Early, very early. Every day starts the same for him. He cannot lose time, he does not allow himself to stop. He feels that the energy he has is the fuel to be reborn. He has a bruised body. Too many hits in two years. From world runner-up in 2019 to being “under a bridge”, counts on a smile. Patrick Garinoone of the banners of the Argentina team, the boy who went through San Antonio Spurs and Orlando Magic, who left his mark on Baskonia, has been unable to feel full for almost two years. The injuries, the pressures, the bad determinations, the fears put him in an unprecedented place: he does not have a club to play for next season.
His life today passes between intense training to play again and attention to his business selling empanadas in Spain. [Cachito Mío]. He works every morning with a physical trainer (Spanish Carlos Martínez). Two hours in the gym, an hour and a half of individual technique, plus a half of shooting hoops. And a couple of times a week, in the afternoons, Paulo Maccari (his physical therapist) attends to him. From time to time he maintains contact with Yolanda Santiuste (biologist), who closely follows his feeding. That is his roadmap to get back on the field.
He risked his physique to be in Tokyo 2020 with the national team, since he was not well recovered from his right knee ligament injury for which he underwent surgery in November 2019. He went to Lithuania before the Games and did not find his best there either way. After the Olympic event he decided to go to France to play in Nanterre 92, but his experience there was not the best: his desire to play and the fear of not knowing what to do without a team betrayed him. Garino, at 28, is standing somewhere else today, but in the talk with LA NACION he allows himself to tell every detail of this process in which he even “fought with basketball.”
–After battling so many injuries, how do you keep going?
-The truth is that it is like rediscovering oneself. I seek to get out of the ashes, I want to change the skins. What happens to me is something that became recurrent due to my old crusader injury, I did not have a good recovery as soon as I had surgery, a few months before the start of the pandemic. At that time it was when I needed the most help, to do work on the court and in the gym, but confinement caught me. So I was alone for several months, doing work with a camera, with a physiotherapist on the other side and a couple of weights. That was not optimal. From there began a string of situations that, because I didn’t have a good rehabilitation, because of the rush, because of the pressure, because of playing, because of the club or the national team or because of other things, I still have problems today. That is why I made the determination to stop, to start from scratch and to do things well. That is, to recover well from the old injury that has been bad for me for almost two years. If I didn’t do this, it was impossible to continue competing, because I would do it for a couple of months or weeks and it would break me again. There is no head that can withstand so many fists.
He doesn’t stop, the energy that usually emanates when he is on the court remains intact, his words flow, he needs to tell why he is fighting again to play again: “It was a complex determination to have continued despite not being so well, I realize today that there are many things that I should not have done or should have done differently. And the truth is that I regret it a little. At the time it made me angry, but I understand that you also learn from sticks and you really learn. So, this little time that I took to return to Argentina, something I hadn’t done since before the World Cup in China, helped me to renew energy with family and friends. Luckily he can be with all the affections, I went back to see games and people made me remember why I am a basketball player. That feeling, that desire and that motivation that grew again. That is why I am now in Madrid working hard to return as soon as possible.
-What are those things in which you feel that you did not succeed and they complicated you more with the injuries?
-There are two specific things that I think could have been dealt with in a different way. One was Tokyo, which maybe I wasn’t 100% ready to do it. From the first moment I knew that it was a risk for me to go to those Olympic Games, but it was not easy to say no because of what the national team means to me, because of how I was physically and because of what it represented for my future, because if I had an outstanding task perhaps had another destination and would not have ended in France. And the other, after going to Tokyo, to tear my hamstring, I decided to go to Nanterre 92 and I understand that it was a mistake. There, the pressure, the uncertainty and the inexperience of being without a team won me over, not knowing what to do. So, that put me in this place. And today my life is a bit up in the air. Because yes, in Argentina I have my house, but I am in Madrid for my recovery and although I have my parents here and my wife, one needs a lot of help from different professionals in a process like the one I am going through. I cannot do it in Argentina, because there are many distractions for me, unfortunately there is not the same infrastructure as in Europe, so I had to make the decision to come to Spain. And in this context, I managed to understand that nothing happened if I did not agree to go to France.
-Did you need to do therapy in all this time?
-Very much. It’s something that helped me get out of these mental pits that I had and helped me navigate these rough waters that I’m in. Staying emotionally stable during everything I had to live through was essential. now to caesar [Bernhardt, psicólogo y exjugador cordobés] I have it quite calm, because after returning to Argentina it helped me a lot to renew my energies and clean everything that could affect me.
-In 2019 you were runner-up in the world, one of the figures of the national team and now you are without a team, how does that weigh on you?
-It’s strange, maybe all that weighed on my decision to go to France. Today my reality is completely different, today I have a goal, I visualize it and my body is helping me get there. I’m already leaving the pain behind. The hamstring, which was what complicated me the most, I’ve been working on it for a month now and I have no problems. I see the evolution. We continue working on the knee to recover it. I was able to play one on one and I felt good. I am also in the process of leaving mistrust behind, those fears of making different gestures that used to break me.
-Are you working to correct the mechanics of the movements?
-Exactly, but I am not working specifically on one or the other in particular, but in general. As if it were about unlocking the head and letting the unconscious play the game. Not being tied to thinking about the injury, reading the defensive or offensive actions without further ado. Play again. As simple and complicated as that.
-When you say you have a visualized goal, what is it?
-It may or may not happen, because it does not depend on me, but I would like to be in the FIBA windows at the end of June (to play with the national team against Venezuela and Panama, as a visitor). The truth is that it is something that I see very possible. Logically, that’s outside of me, because I can’t say I’m going or I’m not going. They have to call me for that. I always prioritized the national team and I don’t think someone should be there for a name. My goal is that and I aim for that. Also, I think it can help me take the next step, which is to be ready for a new season. If it doesn’t happen, I also have a lot of time ahead of me to continue working and find a team.
-Did you no longer despair of getting a team?
-In most of the time I manage to do it, but it is not so easy to deal with it. When I’m playing one on one, that I’m making movements from memory, that I feel good with what I’m doing, I get anxious about playing again, which was something that didn’t happen to me. To be back on the field, to join a team… To watch games…
-Were you fighting with basketball?
-And a little yes, although I must be honest that I was never the best friend to watch so much basketball. But it did hurt me to watch a game and not feel capable of doing what I saw on TV. But now when I see the ACB League, for example Nico [Laprovittola], which is in the middle of a packed field and competing, makes me want to be there. Even when I see another of my teammates playing in his team, the same thing happens to me. So, that motivates me, because I feel capable of being in that circumstance and that makes me a little anxious. I think the work I’m doing is going to speak for itself, the hours I’m dedicating to it and the energy are going to help me.
-Are your teammates behind this motivation?
-In situations of trying to help the other, we look at when and where to appear. We respect the mental moment of each one. The good thing is that today there was a lot of awareness of what mental health implies and taking pressure off the other is a good thing too. So knowing how to cum is good. And we handle that very well together.
-Having another activity, such as managing gastronomy establishments, did it help you a little to decompress the uncertainty of not knowing what to do in the scenario of not having a job as a basketball player?
-Without a doubt, but also because it’s not just my project, but my whole family is involved. It happened at the right time because it started when I had just undergone knee surgery, although today it is already a responsibility, like the one that any investment implies. It is something that I really like and I see myself in the future dedicating myself to this. Being in administrative tasks, with numbers, marketing, all this gave me a different life. It put things in perspective for me, it showed me that I am capable of doing something else. Because a little bit of my uncertainty was on that side, because I asked myself: “Well, I’m leaving basketball and what the hell do I do?”. Today I know that we are capable of generating jobs, of having a sustainable life. Having the security of knowing that without playing basketball I can generate my own income is something that helps me mentally, that reassures me and that allows me to know that I am not burning the money I earned playing. Even being able to bring my parents to Spain, to live comfortably, with their own job, is something that gives me immense joy. Now we are trying to feed everyone who passes through Spain with empanadas.
-And it is an activity that grew a lot for you.
-In two years we already have 5 stores and our own factory where we make all our products. We want to open three or four more stores this year. Things are going well. The empanada in Spain is in total boom. So we race a bit against the clock to install everything we want. And it surprised us a bit, because we took it as an apprenticeship and today it is a reality. We have premises in the North, in Victoria there are three and there is the factory, we have another in Logroño and one in Bilbao. Now we want to go to Durango, San Sebastian, Pamplona… I’m very hooked on that.
-Today, when you project, beyond finding a team, do you think about playing in a particular place?
-I don’t have my head set on wanting to go to this or that team, although my goal is to stay in Spain, for what the league is, to get to know it, because they know me. It is easier to be in a place where communication is in the same language, I have my physio in the same country, everything is easier. I feel that if I manage to stay in Spain it would be taking another step in my career, because being able to return to such a renowned league is something that would help me a lot. I don’t rush, but I don’t stop and that’s good for me.
We want to give thanks to the writer of this article for this remarkable material
Patricio Garino with LA NACION: “I’m looking to get out of the ashes, I want to change skins”