XAVI PASCUAL_31 Masterminds of European Basketball
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
From City Hall<br />
to Barcelona´s<br />
bench<br />
Xavi<br />
Pascual<br />
Of course, the title is figurative, but<br />
it sums up two important things<br />
in the life <strong>of</strong> Xavi Pascual: his<br />
pr<strong>of</strong>essional formation and the<br />
passion that later became his pr<strong>of</strong>ession.<br />
Between 2001 and 2005<br />
Pascual, an industrial engineer, worked in the city<br />
hall <strong>of</strong> Viladecans, a town in the Barcelona area.<br />
However, his soul gravitated towards basketball.<br />
To find his basketball origins, we have to go back<br />
to 1990, when Pascual coached kids at the humble CB<br />
Gava club. His way to the top was slow, but always<br />
in the right direction. He went step by step, with patience<br />
and the will to learn. When he signed for CB<br />
Cornella in 1994 to coach the under-20 and B teams,<br />
it was a huge step forward. Between 1995 and 1997<br />
he was an assistant for Agusti Cuesta in that club.<br />
His next stages were in the lower national categories<br />
with CB Santfeliuenc and CB Olesa, a team<br />
that Pascual managed to promote to the Spanish<br />
fourth division. He then won that league with Aracena,<br />
moved up to the third division and, the following<br />
season, to the second. The qualities <strong>of</strong> the young<br />
coach did not go unnoticed, and in 2004 he got a<br />
surprise call from FC Barcelona.<br />
He was signed as a coach for the team in the fourth<br />
division and also as a coordinator for youth teams. By<br />
1<strong>31</strong><br />
<strong>31</strong> MASTERMINDS <strong>of</strong> EUROPEAN BASKETBALL<br />
P
Vladimir Stankovic<br />
the 2005-06 season, Pascual had become an assistant<br />
coach for the FC Barcelona first team under Dusko<br />
Ivanovic. That’s when he decided to go full-time with<br />
basketball and went from an industrial engineer to a<br />
basketball engineer. He was up for the challenge, even<br />
if he knew that it would be no bed <strong>of</strong> roses.<br />
The key moment in his career took place in February<br />
<strong>of</strong> 2008. Ivanovic was released after saying that he<br />
could do no better with the team he had, so the club<br />
used the temporary solution <strong>of</strong> promoting assistant<br />
Pascual to the helm. However, that temporary measure<br />
lasted a few seasons and was successful, to boot.<br />
Pascual started with a contract until the end <strong>of</strong><br />
that season, in which Barcelona finished second in the<br />
Spanish League regular season. In the play<strong>of</strong>fs, Barcelona<br />
swept Valencia 2-0 in the quarterfinals and then<br />
won 2-1 against Unicaja in semis. For the finals, the<br />
opponent was Baskonia, which had earned the homecourt<br />
advantage. Barca and Pascual started the series<br />
with a surprising road win in Vitoria. Baskonia was leading<br />
80-79, but with 2 seconds on the clock, Gianluca<br />
Basile netted a three-pointer from 8 meters – his only<br />
shot that day – but it gave the edge to Barcelona. It was<br />
a close game that went to the wire and featured a surprising<br />
coach on the opposing bench: Dusko Ivanovic.<br />
“The game started badly for us,” Pascual said that<br />
day. “Baskonia had 22 shots in the first quarter, and we<br />
had 10 – and that was a burden. In the second quarter,<br />
we managed to come back on all fronts, and we had<br />
some small advantages that were decisive in the end.<br />
In the end, a single shot decided the game and we were<br />
lucky.” Baskonia tied the series two days later, winning<br />
75-67, but the next two games were to be played in Barcelona,<br />
and the hosts managed to win them both, 85-<br />
67 and 90-77, to become the Spanish champs. A coach<br />
with three months’ worth <strong>of</strong> experience at the head <strong>of</strong><br />
the bench in the Spanish League was now a champion!<br />
“Doubt was a normal thing when I took the reins <strong>of</strong><br />
the team because I was a young coach and it’s normal<br />
that people have these doubts,” Pascual said. “I think<br />
the team played at a good level all season; we were<br />
consistent. I am happy to have won dishing 20 assists<br />
because it shows we are a team in which everybody<br />
helps each other. We are united.”<br />
Thos 20 assists that he mentioned define Pascual’s<br />
philosophy as a coach.<br />
“Coaches have to adapt to the players that they<br />
have in order for things to work,” he said in an interview.<br />
“If you have marathon runners you cannot<br />
sprint. If you have sprinters, you cannot make them<br />
run a marathon. The important thing is to win.”<br />
Some say that Pascual is a defensive coach first,<br />
but his teams score many points on the fastbreak.<br />
“You play 24 seconds on defense and 24 on <strong>of</strong>fense.<br />
Another thing is whether you try to run or not<br />
when you steal the ball,” Pascual stated. “My teams<br />
try to defend, run and play in a dynamic way.”<br />
The stellar moment <strong>of</strong> his career was in 2009-10.<br />
Barcelona ended the EuroLeague regular season as<br />
Group A leader with a 10-0 record, averaging 83.3<br />
points, against Montepaschi Siena, Zalgiris Kaunas,<br />
Cibona Zagreb, ASVEL Villeurbanne and Fenerbahce<br />
Istanbul. In the Top 16, Barca just lost a single game<br />
against Partizan, 66-67, defeating Panathinaikos and<br />
Maroussi twice.<br />
In the play<strong>of</strong>fs, Barcelona managed to get rid <strong>of</strong><br />
archrival Real Madrid, coached by Ettore Messina,<br />
with a 3-1 decision that sent the team to the Final Four<br />
in Paris. There, at Bercy Arena, Barca defeated CSKA<br />
Moscow in the semifinals, 64-54, thanks to great<br />
defense. Olympiacos waited in the title game, which<br />
Barcelona dominated from start to finish winning all<br />
quarters for an 86-68 final score. The legendary Juan<br />
Carlos Navarro was named Final Four MVP with 21<br />
points on 4-for-9 three-point shooting, and Barcelona<br />
lifted its second EuroLeague title.<br />
“We played 22 games in the Euroleague this<br />
season, and we won 20,” Pascual said. “So it’s been<br />
a wonderful season for us, and this was a great way<br />
to close it out. Tonight, we moved the ball very well,<br />
we attacked well, played defense, got free throws. It’s<br />
difficult to do in the final, but we played our game, and<br />
we stuck with the way we play. I am delighted and I am<br />
happy for our players, who worked hard all year and<br />
got rewarded with this victory.<br />
“Coaches always live for their last game. This one<br />
was marvelous. It’s a wonderful, important moment.<br />
I know the life we have as coaches. In the future, we<br />
can lose and anything can happen in the crazy world <strong>of</strong><br />
coaching. But you should never doubt. You have to walk<br />
forward clearly and look things straight in the face.”<br />
Xavi Pascual knows how to treat stars. He shares<br />
the idea that basketball is a collective game and that<br />
results depend on the work <strong>of</strong> the whole team, but he<br />
knows that the best ones need to be protagonists. In<br />
Barcelona, he worked with several stars, especially<br />
Navarro. Later, Pascual worked at Panathinaikos Athens<br />
and he had Nick Calathes.<br />
Because <strong>of</strong> his age – he was born on September 9,<br />
1972 – Pascual is still a young man, but with almost<br />
300 games in the EuroLeague (290 between Barcelona<br />
and Panathinaikos) and many titles conquered, he<br />
is an expert coach. His resume includes, aside from<br />
the 2010 EuroLeague crown, four Spanish Leagues<br />
and three Spanish Cup trophies, two Greek Leagues,<br />
a Greek Cup, four Spanish SuperCups and seven Catalan<br />
Leagues. In Spain, he was chosen coach <strong>of</strong> the<br />
year in 2009, 2010 and 2011. His worst year, with “only”<br />
a 67.6% winning percentage, was in 2012-13. His<br />
best one was a 26-0 finish in the Greek League regular<br />
season with Panathinaikos in 2017-18.<br />
Pascual is a coach with character, but also polite.<br />
He was hardly ever called for technical fouls. His<br />
statements after games were always at academy<br />
level, with full respect for the opponent. In December<br />
<strong>of</strong> 2018, Pascual was waived by Panathinaikos, but he<br />
accepted his new situation in a very natural manner.<br />
“When you are a coach, you know there are some<br />
decisions that you cannot control,” he said after leaving<br />
Athens. “You just know that you have to do your<br />
best and not think about it too much. I tried to give my<br />
best and things were great. At the start <strong>of</strong> the season,<br />
we were fighting to be in the EuroLeague Play<strong>of</strong>fs.”<br />
There’s no doubt that being the kind <strong>of</strong> coach he<br />
is, Xavi Pascual will not be unemployed for long. <strong>Basketball</strong><br />
needs him.<br />
Xavi Pascual<br />
132 133<br />
<strong>31</strong> MASTERMINDS <strong>of</strong> EUROPEAN BASKETBALL<br />
P