The Argentine basketball team is in Las Vegas, in preparation for the Olympic Games. Among so many lights, shows and casinos, those run by Sergio Hernandez they have all the attention Tokyo. Facu Campazzo, one of the team leaders, made a brief analysis of expectations for the Games and their arrival at the NBA.
Campazzo chatted with the CAB press. (@cabboficial)
The selection
“If we want to continue competing and growing, we must raise the bar“, he said in relation to the proposal of Hernandez Sheep from be a more risky, aggressive team than in the 2019 World Cup. “It’s not that at the World Cup the rivals they weren’t ready, but at a certain point they were calmer Y relaxed when playing against us, perhaps we unconsciously think that we were not so bad “.
“Now we want to be better than in the World Cup. Do not give away balls, be better in the rebounds, so that the final does not happen to us. Y i think we can. We will also adapt to rivals let the ball put us to sleep, let us not play our game. We work for that, in enhancing our DNA“he added.
Regarding the importance of Hernández’s figure in the team, he said: “Sergio has that gift, the talent of knowing what to say and how, the way he manages the group. It demands us to the limit and, at the same time, it reassures us. We are all happy, with confidence. He is a talkative, close player-coach relationship. He likes to have pressure, he enjoys it, and he takes the pressure, the responsibility. It makes you play relaxed, wanting to enjoy yourself. That image radiates confidence. “
Regarding the expectations for Tokyo 2020, he clarified: “We have to go step by step. It seems like a cliché, but it is like that and, in our case, it has always been fundamental. We have to look inside, without seeing another result or another match. Alone let’s worry about playing our way and being the best team we can be. Then we will see what it is for “.
Your role in the team.
Facu referred to the youngest members of the National Team, and the importance of the figure of the most experienced: “Those of us who have been here the longest we can help make the process more natural and nobody suffers it. That’s why I come closer, I ask them things, how was the season and how they are now, in these first days in the National Team “.
However, he clarified that does not feel the responsibility of being a leader: “No, I don’t really feel it. I put it aside. Either I don’t try to think that way. I don’t realize it or I don’t want to give it … I’m curious about my classmates, I like to interact, chat and learn from them.” .
He also highlighted the importance of being able to still have Luis Scola: “We still have Luis, who continues to show us the way, but it is true that those of us do more we must begin to lower the line of the values that come from other litters … Being responsible, that wearing the Argentine shirt and everything that it represents is positive pressure, without anyone losing the essence of who they are “.
The NBA and popularity
“I was really shocked by everything that happened this season, the magnitude that this took. I was shocked and at one point got the better of me because I wasn’t expecting that much. Maybe not I don’t take dimension sometimes“, reflected the base. And said that the craziest thing he saw was fans who got their faces tattooed: “That’s a slap on the floor, something terrible. It’s really incredible, you get goose bumps. There you take a little dimension and it hits you eh”.
Regarding the phenomenon that generated his arrival in the NBA, he said: “It’s been a long time since a player was seen in the NBA, it’s like people needed and now, besides me, they arrived Tortu Y Luca. And you can see the joy of the people, to have that great interest in the NBA again. Also is true that Argentines are very crazy. Actually, very fanatical and they follow you in a special way, especially when they see that they respect the game and you do it with passion“.
“I try to be me. Actually, I don’t try. I am born to be me. I don’t force it. I don’t like to put on the cassette “, confessed the Cordoba.
He was also encouraged to analyze how the NBA impacted his game: “In reading and in decision making, something very important for a player. One must decide in thousandths and it is not easy, sometimes, to make a correct decision. In the NBA it must be even faster because if you delay, it is too late. It wasn’t easy for me at the start of the season and it still is. But it is clear that playing at a different speed and having to execute like that helped me a lot. “
Tokyo fixture
.The Selection will debut on July 26 against the winner of the Kaunas Pre-Olympic disputed by Lithuania, Slovenia, Poland, Venezuela, South Korea and Angola. By second date, will face Spain on 7/29, and will close their participation in the groups on 1/8 against Japan.