, he has collected eight medals: the four gold medals that Spain has celebrated in its history in a Eurobasket (2009, 2011, 2015 and 2022), another gold world championship (2019), an Olympic silver (2012) and a bronze (2016), and a new European bronze (2017). Now, without completely closing the option of returning to coach a club and combining both positions, he faces the double challenge of leading the generational change and continuing during that transition period at the top of the international podium.
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