Magnano's hunger not lost in translation

BUENOS AIRES (Martín Seldes' Brave New World) - Spanish and Portuguese in South America – with different accents from the European versions - are close languages.

Argentines and Brazilians have talked so much with each other that there aren’t many reasons to study the other language to travel to the neighbour country and work there.

Ruben Magnano’s Portuguese is getting better but it's still far from a fluent speech. He speaks with Spanish words and surprises everyone with a difficult Portuguese word every now and then.

In one of his latest interviews to Globo, Magnano used the word “fome” instead of hunger (“hambre” in Spanish) and that’s something to analyse.

As you may have read on fiba.com a few days ago, the Cordoba-born coach avoided talking about names for the Olympic squad. But he did say something. Fome means hunger. And hunger means he won’t be travelling to London just to visit Europe and see how other teams fight for the glory.

That means he will try his best to go for a medal and that could mean he will forgive Nene and Leandrinho for deciding not to play in the 2011 FIBA Americas Championship. If not, he could be responsible for not satisfying his hunger.

To go further on, Carlos Nunes, the chairman of the Brazilian Basketball Confederation (CBB), has given some clues in recent weeks.

“What matters is winning,” he answered when was asked about the best Brazilians in the NBA.

That's in contrast with his stance after the FIBA Americas Championship last September, when Nunes said the two players didn’t deserve a spot in London.

There is only one way to explain the difference in his point of view from then to now: Magnano’s hunger.

Brazil's training camp will start the second week of June with 15 or 16 players. After several training sessions, they will play warm-up games against top teams such as the last two Olympic champions, Argentina and the United States. After that, Magnano's team will travel to Europe to meet France and Great Britain.

Brazil has always had the talent. It has always had the shooters and the speed. Beside the hunger, Magnano has added defense, obedience, responsibility and patience to the national team. And those are things Nene and Leandrinho will respect after seeing how Brazil made it to London.

Magnano’s experience in Brazil is different from the one he had with Argentina. The team that won gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics was made out of young players that started almost all together at the 2001 FIBA Americas Championship under Magnano’s guidance.

Brazil’s players are more experienced than the Argentines and have had to focus on changing their mentality to fit in with the new coach.

“My hunger is even bigger than when I won gold with Argentina. Brazil needed to get back to an Olympic Game after 16 years and the team has to be within the best of the world,” said Magnano.
 
“Twelve (roster) spots are open to the Olympics and every good player who wants to defend Brazil in the Olympics has a chance of being called up and competing for a place,” he repeated once again, while the truth is he must be sure in no fewer than nine of his team's 12 roster spots for London.

In the meantime, Magnano is watching Brazilian league games and will travel to Europe in April to see some of his players there before finishing up with a visit of the four NBA players in the United States.

Martín Seldes

FIBA

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