Hi Jorge. First off, after missing much of last season, how is the Eurocup going for you, personally, and for Khimki until now?

"In general terms, everything is going pretty good. For sure, you always try to play better and win more games. But personally, after a tough season in Toronto last year, here I am playing better and feeling part of a team again. I am doing it for an important team in Russia that wants to be an important team in Europe, too. Although we've struggled a little lately, until now we were going good. Now it is a question of continuing to work to finish the season in the best possible way."

With the midseason coaching change at Khimki, you and Sergio Scariolo are now together on a third club, after Tau Ceramica and Unicaja. What does it mean for you to work with Sergio again?

"It's always a difficult moment when a coach is fired from a team. When the new coach coming in is a person you know and have worked with, it makes everything easier. I know how Sergio wants to work and to make his team play. It's not so easy on the other guys because they have to understand a new philosophy and a new way to play in a short period of time. With effort, though everyone is building the team to do its best at the end of the season."

This is your first experience in Europe's second competition for a long time. How have you found the Eurocup compared to your expectations?

"I knew that the Eurocup was going to be tough, competitive and difficult, but I didn't know how tough. What I have found are players and teams that are really first level. The teams we are playing now — Dynamo, Maroussi and Panellinios — can most easily play in the Euroleague. They have good players and coaches. Maybe they wouldn't be at the most important level in the Euroleague, probably more at a middle level, but they could certainly play."

What did experience tell you when you saw that your Last 16 group would have two Russian and two Greek teams?

"Well, we knew how difficult Dynamo could be because we played before against them, and they are clearly a very strong team. And we all know how Greek teams are very tough, on the road, too, but especially at home. We had played both Maroussi and Panellinios in preseason, and they were difficult games. As I said, this competition is hard. We were first in our regular season group, with Treviso, Turk Telekom and Le Havre, but even then, we got another group that is full of tough teams we have to face."

It seems like you're group is going down to the last game. Will you get back any of your injured teammates, like Maceij Lampe and Carlos Delfino, to help?

"It's going to be difficult for either of them to help us. Both have long-term injuries, the kind with which you can't risk anything. A step forward too quick can be three backwards for them. We have to be patient. Now, we are trying to get to the Final Eight with the guys we have. In the end, if they can join us for a game or two, great. But for now, unfortunately, we don't have them and we have to be ready without them for next games."

Looking around at the other Last 16 groups, what teams do you think will reach the Final Eight in Turin?

"I know the Spanish teams more, so I would say that Pamesa is one of the best possibilities, and Bilbao, too. There's not an easy group out there, but I think that ours is the most difficult. There are good teams in all of them, though, so no one will get to the Final Eight easily."

You cam back this season after two seasons in the NBA. What did you miss the most about European basketball?

"I missed too many things, especially the way we play here. The way the NBA plays is not better or worse, just different, more one-on-one. Here, there are more passes, longer offenses and therefore more tactics. There, you can't practice much during the season, so you can't get ready tactically. Here, there are two or three days before a game, so you can prepare in more solid way. In Toronto, I had great teammates, but the feeling on a European basketball team is different than it was in the NBA."

You have won multiple titles with Tau, Benetton, Unicaja and, of course, the Spanish national team. What does it take for a player to go from being good to being a winner?

"I don't know what a winner is, so it's difficult to say: 'Someone is a winner, because...'. I don't know how to put a finger on it. I can only say that I try to work my best every day. A winner is not someone who wins always, but the guy who, after a loss, is the one who starts to work on winning the next game. Winners have to have a lot of practice — you, the team and the club. It's difficult to arrive at the end of every season winning something, so every time there is a possibility, you have to try with all your energy to succeed. It's not so easy to get that opportunity."

Early in your career, at Tau Ceramica, you never used what is now your major offensive weapon, the three-pointer. How did you suddenly develop that shot after leaving for Benetton Treviso in 2000?

"In every team where I have been, I try to relate to the coach in the best way. In Treviso, they played a certain way, with four players outside, so in that system, it was important to be a threat from the perimeter. I practiced my three-point shooting, like all my teammates, because Piero Bucchi wanted us to do that. I tried to improve every day until I could use it in games. It wasn't like one day I woke up and decided to shoot three-pointers. Coach Bucchi talked to me, thought I could try it, and I wanted to be part of that offensive system. So I worked to do that."

After all your titles, what would another European trophy mean now to you, long after you won the Saporta Cup with Tau as a teenager?

"I have always said that I would like it a lot. In Treviso, we won the Italian League, the Italian Cup and the Supercup. It was the same in Malaga with Unicaja. Yes, we won the Saporta Cup in my first season with Tau, but as you say, I was a teenager then. I didn't realize what it was all about then, not completely. I have played the Final Four with Benetton Treviso, but have never won the Euroleague. So this year, we have the opportunity to win the Eurocup and qualify for the Euroleague at the same time. So it's a great challenge for us, me personally, the team and the club."
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Frank Lawlor, Eurocupbasketball.com

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