To speak the same language with the coach

The report had the promising title “The entire chilling first speech of Vassilis Spanoulis to the internationals”. Spanoulis was a terrible basketball player – in my eyes, perhaps the only one who could wear the shoes of Nikos Galis. Although his best match for the National Team will always be the one in Saitama against the Americans at the World Championships in Japan in 2006, however, I prefer to remember that it was mainly thanks to his own performances that our National Team won its last medal, the bronze at the European Championships in Poland in 2009. He also has the makings of a great coach, although I’m afraid he was a bit rushed to take over the Greek National Team. However, I don’t ever remember him as a player saying things that have caused discussion, let alone cringe. The title caught my interest and I rushed to see what the excitement was about.

Creepy

According to the report, the first – especially – part of the speech of the confederate shocked the players. “For me the most important thing in the national team is the relationships you will have with each other, it is the respect you will have with each other, it is the love to wear this shirt. The national team is more than clubs, it is more than one success or one failure with your team. When we come to the national team it is a huge honor, huge recognition and a very big, but good, weight on our backs. You have to get the new kids involved in basketball like our generation did and you are now playing basketball like the previous generations did for us, who grew up with Galis, Giannakis, Fasoulas and Christodoulou. So you too have to understand that you have to get the next kids to play basketball. And this is a great burden, but also a great legacy that we must all leave in basketball. Success with the national team has nothing to do with success with the club. At least for me,” said Spanoulis. And he continued: “I have lived what I am describing to you. Unfortunately, this team has not managed, we have not managed, to bring a success, as you deserve. Because this team has very good material and you deserve, and we all deserve to have a great success. But this will come only if the previous things I told you are done. To be a family, to think only of the team. We are all under the team, including me, for the national team of our country. Everyone can’t wait to see you, everyone is shivering with the national anthem. If you don’t feel that, if you don’t shudder when you hear the national anthem, you can’t understand what a national team means,” he stressed. I admit I didn’t find it all that shocking. As for the cringes at the national anthem, I admit I thought of Thomas Walkup and smiled. However, as I hear from people who were in front of Spanoulis’ speech, the players did show some kind of excitement after what they heard.

The simple ones

Is it possible for professional sportsmen to get angry when they hear rather banal things like “the national team is an honor” and “you have to respect its jersey to reach a success” etc. etc.? And yet it is. Athletes, at least the Greeks, mostly love the simple. The coach who wins them over is the one who doesn’t fill their heads with exaggerations and who speaks directly to their hearts. Most people detest over-analysis, they are bored even by journalists who are too analytical, they are happy to talk to their coach in the same simple language. They even consider the coaches who overdo it with the video and the board to be extremely narcissistic and not just boring. Antonis Nikopolidis was telling me recently that Otto Rehagel had a German analyst partner who had never let him talk to his players. He talked about the opponents usually only with him and told him a lot. Of the many, Rehagel kept what he believed his players would consolidate. A little, very little.

Interesting

In Spanoulis’s famous creepy speech, I found the second part of it more interesting, the one in which our federalist did not talk about creeps and misdemeanors. “The worst I can see in this team is some player with a face. The worst I can hear are the questions “how much do I play”, “why didn’t I play”, “why did one shoot and why did the other shoot”. Many great players have passed through the National Team who sacrificed themselves just for the appearance of the national team. There have been players who have changed positions just to play for the national team. There have been players who did not play at all in a tournament, while they were leaders in their teams. They kept quiet for the national team. If you don’t understand this, know that we won’t get along because it’s the only problem I can have with you. All other problems, through work and through human relations and respect, we will manage to solve them,” he stressed. I found this description of the problems that can arise really excellent because it photographs the daily life, not of the National basketball team, but of every team. What Spanoulis emphasized from the first day is that if within a team the petty egos don’t go away, there can be no advance. And I found it very interesting that in the first international call he explained to them that he would not be involved in solving problems for them concerning their own behavior, that is, problems that are definitely not his.

Secret

I don’t know if our internationals really want to become symbols for the new kids as coach Spanoulis asked them to. But I really hope they understand the reference to behavioral issues. Because attitudes and relationships, more than motivational speeches, are the secret of a good team’s success.